Contractor helps Iraqi translator come to U.S.

Plowing Humvees through the hot Iraqi sun, the baby-faced 33-year-old who speaks in a thick North Georgia drawl was surprised to realize after hours of conversation how much his Muslim translator reminded him of himself.

Chuck Butler and Ayad Mohammed Majeed shared the sturdy build of the early 30s. Both have small, energetic children, and both prayed.

Yet, in a post 9/11 society, it was unlikely that a small town Georgia native could befriend an Iraqi man, bring him to America and help put his feet on the ground with a small business.

“We would never have been friends,” Mr. Butler said. “I didn’t know anything about them. I really didn’t care to know about them.”

Mr. Butler met Mr. Majeed when he went to Iraq in 2004 as a military contractor in the hopes of earning nearly eight times his salary serving as a police officer in Chatsworth, Ga.

Long days in the desert consisted of police facility inspections and training Iraqi police officers. Through it all, Mr. Majeed worked alongside Mr. Butler as a interpreter, and it wasn’t long before silent car rides transformed into collegial banter.

The two men conversed in English about faith and family, and over time both men said their preconceptions slowly fell away.

Mr. Majeed said he felt as if he had met the first American who had truly trusted him.

Remembering his time in Iraq, Mr. Butler said, “I met people from all over. It was invigorating. Prejudice evolved out of fear and ignorance. I was educated.”

The burgeoning camaraderie took a serious turn when Mr. Majeed, who was serving as a translator with British forces while Mr. Butler was on leave in Georgia, was caught in an attack that killed several military officials and took most of Mr. Majeed’s right arm.

After the attack, Mr. Butler learned his colleague was fired from his post as a translator for the multinational forces and that his medical coverage ended.

Having been treated at an American hospital, Mr. Majeed’s Iraqi neighbors began to speculate about his involvement with the occupying forces, and death threats followed, Mr. Majeed said.

Not long afterward, Mr. Majeed fled Iraq without his family for Jordan and applied for refugee status.

“I wrote an e-mail and everyone in the team sent it to every congressman and senator,” Mr. Butler said. “We were trying to get him and his family to an outlying region.”

The two men stayed in contact through frustrating months of paperwork and red tape until Mr. Butler received a call from a government official asking if he knew Mr. Majeed and whether he would be willing to sponsor him in the U.S.

Without hesitation he indicated his willingness to do so.

Mr. Majeed arrived in Chatsworth about three weeks ago. Since their reunion at the airport they have been working to launch a motivational speaking business, Combat Brothers, intended to help pay Mr. Majeed’s travel expenses and other needs.

Last week they spoke at the Murray County Republican Party Convention.

“The talk Ayad gave to the Republican Party gave the unvarnished truth about what was going on over there,” he said John Arb, county GOP chairman.

The two men plan business workshops on cultural diversity. Mr. Butler, whose primary income comes from helping with his parents’ chicken farm and managing rental properties, said they are also trying to get work speaking with National Guard troops before and after their deployments.

“(Iraq) is a culture shock for most people from Georgia,” Mr. Butler said.

The men also are working to bring Mr. Majeed’s wife and three young children to the U.S., he said

Living in the newly finished basement at Mr. Butler’s parents’ home, Mr. Majeed said he often ruminates on the distance across the Atlantic that separate him from his family.

“They think being away from them is better than being in the ground, never hearing my voice,” he said, clicking through pictures on his laptop of his smiling children. “I pay a low price, my hand, my family, to get this freedom. Being in America, to not get shot by someone, is a great feeling.”