This one I call, THE FORERUNNER.
It was back in 1976 when I was serving in the Army Hospital in Mousel.
As part of the Iraqi government order, all graduates must serve and drafted for service from 6 months to 19 months. I was relocated in the army hospital in Baghdad first and then moved to north Iraq to a Nineveh province, the city of Mousel army hospital in the radiology department. I was working in the x-ray department .M any of other friends weren’t lucky and relocated to the dangerous zone way up north close to the Kurdish separatists up north.
One evening, I was sitting in the garden in front of the radiology department, as I was on duty that night. I saw my friend Ali, he was walking so softly so quietly and he looks pale from far an away, Ali….Ali, I called to get his attention, but he never answered me and he never turns his head toward me !!!
Ali come here to have the break and food with me it is 10 minutes before the break of Ramadan fasting. But he didn’t answer me at all, and he kept walking and went to the morgue that was close to radiology !!! He went from the back door that I couldn’t see from my place.
I thought maybe he was playing a jock or was trying to scare me, then I remembered that Ali was stationed up north Iraq more than 6 hours drive north, why was he back, and why he went to the morgue!!!!!
Many army recruits and visitors came to our hospital for treatments and to see the doctor before leaving south to their family during their vacation.
I called the guard at the front gate to see if Ali was registered with them, as everybody gets into the camp must be registered. The guard told me that there was no one registered under that name, I asked him please to recheck the book, after a few minutes he said No, no Ali is registered in my book. I got scared, Not again God why me, I said looking at the sky.
I called a friend and told him what I had seen. After we had food and took our break, we went to the morgue and open the door and start looking around, no fresh body was in the morgue, and no one at was inside, the doors and windows all were closed. The back door was locked. We left the morgue and I was surprised and was thinking that this is a practical jock. My friend told me that If I was hungry I can imagine things or get ma mild hallucination.
I know what I saw, I answered. We went to sleep and I was thinking of Ali.
The second night of my duty I was sitting in the garden again, as I used to do 3 nights shift each week. The Doctor officer called me from the emergency department and asked me to accommodate one of the soldiers who was driving from the north and bringing a casket with a dead soldier in it. He told me to help the Driver to carry the casket to the morgue close to my radiology department, and let him take a shower in our department, and have some food. He also told me that the driver will stay in the guest room until the next day so he can take the dead body to his family after the doctor writes the certificate of death.
The army van drove close to my department and we both carried the casket to the morgue. The driver went and took his shower and came to have the food, while we were eating and talking, I asked him who was that dead person inside? The driver told me that he was a new graduate, and he gave me his id papers.
I look at the id and the picture of the dead person it was my friend Ali. The same friend I saw the night before walking quietly and entering the morgue.
My gosh, I scream and I got so sad and upset. I was so shocked as I use to like this friend so much and I knew his family. I said to the driver I just saw him last night! IN A DREAM? The driver asked?
I ran to the morgue and opened the door, and then opened the casket and I saw my friend Ali laying in it.
With a fresh bullet wound in his left chest and beautiful soft smile in his lips, I can still remember that smile. He was like a life. I hugged him and was praying for him and the tears filled my eyes. Other friends came to see what’s going on, and then the officer in charge told me to take the night off, and he put someone else in my shift as I was in shock. T
The Kurdish rebels Shot him at his heart from a long range, while he was at the gate of the clinic up north Iraq. Why did I saw him the night before? I kept asking my self.
Why his ghost came to the morgue? The officer asked me that I can a company the driver to take the body to his family as I was his friend and I knew his family. Ali was 23 years old physician assistant when he was killed.
God bless him. His mother fainted when she saw the body as many mothers in Iraq did and nowadays many Syrian mothers are doing the same as more than 150.000 women and children were murdered in 2 years by the Syrian Shia and by ISIS terrorists and Hezbollah killers.
Thank you for reading
Steve Ramsey, Ph.D.
Calgary, Alberta- Canada.