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An Ace in the Hole
He helped Abdualla apply to the University of Kansas, Phelps's alma mater, to pursue a master's in economics, and in August, Abdualla was accepted. The next month, Phelps's team, having completed its tour, packed up to leave. "We were hugging and crying," Abdualla remembers. "It had only been eight months, but it was like I'd known these guys forever." Phelps handed his terp a ceramic jayhawk, KU's mascot, and said he'd see him in the United States.Abdualla rented a car and driver for the 12-hour, 500-mile drive to Jordan to apply for a visa; the U.S. embassy in Baghdad wasn't set up to handle immigration. His 64-year-old mother, Nidhal, accompanied him. Both were dozing when the driver hit the brakes and gasped, "Mujahedin!" Jolted awake, Abdualla looked out the window and saw a dozen men gathered around a bleeding figure on the median. Firing an AK-47 at point-blank range, an insurgent executed the man on the spot. When the driver said the man had likely been captured because he worked for the Americans, Nidhal turned to her son and began to sob.
At the embassy, Abdualla presented his paperwork and was fingerprinted and told to wait. A few minutes later, the clerk returned and said simply, "The application was refused." Abdualla was devastated.
Phelps, back home in Kansas, exploded when Abdualla, who had returned to Fallujah to resume his interpreter duties, phoned him with the news. He decided it was his mission to get his terp out of Iraq for good. "I was going to make this happen," says Phelps. After contacting Kansas lawmakers and others, he learned of a special immigration program for Iraqis who had contributed significantly to the U.S. mission. He assembled a package detailing Abdualla's family history, education and service to send to top Marine officials and the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments. And in March 2006, he flew to Washington for a meeting at the Pentagon. Later that month, the visa was finally approved -- a little more than a year after Phelps had first arrived in Fallujah.
Abdualla, who initially had doubts, said goodbye to his mother in Baghdad. It was a traumatic parting. In December, a fatwa had been issued on her life, and threatening flyers were left in her garage. But Nidhal was adamant that her son accept this opportunity that, she said, "might never come again." Finally, on April 13, Abdualla boarded a Royal Jordanian flight for Chicago.
Phelps drove eight hours to meet the plane. In full dress uniform, he stood at the gate, with video camera in hand. When he spotted Abdualla, he shouted, "Welcome to America!" In his car, he blared George Strait's "Ace in the Hole." The two cruised into Chicago and stopped along Lake Michigan for a smoke. "I felt like screaming and jumping," says Abdualla. As the two continued on to Kansas, says Phelps, "sometimes I'd look over at Mustafa and we'd just start laughing. We couldn't believe we'd done it."
Abdualla adapted quickly, acquiring a driver's license and a taste for barbecue in no time. He settled into a Kansas City apartment, and has spent so much of his spare time with Chris and Lisa Phelps's sons that they've begun calling him their second daddy. Abdualla is teaching the boys Arabic. "Soon we'll speak it so well," says six-year-old Dalton, "that our teacher won't know what we're saying."
At press time, 147,000 U.S. soldiers were serving in Iraq. To send a message to the troops, visit americasupportsyou.com.
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