Lance Cpl. Athanasios Genos, 22, a combat correspondent for the 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., takes a break for a haircut and massage at the Turkish-run Marine Express barber at Camp Fallujah, Iraq. Part of the Arab barber experience is the use of a flaming cotton swab to burn off ear and neck hairs. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
Lance Cpl. Athanasios Genos, 22, a combat correspondent for the 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., took a break from missions the other day and experienced something new: a haircut and massage at the Turkish-run Marine Express barber at Camp Fallujah, Iraq.
Not so unusual?
Part of the full haircut, shampoo and massage service, which runs $9 total, includes an Arab tradition of dipping a cotton swab into alcohol, setting it on fire and tapping the customers’ ears and neck area to burn away tiny hairs.
Firat Uslu, a 30-year-old who has been in the barbering business since he was 10, said he learned the method when he began going to his father’s shop in Turkey to learn the trade.
Messages from home
Care packages from Fegely Middle School in Portage, Ind., flow in for Marines from Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, deployed to Camp Fallujah, Iraq. The care packages, filled with everything from snacks, boardgames, DVDs and Nerf footballs to baby wipes, newspapers, books and magazines, are a huge morale booster for the Marines, said the Weapons Company commander, Capt. Ed Nevgloski.
“The stuff really hit the mark,” Nevgloski said. Especially popular are reading materials, since Marines “are willing and ready to read anything they can get their hands on.”
The five motorcycle periodicals included in one care package, for example, quickly were scooped up, he said. The middle school pupils also sent banners thanking the Marines for their work in Iraq.
Derby in the desert
Some of those deployed to Iraq this year are doing their best not to miss their old Kentucky home. With the 131st running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, Kentucky-bred soldiers stationed in Mosul are putting on a Derby festival of their own.
Among the events planned at Forward Operating Base Diamondback are a 5K(y) Derby Run, golf putting contests, decorated Derby Hat contests, horseshoe tossing, gurney races and — hopefully — a viewing of the real Kentucky Derby via satellite television. Post time will be around 2 a.m. in Iraq.
Prizes have been donated by Churchill Downs (home of the Derby), Maker’s Mark bourbon whiskey and several residents of Louisville, among others. Churchill Downs sent five boxes of Derby regalia and Hillerich & Bradsby Co. donated Louisville Slugger baseball gear.
The event is the brainchild of Lt. Col. Cam Sutherland, assigned to the 228th Combat Support Hospital, and a 52-year-old National Guardsman originally from Bardstown, Ky.
Other soldiers will get a much closer view of the race. Some 400 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky., have been selected for free admission to Churchill Downs and various Derby-related events. The soldiers are deploying to Iraq later this year, and the day at the Derby was sponsored by an organization called the Thoroughbred Thank You Fund.