IRAQ: War as a family affair, part 2

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When it comes to tradition, the 169th Military Police Company of the Rhode Island National Guard takes a back seat to no one.

The unit lays claim to being one of the oldest National Guard units in the U.S. By 1745, the company had a hundred men and was guarding the coast of Rhode Island. It served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Now the 169th is attached to the 5th Marine Regiment and is mentoring Iraqi police. Several dozen members of the company are police officers from Providence, R.I. Others are teachers, construction workers, paramedics, and college students.

The 169th has a tradition of families serving together, and they’re doing so in Iraq. Two sets of fathers-and-sons (in one, the father also has a brother deployed), two married couples, another father-and-son (the son is with another Rhode Island unit in Baghdad), and a father-daughter-cousin are deployed to Iraq.

The husbands and wives are billeted separately, no conjugal privileges. And steps are taken to make sure troops never are in positions to give military orders to family members.

— Tony Perry in Al Asad