When First Lieutenant Lindsey Gerheim arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Bayji for a 15-month tour in 2008, one of her first actions was to invite its police chiefs to the US army base for lunch.
A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, Lt Gerheim's mission was to help train the Iraqi police: to make their patrol procedures more efficient, improve their equipment maintenance plans and ensure that they could conduct independent counter insurgency operations.
With her 42-strong platoon, Lt Gerheim spent time with the Iraqi officers, playing volleyball for example. Within four months, the police chiefs made her an honorary member of their tribe and bestowed an Arabic name on her meaning “wise woman”.