That nonsense about Tom not being Welsh has now made it to more newspapers in the UK. But we know its garbage, so let’s move on with a really nice story — an unusual one — sent to us by Chris.

In a June 5 post on AmericanChronicle.com is this story from Marshall Adame, an expert on aviation logistics and management. At the time (as his story makes clear) he was working in Iraq.

Baghdad's Airport Road (Ambush Alley) and Tom Jones (A true Story)

In early 2005 I was employed by a large commercial interest in Iraq as their V.P. for Aviation Services and Business Development. At that time I lived in the Baghdad Hotel, just across the river from the safe “Green Zone,” and worked out of an office in the Gardenia Hotel, located much farther into the city and far away from the Green zone and any U.S. forces. Both the Baghdad Hotel and the Gardenia Hotel were located in very dangerous parts of the red zone.

In the course of carrying out my job responsibilities I spent some time traveling between downtown Baghdad and the Baghdad Airport. The road which linked the Baghdad to it´s now famous airport, was then and still, is referred to as “Ambush Alley”. Although many areas throughout Iraq were very dangerous places to be, Airport Road was one of the most dangerous. It got that name primarily because it is the place where many insurgent ambushes have taken place against American forces and civilians.

One day in early 2005, while traveling through Ambush Alley, returning back to the Baghdad Hotel, my three car convoy, traveling at about 80 miles per hour, drove right into an ambush. A roadside bomb had just exploded about seventy-five yards in front of my convoy when a small Iraqi military convoy had passed near it. Almost immediately the right side of our convoy came under small arms fire. The driver of the car I was in accelerated the car in an effort to drive through the situation as rapidly as possible. We were going fast, about 80 miles per hour, but it felt like a snails pace. It is hard to explain what goes through one´s mind when something like this occurs. It all seems to happen so fast and your mind goes into automatic as though there is something in your brain giving you instructions you cannot hear, but react to anyway.

In those days in Iraq everyone carried a weapon. Although my seven Kurdish bodyguards were all heavily armed, I personally carried a 9mm MP5. (An MP5 is a small submachine gun which strongly resembles an Israeli UZI submachine gun).

My guards immediately returned fire and so did I. The cassette player in my car happened to be playing a Tom Jones song, Its Not Unusual. It was my tape and I had always asked my driver to play the music loud. I was firing my 9mm Mp5 out of the window and had to change the 20 round magazine clip because I had emptied the first one. Bullets were flying and the noise was deafening. One of my guards riding with me was yelling something in Arabic and, as I learned later, he was praying, but at the moment I thought he had been shot. In the midst of all the chaos I suddenly realized that I had been singing along with the music of Tom Jones Its Not Unusual the whole time and, in fact, I had paused for a moment in the action and verbally said “This is my favorite part.” Tom Jones and Its not Unusual will now be with me for the rest of my life. We did make it through with only a few holes in our car, but I can testify that being in Iraq can be a great adventure and, as all great adventures, overflowing with adrenalin filled uncertainty and danger.

Personally though, I was not in Iraq for either the adventure or the danger. I thought I was helping a suffering people. I arrived in Iraq in May 2003 and remained until late September 2006. The human mind is such a mystery to me.

Thanks again to Chris for sharing this story.