Ali Salman has perhaps the best origin story of anyone currently serving in the United States. He went from being a carpet cleaner in the Green Zone to an interpreter for the U.S. Army in Iraq to becoming a Captain in the U.S. Army.
"My first experience working with the U.S. Army in Iraq happened by coincidence," Salman said. "At the time, I was working for an Iraqi contractor hired to clean carpets for the establishment of the Green Zone."
Through that position, he interacted with the soldiers stationed there at the time and was asked to act as an interpreter for an Army Major. The job did come with some complications though, such as being kidnapped by terrorists who wanted to kill him for "collaborating" with the U.S. Army.
He got snatched up when passing through a militia checkpoint in Baghdad.
"They accused me of working with U.S. forces, pulled me from my car, and beat me before dragging me to an abandoned house nearby," Salman said in a recent Army press release. "Inside the house, I saw bloodstains on the floor, and the men threatened to kill me, calling me a ‘sheep’ for collaborating with Americans."
Salman managed to sneak a call on a Nokia cell phone he had hidden away, calling his brother who also worked in the Green Zone and asked for help. Ten minutes later, a humvee was battering down the front door of the house where he had been detained.
A U.S. Army officer suddenly showed up in the room and asked if he was Ali. When Salman asked where the militia members had went, the officer replied, "Don't know and don't care." He received a radio transmission that an Army interpreter had been kidnapped so his unit responded and that was all that really mattered.
After being interviewed by U.S. governmental agencies about his kidnapping, the American government granted him passage to the United States and issued him a green card. Salman became a U.S. citizen two years later.
Then he finished his engineering degree, joined the U.S. Army, and was commissioned as an officer through the Officer Candidate School. During his eight years in the Army, he has served in Germany, South America, and South Korea.
Today, Capt. Salman serves as the commander of headquarters and headquarters company in the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command.
"The main reason I joined the Army is that the Army saved my life when I was in Iraq. I felt I owed a profound debt to this nation for what it had given me," Salman said.