Lynn had spent the entire day with me as did most of the families. We had been in the field training when Saddam invaded Kuwait and while in the field were advised that we may be deployed to Kuwait. The families had been hanging around the unit for a couple of weeks waiting to see their family member go to a place we new nothing about.

Most of us wondered why us and where in the world is Kuwait. We remained in the field for sometime training for chemical attacks and such. Although, this was the first of August and the heat and humidity was intense we were not prepared for the heat we were about to experience in just a few weeks...

The Wait
When we left the barracks it was already dark and we had been waiting all day for our bus. We left the barracks and rode over to the airport to load our plane. I am not sure how long we were on the flight line but it seemed like hours. I had enough time to call Lynn after she had left the barracks and drove back to Hopkinsville and catch some shut eye.

While leaving post Lynn got pulled over by an MP for speeding. She of course got out of the ticket because she was crying and she told him I was just deployed.

When we finally began to board the plane our section was split up. Although, I don't think I was on board with anyone from 5th Section, that was a long time ago and I am not sure.

Now Boarding
We boarded a military C5 for our journey. It was interesting because this was only the second time I had flown in an airplane. The first was to Ft. Sill for basic. Anyways, in a C5 you face the rear of the plane, which makes for an interesting experience. I was also one of the last on so I had to sit next to the latrine.


Our flight plan was for us to fly to Spain (Torrejon) and refuel and then onto Saudi. It did not work out quite like that. When we got to Spain they told us our plane needed some maintenance. It ended up needing an overhaul and they unloaded our plane and loaded all the equipment from the cargo hole into a new plane. Our short stay in Spain ended up being 4 or 5 hours maybe longer. We did have the Red Cross their handing out toiletries. Some of the local Air Force wife's set up a little mess tent with hot food and drinks.

Dry Heat & Saudi Bus Drivers
When we finally arrived in Saudi in the early morning around 3am, I took my first breathe as we walked off the plane and it hit me. My first breath felt like my insides just dried out. The air was so dry and even at 3am it was hot. This was the end of August and the heat was definitely on.

Once off the plane we assembled in a holding area for several hours. After spending what seemed like hours sitting in the sand propped up against our ruck sacks we were given the order to move to the buses.

It was still dark, and as we loaded the buses we were challenged to find a place for us as well as our gear. I am not sure how we managed but I do recall leaning my head against the window to catch a quick nap. I woke up to the sunrise, which gave me first glance of the place we were to call home for the next 7 months.

The sunrise also gave me my first glance of the Bus and the Bus Driver. What surprised me was the back 1/3 of the bus was blocked off. This was were the women and children sat. The culture does not allow the women to mingle with men so they put the women in the back of the bus. (Sounds like the U.S. south prior to the 60's) This was a single level bus but many of the buses we were to encounter were double decker buses. The same was true for these also. Although the buses were much larger the women were still restricted to the back 1/3 of the first level of the bus.

Our driver was wearing traditional Saudi garb;Long white robe and head scarf. Although, we thought this was kind of odd we found out why they choose to wear this. THE HEAT! Obviously the white reflected the sun and the scarf kept the head cool. Underneath the robe they wore nothing. When I say they were cool, that is simply stating a condition of comfort.

King Fahd Intl. Airport
As we began our trip and traveled the long winding road I began to get acquainted with the scenery of our home for the next seven months. As we pulled away from the airport I saw sand. Sand everywhere, both sides of the road as far as you can see. Every few miles we would see this boxes made out of plywood. We would come to find that these were our future showers and latrines.

I have no idea how long the trip was but we ended up at the future site of King Fahd International Airport. I was intrigued to see that they actually had highways. My impression was dirt roads and camels.

This airport was under construction and how rumor has it,it was to be the largest in the world. I find that hard to believe. According to internet resources it did not open until November 28, 1999.

Anyways, back to our story. When we arrived at the airport we rallied back up with our unit. I found Sgt. Albritton and others in the parking garage. This was to be our home for the next week or so.

My bed for the next week or so was my air mattress in the parking garage. It was so hot when I took a nap we were required to wake up and drink water. We would sweat so much the sweat built up and would run off of the air mattress in a puddle.

We did have showers but had to fight with the aviators to get up there to use them. As we got affiliated with our home we would survey the area. We were not to get near the mosque though. If you look at the links above you will see the mosque in the front of the terminal.

During our time there we were detailed to construct tents for the rest of the 101st.

When we constructed tents we were to construct them on a very hard, compacted gravel foundation. It was not concrete but not loose gravel. They expected us to hammer 12 inch stakes into this stuff. We eventually got some drills and help from local Saudis. That was our first introduction to the locals.

