From the Holocaust to Baghdad

Talking this morning with Air Force Maj. Jonathan Kusy, who works with the U.S. military advisory mission in Iraq, I had one of those moments that makes one pause and reflect.

I asked Kusy about his background, which includes three previous tours in Iraq, and he replied that as the son of a first generation American, military service was imbued in him from childhood. Kusy said his father, Joseph, is a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in a concentration camp as a child and after the war in a displaced persons camp.

Joseph moved to Michigan, and when he came of age, joined the Navy, a path Jonathan followed when he enlisted in the Air Force.

Kusy, who serves in the Air Force Security Forces, describes himself as "just a cop," but his career shows he is much more multidimensional than that. As an enlisted man, he spent just more than five years in an Air Force Tactical Aircraft Control Party, which meant he was an Air Force grunt, with three years in the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C., and another two years with the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea. Kusy said these tours provided him a keen appreciation for NCOs he now works with.

Kusy did one tour in Iraq working on force protection issues, and the other two tours on detainee operations. Before deploying once again to Iraq, Kusy served at Yokota Air Force Base in Japan, where, among other things, he commanded the 374th Security Forces Squadron.

Today, Kusy said, he is working to help Iraqi police and security forces get the gear they need to police their country and secure their borders. He said this includes a $2.7 million project to install scanners at four Iraqi airports, much like those used by the Transportation Security Administration, and another $25 million project to install cargo container scanners at Iraq border entry points and its deep water port at Basra.

Kusy said he relishes this tour because it provides him the opportunity to get the "big picture, national strategic level view" of what is going on in Iraq, as well as a chance to see what has changed since his first tour in 2005.

So far Iraq seems to be far safer than in 2005, with a civilian society much like ours, where political debate is carried out in the pages of newspapers, instead of setting off bombs.

I'm glad to know we have troops like Kusy in Iraq, who can bring generations of experience to their tasks.