With all this recent talk in the forum of the war and political agenda I thought I would add this to put things in perspective...
Greeting Everyone,
The sandbox, as we like to call it, sucks. The meals at night and in the morning are hot but Pakistanis or Indians serve them. Kuwait seems to be the richest country in the world, if you are a Kuwaiti citizen you don?t have to work; the government gives you an allowance. Because of that non-citizens do all the shit work in the country. I never eat at the chow hall; at another camp they caught Pakistanis food workers trying to poison Marines. All I get there is coffee cause it is made w/ boiling water. Another thing they do here is have gas attack drills. They make you put on your gas mask and work in it. It is unbelievable w/ all the heat & sand flying around. We were in the mask for 10 hours yesterday. Yet another thing that sucks is all the false alarm sirens going off. An alarm will sound in the middle of the night indicating we are under attack. You have to wake up and man fighting holes for about a half hour until they give it the all clear. Needless to say we are all exhausted and forever weary.
A few days after the air war is over or even while it is ongoing, we will be hauling ass into Iraq past the Euphrates River.
We have to cross it as soon as possible because there is the very real possibility that Saddam might blow his dams and flood the area. Saddam has also run power lines through the marshy areas which he can charge and set up sort of an electrical swamp which would slow the ground forces up
Other than that it keeps getting hotter and am dreading the month of May, which I hear it becomes unbearable. The military chaplain gave us a talk about the horrible choices we may have to make. Including hitting children. Apparently Saddam has groups of children from 8-14 years of age, ?Saddam?s Orphans? as he calls them who he is training as suicide bombers. Obviously we dread the fact that some of us possibly might have to face a choice like that. I am appalled that he could be training children for such a mission. We have also been instructed to engage any Iraqi military or police forces that are seen firing on or using force against their own people. Maybe we will be able to do some good after all over here.
We still have not gotten any mail and people are starting to get pissed, especially the Marines w/ a wife and a kid. Other than that we just work and wait for this war to start. They are building an airfield a 1000yds away from my camp so they can launch warplanes. We are so close to Iraq that I guess it makes sense. I?ll write again soon.
Greetings from Kuwait where the weather never gets better and things never change. We have been doing the same things day in and day out which makes things seem quite repetitious. I have been working for the past few days at a remote location around the base. Actually it is not really a base but a set of camps placed a mile apart in the desert surrounded by a 12? high dirt wall w/ guard towers and roaming security. The location I am at is close to the British Royal Marines so I swing by from time to time and shoot the shit with them. Nice guys, very tough as well. They have access to Coke and cigarettes that we do not so we trade and I bring the smokes back to my guys. It?s funny how much even a Coke means.
It is funny looking around here and seeing how many people are beat up, run down, and sick. Strep throat has ransacked the camp, and with out good shower facilities, cleanliness is nonexistent so people all spread it to each other.
I have been going on security patrol 2 nights a week. We roll around the outer walls in a Hummer and look for infiltrates to the camp. Before these camps were here, migrants lived on this land. They are now just on the other side of the wall so they pop there heads up from time to time and try to come over. Usually pointing a weapon will send them back. They are harmless but it gets boring chasing them around in night vision goggles.
On a more serious note, the biological /chemical sensors are always picking up contaminates so we wear our gas mask a lot. I am more afraid of gas than I am of getting shot. We are moving within 2 miles of the Iraqi border within a couple of days so once things kick off we will be ready to cross. I look forward to seeing you all again upon my return, whenever that may be. Hopefully this war is quick. I have not yet received any mail. Things take forever in the military but write when you can, it is all we have to look forward to.
Greeting Everyone,
The sandbox, as we like to call it, sucks. The meals at night and in the morning are hot but Pakistanis or Indians serve them. Kuwait seems to be the richest country in the world, if you are a Kuwaiti citizen you don?t have to work; the government gives you an allowance. Because of that non-citizens do all the shit work in the country. I never eat at the chow hall; at another camp they caught Pakistanis food workers trying to poison Marines. All I get there is coffee cause it is made w/ boiling water. Another thing they do here is have gas attack drills. They make you put on your gas mask and work in it. It is unbelievable w/ all the heat & sand flying around. We were in the mask for 10 hours yesterday. Yet another thing that sucks is all the false alarm sirens going off. An alarm will sound in the middle of the night indicating we are under attack. You have to wake up and man fighting holes for about a half hour until they give it the all clear. Needless to say we are all exhausted and forever weary.
A few days after the air war is over or even while it is ongoing, we will be hauling ass into Iraq past the Euphrates River.
We have to cross it as soon as possible because there is the very real possibility that Saddam might blow his dams and flood the area. Saddam has also run power lines through the marshy areas which he can charge and set up sort of an electrical swamp which would slow the ground forces up
Other than that it keeps getting hotter and am dreading the month of May, which I hear it becomes unbearable. The military chaplain gave us a talk about the horrible choices we may have to make. Including hitting children. Apparently Saddam has groups of children from 8-14 years of age, ?Saddam?s Orphans? as he calls them who he is training as suicide bombers. Obviously we dread the fact that some of us possibly might have to face a choice like that. I am appalled that he could be training children for such a mission. We have also been instructed to engage any Iraqi military or police forces that are seen firing on or using force against their own people. Maybe we will be able to do some good after all over here.
We still have not gotten any mail and people are starting to get pissed, especially the Marines w/ a wife and a kid. Other than that we just work and wait for this war to start. They are building an airfield a 1000yds away from my camp so they can launch warplanes. We are so close to Iraq that I guess it makes sense. I?ll write again soon.
Greetings from Kuwait where the weather never gets better and things never change. We have been doing the same things day in and day out which makes things seem quite repetitious. I have been working for the past few days at a remote location around the base. Actually it is not really a base but a set of camps placed a mile apart in the desert surrounded by a 12? high dirt wall w/ guard towers and roaming security. The location I am at is close to the British Royal Marines so I swing by from time to time and shoot the shit with them. Nice guys, very tough as well. They have access to Coke and cigarettes that we do not so we trade and I bring the smokes back to my guys. It?s funny how much even a Coke means.
It is funny looking around here and seeing how many people are beat up, run down, and sick. Strep throat has ransacked the camp, and with out good shower facilities, cleanliness is nonexistent so people all spread it to each other.
I have been going on security patrol 2 nights a week. We roll around the outer walls in a Hummer and look for infiltrates to the camp. Before these camps were here, migrants lived on this land. They are now just on the other side of the wall so they pop there heads up from time to time and try to come over. Usually pointing a weapon will send them back. They are harmless but it gets boring chasing them around in night vision goggles.
On a more serious note, the biological /chemical sensors are always picking up contaminates so we wear our gas mask a lot. I am more afraid of gas than I am of getting shot. We are moving within 2 miles of the Iraqi border within a couple of days so once things kick off we will be ready to cross. I look forward to seeing you all again upon my return, whenever that may be. Hopefully this war is quick. I have not yet received any mail. Things take forever in the military but write when you can, it is all we have to look forward to.
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