I did not smoke so this story is even more amusing. As we work and the "smokers" take a "smoke break", we soon discover that the locals see things differently than we do in the States. Here's the situation. A guy pulls a pack of cig's out and gives one to a buddy. One of the locals dressed in his lovely white garment from neck to toe, sandal's and a red and white checkered head scarf sees this opportunity to seize the moment.

He gestures by putting his hand out for a cigarette, so the GI pulls one out and gives him one. Mr. Saudi waved his hand and shook his head no. The GI says yes and nods, the Saudi continues to shake his head know and takes the cig's away from the GI. He ten proceeds to take 3 or 4 cig's and hands the pack back to the GI. We were in shock because of all the training we had to respect the customs and yet they had forgot to tell us about this one.

Apparently, when they are offered something they feel as though they take what the wish not what you want them to take. Needless to say, not many guys pulled out cig's after that if there were any local Saudis around.

Once we got these tents up it was nothing more than a shelter from the sun. It certainly was not a shelter from the heat. We slept on the ground and had our first experiences with scorpions.

When the wind blew it was great. Here we are trying to get settled in and these little dust tornados come through he camp blow through the tents and blow white powder all over our weapons and clothes. We did get the luxury of having carpet laid over the small rocks. We were living in the lap of luxury, or so we thought.

1st trip to Oasis

After getting our tents set up at Camp Eagle II and thinking we may get to relax a bit we found out that we were moving out. That only makes sense. Here we are putting up all of these tents to sleep and live in and then we leave and go live in the desert.

I remember the drive north. I was amazed by the view. You see, in the movies the desert is vast and desolate. Well, that's' exactly what I saw. NOTHING. I was intrigued by the highway to nowhere. It went somewhere but it seemed like we just drove and drove to nowhere.

We traveled through a few small towns. It was our first sight of actual local people. The ladies in the black burkas and all of the Chevy caprices and Toyota trucks were interesting. It seemed as though all we saw were Chevy Caprices and little white Toyota trucks with orange stripes.

We eventually pulled off of the main road and headed into the desert. I am not sure how long we drove but I remember waking up when we pulled off the main road and dozed back off once in the sand. It seemed like hours driving once we got off the main road.

I do remember seeing some dark objects way off into the distance that I thought we would see real soon. However, with the flat terrain those dark spots must have been miles away.

As we approached those objects we discovered that they were actually palm trees and they were located at an old deserted town. We must have been one of the first units to setup at this location. Someone named it Oasis. That was real original so I am sure some officer came up with it. It was such a tactical name for a location.

This is were we would end up spending the next several weeks getting acclimated to the terrain and environment.


Our first experience with the locals goes like this...

We setup our position, set the guns, put up the GREEN camo nets over the truck and howitzer and get comfortable. We start checking out the area and all around us are these small mounds. They are no more than 4 to 5 feet tall and maybe 10' x 5' or so. Next to these mounds is a large hill. It is not large enough to build anything on but it is large enough to cause an investigation.

So, with nothing batter to do one by one we venture up to the top. I venture to say it was probably 75' to 100' high. On the top we discovered a fire pit with bones all around it. My first thought was a movie I saw one late night when I was a kid which was about Satan worshipers. Yeah, my imagination was running wild.

I think the very next day we were greeted by a VERY upset Saudi driving, of course, a white Toyota pick up. He was pissed. I am not sure who figured it out but somehow our guns and such were set up in a so called cemetery. We of course had no idea since we American's normally set up some markers defining our cemeteries.

Anyways, we ended up moving and spent the next 3 weeks or so playing in the sand. We drank smelly water from OASIS, we caught scorpions, lizards, played cards and began to work on our Air Assault technique's.

The water was great. Here's my assumption as a then E2 but now a much wiser civilian. We were carrying our gear in the HUMMER. This meant we had to carry the gear of 6 to 7 guys, all of the gear for the gun (howitzer), food, water etc...

We were carrying cases of bottled water at this time and it was decided that we needed to carry a blivet of water rather than the bottles to help save space. Looking back on this it seems kind of funny but I guess it made since. If Chief says do it then we did it.

This is what I understand about the smelly water. We got this water from the OASIS pond. It was ran through a filtration/purification process and once done we filled our blivet. Apparently, the water purification team did not go to the field back home or ever train. They put way to much of something in the water to make it drinkable. It wasn't bad other than the taste and smell. I thought water was tasteless and odorless but not this stuff. It was nasty. They eventually gave us some purification tablets to further purify the purification wrong doings.

