a soliers rambling
I was a soldier for almost 14 years in the U S Army. I was stationed in Ft Campbell Kentucky when Iraq invaded Kuwait on the 2nd of August 1990. Being a soldier in a rapid deployment unit was exciting till we got the call to deploy to Saudi Arabia, after that it scared the crap out of me. All I could think about was here I am a married man with a 3 year old girl going off to who knows, " it was classified" for how long. We spent the next 7 days preparing to deploy, our Advance party departed on the 5th of August we departed on the 9th. It was the hardest thing to do, leave my family and go off for what would be 238 days when it was all over. Once we arrived in Saudi Arabia, at an Airport that was nameless, we received our water, ammo, food, and more water. After receiving our supplies we boarded on buses and headed to what we would call our Garrison base for the next 237 days. Our Garrison base was King Faud International Airport, (under construction) parking garage level 1. Our Squadron was the first Battalion sized unit in country with approximately 300 personnel so we had the run of the place for a few weeks till more units arrived. The only drawback to being the first ones there is that we got all t
On the 2nd day our mission changed we were now to provide Air support to the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, too bad they were headed east to Kuwait. That was the probably one of the longest nights of my life. This became our new home till the ground war began, no showers, no hot meals, no latrines, noise and light discipline, 50% guard duty at all times, it was not too much fun. We got on MSR Newmarket "main supply route" and headed north life was good. We had empty Hemet (10 ton fuel tanker) tankers floating in the lake; it was like Murphy's Law the revenge. The best part of getting out of Garrison was the chance to get off the latrine burning details because up there we had to dig them in and we would just fill them partially with sand daily. A few days later we would leave the security of our parking garage and move north closer to harms way but that night scared me to death. January 15 1991 was the deadline for Saddam to withdraw his troops out of Kuwait, He didn't he ignored the UN. It gets old after a while when there were only 12 meals to choose from and you did not get to pick your favorite you got what was thrown at you. We moved into Iraq on the 23rd of February when the ground war started. We moved to our forward staging base on the night of the 21st and prepared to move out to Iraq. To myself it did not seem like much but I got a rude awakening the next morning. We drove the hole 100 hours of the ground war, except for the fuel stops, and occasional disabled vehicle the convoy never stopped more than 2 minutes at a time. In closing the only thing that can be said is "Air Assault Sir, Fit to fight!" . After everything was gone all we could do was wait to depart ourselves and it was March 30, 4 weeks before we were to leave.
Common topics in this essay:
MSR Newmarket,
Saudi Arabia,
Line Road,
Desert Storm,
Squadron Battalion,
Highway Hell,
Saddam Hussein,
Murphy's Law,
Arabia Airport,
Ready Eat,
ground war,
saudi arabia,
garrison base,
guard duty,
parking garage,
weeks till,
air guard,
msr newmarket,
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Acceptance Essays
