The cultural gap between Americans and Iraqis yawned especially wide one day during Josh McAuliffe’s tour of duty in Iraq. McAuliffe was a member of the National Guard’s 389th Engineering Battalion and served in Iraq from May 2003 to May 2004, and one of his duties was to head out into Baghdad with an Iraqi translator to find local workers for reconstruction projects.
As they drove around, everything was going fine between McAuliffe and the translator. Until the topic turned to music.
….Now a senior at the UW-Madison studying psychology and sociology, McAuliffe says songs by hard rock acts Tool, Disturbed and Drowning Pool were listening favorites when his unit went out on patrol, vulnerable to roadside bombs and other insurgent attacks.