Eventually, we found our selves on the way back to Camp Eagle II. We spent the next few weeks relaxing some and working in the motor pool. Upon our arrival we discovered some places of interest. A small shop/ convenience store was about a 15 minute walk and Adams A.K.A- A Train found in his travels a chicken shack. At least we think it was chicken. It may have been large pigeons. Whatever it was it was good! Much better than the MRE's or T-RATS.

At this point everything seems to run together. We had many funny, scary and tense times. Up to this point everything has been in a fairly chronological order. Now, I am going to start telling the stories not as they happened but how they happened to the best of my knowledge.

Camp Eagle II
After training in 30 day rotations during Desert Shield we always returned to Camp Eagle II. This was home for the entire Division. While at Camp Eagle we experienced the finer things life has to offer. A few of these are listed.
- Out Door Plumbing
- Out Door Toilets
- Crappy Tents
- Calling Home
- Food
- Guard Duty
- Details
- Movies
- RR trips (2) Half Moon Bay & Some Air Force Base in Saudi

Life was not bad. The difference in C.E. II was that we had daily formations, which we did not while out training.

Latrines
I believe the toilets were made for creating a bonding experience with the guys. Each latrine had 4 seats, no partitions and a nice view. These were nothing more than 10'x6' boxes made of plywood. The top half was open to view the public walking by. This was great if you wanted to hold a conversation with the guys hanging out by your tent. Our tent was the first row of tents in the entire camp and the latrines were 15' out side out door/tent flap. This was conveniently located until the heat of the day and we needed to burn the crap.

Fortunately, we only had to burn it for a short time. We had shit suckers A.K.A. septic sucker trucks visit daily to suck the latrines clean and spray them down. (Guys from Nam tell me we had it good)Compared to their living conditions I would say we did.

Showers
The Out Door showers were a great addition because prior to those all we could do was take a bitch bath. A little water in a tub and wipe down. This was the same way of doing laundry. The only issue was that the showers were out doors. It was late in 1990 and the evening were chilly thereby causing the water to be chilly. I recall the water being so cold I could only wash one limb at a time and then jump in to rinse off. I wonder if we had anyone get hypothermia in the desert.

After the shower came the out door sinks for shaving. I can honestly say I did not ever shave while in Saudi. There was a handful of us young guns that did not partake in the morning shaving ritual.

The TENTS & Sandbags
When we first arrived we begun to put up these tents. The problem was the tents were to be placed on a surface like concrete. We had no drills! So that means we use sledge hammers. Imaging taking a 24" stake and trying to hammer it into a concrete sidewalk.

Until a few weeks ago I had nothing to compare this stuff we were building on to. I was putting in a new brick sidewalk at my house and I laid down a foundation for the sidewalk. It was walk gravel and powder and once compacted it was like concrete. This was the same stuff we were dealing with. You see they were building an Airport in the middle of the desert. A strong base was needed and this was there way of making a foundation strong enough for there construction project. So we made due with what we had and put up Camp Eagle II. Well, at least our battalion.

We put up our tents and over time we got carpeting, then wood floors and cots. We began by sleeping on the bare ground of compacted material in or on our sleeping bags. We came back from what I believe was our first 30 day rotation north and we have the carpet and then after the next 30 day rotation we had wood floors.

This makes total since. It is like building a house from the roof down. Lay the carpet, put in the wood floors and each time we leave for a 30 day rotation north to train we tear it all down.

I met a guy this past month (December 2006) that was in the Airforce across the road from us in Saudi. He said people had a hard time believing that we had to truck sand in to fill sand bags. It's the truth! Although, I think we did it backwards. We went into the desert to the dunes and fill sandbags and brought them back into stack. You can see some of the fine sandbags in the picture above. I am not sure what was the smarter way to build the wall but it worked for us.

Calling Home
My first attempt to call home was something the signal guys rigged up. It may have been a HAM radio but whatever it was it did not work. I did get a chance to talk to Lynn. When we got connected I no more said Hi then we were disconnected. This continued 3 or 4 times and I called it quits. It would be quicker to write a letter and mail.

My next memorable call came after standing in line for 10 hours. I got to the front of the line and when I finally called Lynn at her mom's house it was about 3am. Expecting her to be up waiting for me I come to find out she was not home but at her friends house staying over night. I must say I was a little perturbed. I guess I thought here I am waiting to call her and waiting in line FOREVER and she was having a sleep over at her friends house. Oh well, I am over that now but after 10 hours even the most patient person would be ticked off.

