Maj. Christopher Parker’s late mother never believed the U.S. Army was a proper fit for her talkative son.
“She didn’t think I would be successful in the Army because she didn’t think the Army would let me talk all of the time,” Parker said. “I told her that I had found the one job in the Army where talking a lot came in handy.”
And Parker has made a 22-year career out of doing just that — talking. He is a public affairs officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, and was called upon in July to serve as the media engagement chief for the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq — the mission to take down ISIS.
“As the preparations for the Mosul operation began, we recognized that there was a great deal of media interest around our base at Qayyarah West Airfield (about 40 miles southwest of Mosul, Iraq),” Parker said. “So I was sent down to help coordinate those media visits on the ground and to provide a coalition spokesperson available for interview.”
Parker may be known to the rest of the world through interviews in The Washington Post or on CNN, but around here he is known as a Coosa High School teacher.
“I teach English, usually honors ninth-grade literature and advanced placement English language and composition,” he shared.
As a reservist, Parker said, heading out on deployment — leaving family, friends and a job — comes with its difficulties. “Even though the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protects my job, it’s always a concern for a Reserve soldier to leave. I have come home before to find myself jobless,” he said.
While he was gone for 16 months on deployment, Parker left a job working for a private security company. An account that he managed was lost during his service, and upon his return he was greeted with unemployment. It took Parker a year to find a steady job again.
“When you are an active duty soldier and you deploy, you know exactly what you are doing when you get home — you are going back to active duty. When you are a Reserve soldier, that isn’t always the case,” he said. “For a lot of Reserve personnel, there is anxiety about coming home because of the job concern. Even being in the Reserve can make it hard to get hired, because some companies don’t want to spend the time and money to train someone that may suddenly leave for a year.”
But with Parker’s current employer, he doesn’t have those worries anymore. He said the staff and administrators work with him to iron out changes in scheduling and the hiring of temporary staff in his absence. Three Coosa High administrators were recently commended for their effort in meeting the demands of Parker’s arrangement. Principal Trevor Hubbard and Assistant Principals Miriam McGhee and John Rhodarmer received the Patriot Award, which reflects their efforts to support Parker.
“Coosa High School is really like a home for me, and I miss being away from those students and my fellow faculty and staff,” he said. “I can’t wait to get back, and I know that when I do that my job will be waiting for me. That makes it easier to focus on the mission.”
And the mission at hand is confronting the “brutality” of ISIS and “their supposed caliphate,” Parker said, but the U.S., as part of the 60 nation and agency coalition, is doing this through an advisory and support role.
“It’s important that the American people understand our role here. It is the Iraqis and the Peshmerga that are doing the fighting to defeat Daesh (ISIS), and they are getting the job done,” he said. “The ISF (Iraqi Special Forces) have liberated over 50 percent of the territory that Daesh once held. They are on plan to liberate Mosul … We provide artillery support from cannon and rocket systems, logistics support, and advising and assistance here.”
In his role, Parker has not fully seen the destruction the terrorist organization has left in its wake, as the “Q-West” base is not the frontlines. But he’s seen enough to grasp the significance of ISIS’ eradication.
“I’ve seen kids out on the street while driving through areas, and they seem pretty happy to see us, but you can tell they have suffered. And the oil fires and sulfur fires haven’t made it any easier,” he said. “We have protective masks to keep us safe from those hazards, but what about the poorer families that live closer to those fires? My heart really goes out to them.”
Parker said ISIS set fire to oil wells and a sulfur facility to provide cover and sully coalition operations when the push for Mosul began. The poisonous clouds move across the desert and are visible at night, he added, and even though U.S. forces are protected he “can’t imagine the nightmare that the people of this area … have been going through.”
As ISF moved into Mosul for the first time since ISIS occupied the city in 2014 this week, Parker said the fighting is going to get tougher.
“It becomes a much more complicated battle. They will be dealing with tighter spaces, which will affect their ability to maneuver, and Daesh has been there for two years, so they have had time to prepare a defense,” he said.
Mosul is a tipping point in the fight against ISIS, Parker said, where the endgame could deal a devastating blow.
“For Daesh, the loss of Mosul will be the loss of their so-called caliphate in Iraq, so they have a lot to lose,” he continued. “Their willingness to harm civilians and use them to try to avoid a direct confrontation is a concern, but the coalition takes precautions to minimize the effects to the civilian population, and we are convinced that, despite Daesh’s cowardly tactics, the Iraqi forces will win out in the end.”
Despite meeting Hillary Clinton when she was first lady, looking out from the top of Saddam Hussein’s palace and calling his daughter on FaceTime with Jon Stewart, Parker said the most memorable experiences of his service are happening right now.
“Being able to be here, as a part of our armed forces, working in this coalition to support these Iraqi troops that I see every day, to defeat this brutal enemy and their twisted ideology ... That is indeed memorable,” he said.
Communicating updates and news from the front against ISIS to media outlets across the world and working with journalists on the ground means Parker gets to keep on talking, but not without the consequences his mother warned him about.
“My talking still gets me in trouble,” he concluded.
