In 1991,   I was assigned overseas in support of Desert Storm.  I spent 7 months primarily in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Emirate of Kuwait. I also had the opportunity to visit Bahrain for a little R&R.  I was a Technical Advisor with a background in combat vehicles.  I would later take command of the MGDL maintenance outfit attached to the USASG (Provisional).  Either way, I was a long way from home.................

As I arrived in Dhahran at the airbase, there was a slight sand storm and the acrid smell from the burning oilfields up north.  I remember vividly, as the door opened to our transport, there was an Airman, tanned dark by the sun.  He turned to the flight attendant (this was a commercial transport) and asked “her” if we needed gas.    She gave that very unique look of, "Do I look like the friggen’ pilot?"   There are times you wish you had a camera.  As we disembarked, the tarmac was swamped with a mass of humanity, loading and unloading transports.  As I had guessed no one knew where our little team should be headed.   The airbase seemed to be a managed chaos.  OK, that was the first time I asked, "Whaaaat did I do?"   Finally a couple of 5-tons arrived and we loaded our gear and our cherry-asses into the back.   What a motley bunch.  Some had no idea what they were about to get involved with.  They were acting as though they were going on vacation.  Ya’ know, there is a reason why they issued us body armor and gas masks. You heard of the saying, "He is so wet behind the ears he needs a towel for run-off;" we’re talking more like gutters and downspouts.  We were hauled over to the Al Firdos compound. 

 A unique note about this compound of cement blockhouses was that it was supposedly the first western compound built in the kingdom.   Big deal.   It was going to be home for quite a while.  Yankee Army cleaned it up and decorated the entrance nicely, complete with pillboxes and sandbag bunkers.  No solicitors allowed.  We cycled through the main building getting our sleeping gear and hooches assigned (interesting how some Vietnam era slang was still used). The Corporal in charge immediately took a liking to me by assigning me the pink blanket with the pink pillow. Asshole. Actually, the corporal and I would become fairly good friends.  He fessed up that he thought I was going to be the smart-ass of the group and needed immediately to be taken down a notch.   Amazing.  Moi? 

 It is a leery situation walking into your new quarters with people who have been established there for sometime.  I was of course assigned the shit bunk in the back.    OK, I know I am the newbie, but can I at least have a mattress!   I was assigned to the USASG (Provisional).   The unit was a compliment of military, civilian, and contractors.  I was one of the many civilians they dropped into a uniform and sent to do special tasks.  I was basically sent over as a technical advisor due to my background in combat vehicles.  The first few days were hectic indeed as the team I was supposed to be assigned to was disbanded and reassigned.   To make a long story short I was assigned to a maintenance outfit which I would eventually take command. It was an interesting unit to say the least.  What band of cutthroats!  But good god these guys were good, the unit turned out to be highly rated in theater.  And the troops knew it.

I was eventually moved to hooch #4 with the unit’s staff.   We made the best of the situation.  We finagled and scrounged to put together our own little oasis.  We used old mess hall floor planks to make a deck; camo netting for the deck canopy; we cut water bottles in half and stuck them into tent poles with a little sand and a candle – instant tiki torches; my partner found a 3,000 gallon self supporting water blivet (he said it fell off a truck in a convoy – I believe him, don’t you?) – instant hot tub. The manual pouch held some ice for our “beverages”; discarded army cots made excellent lounge chairs.  We even made a deck for the water blivet using sand bags.  And get this; we even had a wooden picnic table and a barbecue made out of a 50-gallon drum (its truly amazing what one can do with a blow torch).  Any one for camel burgers?

Most of my time there was spend at the Al Firdos compound.   I would later be transferred over to the Khobar Towers facility for my last month in country.  What a pit that was.  The towers were originally designed to house all the Bedouin Tribes, however they declined to move in when the Saudi government refused to allow them to take their livestock.  Funny that.  Yankee Army was taking their security to the max with this place.  When you entered you had to drive through a serpentine route of Jersey barriers.  At each bend there was a bunker with a M60 gunner.  There was another bunker at the checkpoint over looking the entire route.  Oh, did I mention the tanks in defilade.  Sadly, several years later, this facility would be subjected to a terrorist bombing.