Perspective: Military camaraderie key for U.S blacks fighting in Iraq

ATLANTA, Dec 25 (Reuters) - When people ask Tracy Smith to describe the year she spent in Iraq with the Georgia Army National Guard, she bluntly responds, "It sucked. ... What do you want me to say?"

The 48th Brigade lost 26 soldiers during a tour south of Baghdad that ended in May.

But Smith said the camaraderie she experienced with her unit was a high point of her life. It transcended racial barriers in a way she'd never seen before as a black American.

"You have to muster every ounce of strength you can muster for that situation. Any differences go out of the window -- white, black, male, female, Jew, Muslim," she told Reuters.

"You get shot at. You're in the same uniform. You're going to have to employ every ounce of that training to get back to your camp ... in one piece and not in that nasty little bag that you have in your Humvee to put body parts in."

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