Jeff Jamaledine is a German citizen, born in Berlin to a German mother and a Gambian father. He now lives in Germany after having served two tours in Iraq and having been wounded twice. The second wound was nearly fatal--he was shot in the face at close range in a battle that claimed the lives of two Americans and at least 27 jihadists.
It's really one of the most remarkable stories I've read of action in Iraq. When Jamaledine was shot, there were no medevac helicopters in the area. There were Apaches. But the Apache is a two seater--no room for cargo, or wounded. When the call went out--by a soldier who was himself wounded--that Jamaledine needed to be evacuated immediately, one of the Apaches landed on the scene and had him strapped in. This meant the co-pilot had to "hang on outside" for the trip back to the base. Both of the crew were risking their jobs, but they got Jemaldine out. The Apache's crew then rejoined the battle, with the co-pilot sitting in a pool of blood for the rest of the night.
He grew up hating America, but grew to appreciate what we stand for. He came to appreciate that peace must be defended. And he decided to stand up and defend peace from brutal killers.
He is the type of "foreigner" I've argued we should seek out to recruit for our military.
He has officially been an American since 2006. But he was an American at heart well before he raised his hand to renounce allegiances to foreign potentates.
I'm damn proud to call Jeff Jamaledine one of us.
