So 20 years ago today, COB6 and I were in a port warehouse in al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Maybe it was twenty years ago yesterday. We were awoken at about 2AM local time to get into MOPP4 and go back to sleep. We were surrounded by our support battalion. They showed us how prepared they were for battle by spending the early morning hours sewing their combat patches on the right sleeve of their BDUs. <\/p>\n
We still had woodland camo because the people who really needed desert camo, the support wienies, had already snatched ours. We wouldn’t get our desert camouflage uniforms until we returned from our first mission into Iraq a month later. But, all of the forklift drivers in al Jubail had theirs. In fact, we didn’t get desert camouflaged helmet covers until we got back to Germany, just in time for our :welcome home: parade. <\/p>\n
When we went to chow that morning, a jet broke the sound barrier overhead prompting all of the support weinies to call out “Gas!” and masking themselves with trays of breakfast laying everywhere around the parking lot. The Sri Lankans who were serving us breakfast ran around with their hands over their mouths and noses searching frantically for their own masks. I noticed seagulls didn’t seem affected by the insanity, or by any nerve agent, so I called all clear and went to the head of the chow line.<\/p>\n
Later that day, another female support wienie decided she should have her weapon loaded since Desert Storm had started and cleared her weapon by firing a round into the clearing barrel right by my head while I reading a book in my bunk. <\/p>\n
On the other side of the warehouse, an M8 Chemical detector attracted the attention of another support wienie who wondered what “Test” meant…when he pushed the button labeled “Test” and the alarm sounded, he pulled on his protective mask and ran around yelling “Gas”.<\/p>\n
Anyway, that was my first day of Desert Storm. I think we were in port for three more days unloading our vehicles from the ships as they arrived from the North Sea port of Bremerhaven in Germany, but the first day of Desert Storm solidified my intense dislike for support wienies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"