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Arab-American veterans make their mark on Memorial Day

By Alex Dziadosz
Press & Guide Newspapers
Posted on Thursday July 5, 2007

The streets here were a natural choice. Dearborn is home to the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and so it’s no surprise that on Memorial Day, more than 80 Arab Americans — mostly retired or active military service-members and their families — marched in one of the highest-profile events ever staged by a national-level Arab-American Veterans organization.

Looking back, Marine Corps Sgt. Jamal Baadani has been bright about the effects of the march.

Coordinated by the group he founded, the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military (AAPAM), the event drew marchers from as far as California and New York.

“It was like being on cloud nine,” Baadani said in an e-mail message. “For those long moments during the parade we were all unified as Americans.”

Badaani said the event was staged in part to inform audiences about Arab American’s historical role in the military, which he said is often overlooked. ”(We marched) to recognize the heroes from the Arab-American Community who served and sacrificed their lives during the over 230 years of American history,” Baadani said.

Arab American participation in the U.S. military pre-dates the country itself. Army Pvt. Nathan Badeen, a Syrian killed in the Revolutionary War, was among the first recorded Arab Americans to enlist.

Since then, Arab Americans have fought in every war and major conflict in U.S. history, the group says.

Currently, more than 3,500 Arab-Americans are enlisted. Less than two months ago, Army Sgt. Sameer Rateb died in Baiji, a city in northern Iraq. Last October Army Spc. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, an Iraqi-American and Ann Arbor resident, was captured in central Baghdad while visiting his wife’s family.

Badaani himself enlisted in 1981, and has served two tours in the Middle East. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, he hurried to form APAAM in response to the lack of organization among Arab Americans in the military.

One marcher, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Ghada, who asked that her full name not be used, has a family history with the military dating back decades: Her uncle, who was Lebanese, earned a purple heart in World War II. Ghada said many are surprised when they discover the depth of Arab American involvement in the armed forces. “I didn’t know that when I joined the military to be honest with you,” she said.

Ghada, who served two tours over nine years in the Marine Corps and now works as a police officer, was born and raised in Lebanon. “As everyone knows in the military, we have members from all over of the world,” she said. “Just like everybody else, (Arab Americans) have lost a lot of people.”

Though the parade is nearly a month removed, the group’s mission remains fresh, Badaani said. These are trying times for race relations in the U.S., he said. Mosques have been vandalized, and Arab-American businesses “defamed or damaged.”

“Some in the Arab American Community have lost faith in America due to the increased racial attacks since 9/11,” he said. “We marched in order to give them hope about their place in America as patriotic Americans.”

Ghada said that dissatisfaction with some institutions, including the American media, also motivated her to march. “Sometimes what you see and hear is not necessarily based on truth,” she said.

Badaani said one of the most exemplary moments of the march occurred when Jamal Mogalli, the father of U.S. Air Force translator Rayed Mogalli, appeared.

”(He) came out wearing traditional Yemeni dress with an American Flag on his t-shirt, and waving the American flag,” he said. “How American is that?”