Eventually, a very nice phone center was put up across the road from us. It was 3 or 4 tents with each containing a phone bank of maybe 20-30 phones. I am not sure that was a long time ago and with age everything gets stretched. (Well, almost everything) Once those were set up when we were able to use them, meaning we were not sleeping in northern Saudi under the stars, we could sit down and talk to our family.

Food
At CE II we had some fine chow. A mess hall was set up and we had all we could eat of the T-Rats. Fortunately many of the locals entrepreneurs set up shop and started selling ?Chicken?. We think it was chicken. Adams says it was cat. It sure was good Cat if that was the case. MMMM Good!

The HAMBURGER joint popped up just across the road. Or maybe it was camel burger. No one will ever really know. At formation one day we were instructed to not eat at the local establishments. Our health and safety could not be protected.

Look at it this way. Freshly cooked Cat or Camel or food that has been stored for 20+ years in metal containers and boiled to perfection. You make the choice. I did. Give me the Cat, baby!

Over time American business caught up with us. We had companies shipping tons of food and drinks to us. There are two things I remember best. Pepsi and Hershey's

Pepsi provided cases of soda weekly for us. We had been in country for maybe 2 months or so and had not had a soda of any kind. Once day Chief showed up with PEPSI. We decided that we would ice it down prior to consumption. (Where the heck did he get the ice?) We chilled it for hours and when we finally did partake in soda enjoyment it was absolutely the best soda I ever had. Thanks PEPSI!
When we came back from our training rotation up north upper management provided plenty of extracurricular activities.

Guard Duty
Although we rotated this duty and we were in somewhat a secure location we did rotate guard duty along the perimeter of Camp Eagle II. Eventually, we had small two man bunkers along the line about 30 to 40 feet from the road. We also rotated as gate guards since we were row number one of many.

I did not pull much guard duty at Tent City / C.E. II. When I did it seemed to always be at about 3 am in the morning.

While up north we were always up prior to dawn. We saw some great sunrises and had some really cold mornings. Fortunately, we had the option to start a nice fire. That was until TOP called over on the commo and told us to kill the fire.

Details- The SHOWERS
There are a few details that I enjoyed more than filling showers. I worked the Christmas week riding with Abrams and a contracted driver from India that barely spoke English. Basically, we drove down the line of showers in Tent City in a tanker truck and filled our outdoor showers with cold water.

This is December in the desert and the showers are open air showers with large tanks on top. Not only were they a little breezy but the water was very cold. Let's just say that I DID NOT jump in all the way and lather up.

It was more like the hokie pokie. Put your right arm in, take your right arm out, put your left arm in, take your left arm out. Lather and rinse. Move onto the neck limb and then rinse. The worse part was washing your back and chest. There was no quick in and out.

Anyways, this detail was OK. My dad had sent me a little piece of home as a Christmas gift. He sent me, what I thought was corny, a hot wheel police car with a working siren. Well, this came in handy with our driver from India. I gave it to him to give his son when he went home.

I also shared some pics of home with him. My cousin had sent over a pic of himself and a friend in hunting fatigues and a dear hanging from a tree.

There was snow, two guys in fatigues a deer hanging from a tree and an extremely confused guy from India driving a water truck in Saudi. Makes for a good beginning of a joke!

This was not easy to explain to the driver. He thought they were military and he had never seen snow. To this day I am not sure if he understands what it was all about. Anyways, we have a good time. It helped us forget some about Christmas and family by laughing with him. This picture to the right is our driver goofing around in some US Property. He's the guy in the white robe.

Movies
I do not recall watching any movies. I remember getting having the option to go to the mess tent and watch some movies but I think I decided to write some letters or hang out with the section in our tent.

R&R
on the Gulf and one to an Air Force Base somewhere in the desert. The picture to the right is self explanatory. Sgt. Brawly is blowing me a kiss. He was always the sweet one. We took two so called R&R trips. One to a beachThis was at the Air Base with visited.

The other place was a long bus ride to the beach where we were able to swim, water ski, catch a movie or nothing. I chose nothing. It was nice to get away from details, sand and the unit for a while.

P-Bottle
Prior to leaving on our bus trip to head back to Tent City after our day at the beach I began to consume a large bottle of water flavored with a sweet mixture of something. On the trip I finished my second bottle and before we arrived at our destination I had to go. I had to go so bad I filled up one water bottle and still had to go. I left the bottle next to the bus once we arrived. When leaving to head home to Tent City the bottle was gone. I assume it was thrown away.