DESERT STORM

This page is for the memories of the Men & Women who served in Desert Storm

I served in the Army from May 25, 1988 to June 19, 1991. My original contract was for 3 years, however due to Desert Storm, I was kept in the military for 19 extra days. My basic training was carried out in For Sill, Oklahoma. During the two months of June and July, it was very, very hot. Quite often I would see guys just drop from the unbearable heat. Other times guys would just drop from lack of blood not getting back to the brain. Locking their knees was not a good thing. In fact, on the first morning at about 0400, a guy had locked his knees in formation and just dropped backwards within a few minutes. Locking my knees during formation, that's one thing I learned NOT to do. The drill sergeant actually thought the soldier was drunk. And most quys were too scared to even help him.

Basic training was a real experience in itself. In basic, the soldiers are supposed to have two drill sergeants assigned to the battery during the whole 8 weeks. However, during my basic, we were lucky (?) enough to have new Army Reserve drill sergeants every two weeks. So as you might guess, it was like starting all over again every two weeks. These drill sergeants had to come in and prove just how tough they were. In my opinion, some of those drill sergeants had real ego problems. Some soldiers were pushed to far and ended up with heat stroke. Pretty serious.

After basic was AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in Fort sill, Oklahoma. Again. This time learning was a little bit more fun. We actually learned something about map reading, and some other stuff. One thing that I did learn is that the floors of the billets are very, very clean. In fact, some places are so clean you could eat off of them, no kidding. My roomies and I had to take all of our bunk-beds out of our room and clean the floors, then put them back in for inspection. We did this three times in one day. Why? Well, the drill sergeant didn't have anything else to do, so she harassed us. Joy joy.

Next was Germany. I was stationed in Werthiem, Germany. It is a small little spot on top of a hill. Fortunately my unit had the newer billets, with the showers in the rooms. That was cool, a lot better than community showers. Germany was pretty cool, the clubs are fun and there is a lot to see. Neat Castles and other stuff. During my stay in Germany, war broke out in the Persian Gulf. Saddam just couldn't stay in his own country. He got pretty greedy, of course that is probably his nature. On December 24, 1990 our unit stayed in a large motor pool processing paper work and getting ready to take a bus to the airport. I was single at the time, so I was fortunate that I didn't have to leave anybody behind. The married guys were really hurting, especially it being Christmas and all. We caught a plane at 0600 on December 25th, 1990. Man what a bummer, to have to go to war on Christmas day. When we got there, we had to wait for our equipment to arrive, which took about a week. No fun in waiting. After our equipment finally arrived, we headed out to the Desert. It was hot during the days, and cold at night. We had a few scares of chemical attacks, which turned out to be only water on the filter of a chemical sensor. Whew! During the actual war, we often found ourselves where we should not have been. There were times where we couldn't see where we were going at all. Talk about pitch black, it was really black out there. When sitting in the fox holes, we could identify tanks by the sound of the engine and the tracks. There was a couple of times my buddy and I almost go run over in our fox hole. That was pretty scary too. Overall, this was a time of learning and to reflect on life. I'm very thankful that I came home in one piece. I tip my hat to all the Americans who have served our country and who have died for our country, our freedom.

 

 

HOMEPAGE

Send me some EMAIL