FAMILY REUNION - Lt. Hatem Abdine of the California National Guard was overjoyed during a roadside reunion with many of his family members, including father, brothers, uncles, nieces and nephews. He believed he was meeting one relative to pick up some supplies, but most of the family piled into a sport-utility vehicle to meet with him for the first time in four years. Abdine, born in Kuwait, is a commissioned U.S. Army officer leading Guard troops. DENNIS ANDERSON/Valley Press

Division Street

Sandbox reunion marks this Memorial Day

Dennis Anderson

Mess sergeants are something like first sergeants, power omnipotent in their domain.

The mess sergeant wanted the chow hall at Camp Victory in Kuwait decorated with the unit's flags for Memorial Day. On the Friday heading into the weekend, the chow hall also had a memorial service for an officer killed in Iraq in a vehicle accident.

Vehicles on the rough roads of the war-torn Middle East can be as dangerous to troops as bullets, and there are still bullets flying, too.

Last night, the Cal National Guard unit I am assigned to move with got their "Rules of Engagement" orders, the rules governing when they are legally empowered to shoot.

Most of the shooting now involves looters, bandits, unrepentant Saddam Fedayeen and foreign nationals moving about Iraq looking for American targets.

One of the tricks is to put a kid in the middle of the road waving his arms. If the truck stops, thugs swarm the truck to steal and overpower or kill the crew, if they can.

"They just climbed up on a truck and shot a driver in the chest last week, killed the guy," said Capt. Matthew R. Hook, officer commanding the 1498th Transportation Co.

That said, the ROE rules are "Show, Shout, Shove, Shoot." In other words, don't stop the truck. Don't stop for any nonsense. Safety first.

So that is the news heading into the Memorial Day weekend along the Iraqi border.

For many Americans, Memorial Day is a family weekend. Even amid terror alerts and high gas prices, it's a family weekend at the beach. At Camp Victory, there's plenty of beach, just no ocean.

For the family of Lt. Hatem Abdine, this is a big family weekend, even though I don't think Kuwaiti families observe Memorial Day. It's a big weekend for the family anyway.

Abdine is one of the leaders of this California National Guard company that has been drawn from across the Golden State. While families of the 1498th Transport Co. troops are visiting via cell phone and e-mail with their Middle East-deployed kin, the Kuwaiti family of Abdine is enjoying a reunion with their long lost lamb of a lieutenant.

Abdine was at college in the United States when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait a dozen years ago. That was a real family separation. Cut off from family, he had to leave school to subsist. When the Marines liberated Kuwait, family contact resumed.

Now, Abdine is an American warrior who gained U.S. citizenship and a commission serving in the National Guard.

His trip to Kuwait with troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom is the first time he's seen dad, brothers, nieces and nephews in four years.

As he bounded from a Humvee, his father and brothers trooped beneath the date palms to embrace their returning hero. The children watched, wide-eyed, as their Uncle Hatem joined them, smiling beneath his Kevlar combat helmet, wearing his flak jacket, "battle rattle" pistol and gas mask.

Abdine introduced his companions, Sgt. Abdul Magid Sughayar, another Guardsman, and a reporter, and Staff Sgt. Jerry Hagen and Lt. Tim McHugh. The children looked at us as if we were mutants from Mars, but Abdine's father and brothers smiled broadly and shook hands heartily.

Memorial Day in a combat zone that's still cooling because of the calming force of victory. No place better for an American to be on the big family weekend.