American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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“You’ve got to have some fun, Chris,” he told me. “You need to do
a little PSD.”
He was using SEAL sarcasm. PSD stands for “personal security
detail”—bodyguard duty. The platoon had been assigned to provide security
for high-ranking Iraqi officials. The insurgents had started kidnapping
them, trying to disrupt the government. It was a pretty thankless
job. So far, I’d been able to avoid it, but it seemed my ninja smoke
had run out. I left and went over to the other side of the city and the
Green Zone. (The Green Zone was a section of central Baghdad that
was created as a safe area for the allies and the new Iraqi government.
It was physically cut off from the rest of the city by cement walls and
barbed wire. There were only a few ways in and out, and these were
under strict control. The U.S. and other allied embassies were located
there, as were Iraqi government buildings.)
I lasted an entire week.
The Iraqi officials, so-called, were notorious for not telling their
escorts what their schedules were or giving details on who was supposed
to be traveling with them. Given the level of security in the
Green Zone, that was a significant problem.
I acted as “advance.” That meant I would go ahead of an official
convoy, make sure the route was safe, and then stand at the security
checkpoint and ID the convoy vehicles as they came through. This way
the Iraqi vehicles could move through the checkpoints quickly without
becoming targets.
One day, I was advance for a convoy that included the Iraqi vice
president. I’d already checked the route and arrived at a Marine checkpoint
outside the airport.