Friday, August 29, 2003
Chapter 2
Saudi Arabia in December 13, 1990
We get off this plane in the middle of the noonday sun, only about 85 degrees.
Not too bad, unless you are wearing all that cold weather gear. So here we sit on the black top in the middle of nowhere, agian waiting for a ride. We are sitting there for about 3 hours when out of the distance you could see the silhouette of several mid sized buses headed towards us like hornets chased from their nest.
These guys were not in a straight line either, it almost seemed as though they were racing 6 buses side by side in a stagered formation.
These guys were nothing like what I expected, the guy we had driving our bus I think was related to Mario Andrette. We were all over the road and everywhere else too.
We get to the first staging area where we will wait for all our equipment, tanks and wheeled vehicles. The advanced party did all the hard work puttin up all the tents and building the shitters we really had a pretty good time there, playing foot ball, and horse shoes just like a regular picinic. Well up until the latrines started overflowing, then it got stinky the flies were everywhere pretty nasty let me tell you.
Our equipment started flowing into the port, so it begain to be business as usuall. Late nights and early mournings. The food was not too bad, at least it was hot. We had almost no contact with the local population except during meal times the locals would come in and feed us.
they would bring in these hugh ice chests filled with scramble eggs, sausage patties, and pancakes. the eggs were a nice shade of green so I think if we had any veg heads with us they got their fill.
Soon it was time to move to a place we would call home for 4-5 months. The Army called it Thompson the rest of us just didn't care. It was no place really just a grid square on the map. One of many to be sure.
The A.C.E. came in and with blade down cut a trench around our perimeter in about a half an hour, with one big pit in the middle for all our trash.
it was one big circle with all of our trucks spred out within the middle. with three major guard points manned 24-7. The tents GP med's 15 or so went up in about an hour.
My section or squad would have a lot of work to do over the comming months
so we got down to setting up shop. you see we supported 7/6 and 6/6 infintry they had alot of bradly fighting vehicles - 35 armor who had alot M1-A1- A2 Abrahms tanks-air defense arti crews with stinger mistles mounted on hummers-field artillary unit with M109 Paladins and 105 Howitzer tow behinds.
Our company was made up of 4 parts,
HHC or headquarters
Alpha was and supply.
Bravo was the mechanics.
Charlie was the medical unit.
I want to tell you about the people who made up our unit. Following is a grouping of incidents that happened while we waited for the ground war to start.
Mostly at first alot of the stuff that happened to us was chaulked up to inexperiance. Then there was the stuff we placed in the I had my head up my ass syndrome. I will leave the names out for the most part for the people who did these things had already been punished at the time.
Fighting possition #3 this pointed toward charlie company.
A certian spec 4 was showing off with the private he was paired off with, He decided to teach the younger of the two how to charge an m-60 and ready it for fire.
Needless to say he did not do it right and discharged a round with the weapon
pointed right at charlie company. and for his trouble he was given an e-tool or
for all you not in the know a shovel , and he was told to dig two graves, one for the soldier he could have killed over at charlie co. and one for him for bieng
So careless.
I lost my squad leader the night we moved into Iraq.
We had gone a couple miles past the berm. The Iraquis placed hugh piles of dirt or one long berm along the length of the border. When we entered Iraq
the A.C.E's and engineer Dozers pushed a path thru the berm then we moved thru engageing the targets on the other side.
The column had stopped and the radio sqeeled ( DISABLE THE FRONT DRIVE LIGHTS IN ALL THE VEHICLES) you see there is a little light bulb in front that gives off enough light that we can see each other up close without the enemy
seeing us also. Well it dawned on someone in command that these guys just might have N.V.G. and they could track us. So the command came over the radio to break the bulbs or remove them. Matt was driving and so he placed it in neutral and put the brake on. He leaped out with a screwdriver in hand and he began to try to break the thing out. Then all of a sudden the Truck shook and jumped backward, the crane we used to lift the heavy stuff was in front of us. The operator felt as if he was moving so he threw it in reverse and jumped back pinning matt between it and my 2 1/2 ton truck it pushed us back a good four feet. When he relized what he had done he threw it in 1st and pulled forward. Matt came flying out from the middle of the two vehicles and colapsed on the ground.
I thought he was dead at first, I couldn't get a pulse. And I didn't want to move him for I knew he was royally messed up. I just kept praying out loud for him to be ok. And then what seemed like hours he spoke.
You see matt liked to argue with me about my faith in jesus and alot of times
we had some really long heated debates about the bible. The last one was really intense. And as he lay there in the Iraqui soil he finally spoke.
He said you know Kim I finally understand what you were trying to tell me the other night about the book of 1st John. I whispered back " I'm glad, Dude just hold on the medics are comming". Then the 1st Sgt. showed up and made us get back in our trucks and keep moving. We found out later that Mat would be OK!
and that he was headed for germany. After the cease fire we found out that the commander of charlie co. felt it would be great training for his people to transport matt with the column. You see they never had a real injured subject before. A friend of mine told us he was in such agony that even with morphine he was begging to be left on the side of the road. They finally, after a long day sent him to the rear in a chopper.
I did find him after the war a year or two later. He suffered a broken back, fractured tibia- broken hip and just alot of general trauma to that whole area of his body. He was working on getting better and the best news of all was that he had become a christian. Thank you lord!
Saudi Arabia in December 13, 1990
We get off this plane in the middle of the noonday sun, only about 85 degrees.
Not too bad, unless you are wearing all that cold weather gear. So here we sit on the black top in the middle of nowhere, agian waiting for a ride. We are sitting there for about 3 hours when out of the distance you could see the silhouette of several mid sized buses headed towards us like hornets chased from their nest.
These guys were not in a straight line either, it almost seemed as though they were racing 6 buses side by side in a stagered formation.
These guys were nothing like what I expected, the guy we had driving our bus I think was related to Mario Andrette. We were all over the road and everywhere else too.
We get to the first staging area where we will wait for all our equipment, tanks and wheeled vehicles. The advanced party did all the hard work puttin up all the tents and building the shitters we really had a pretty good time there, playing foot ball, and horse shoes just like a regular picinic. Well up until the latrines started overflowing, then it got stinky the flies were everywhere pretty nasty let me tell you.
Our equipment started flowing into the port, so it begain to be business as usuall. Late nights and early mournings. The food was not too bad, at least it was hot. We had almost no contact with the local population except during meal times the locals would come in and feed us.
they would bring in these hugh ice chests filled with scramble eggs, sausage patties, and pancakes. the eggs were a nice shade of green so I think if we had any veg heads with us they got their fill.
Soon it was time to move to a place we would call home for 4-5 months. The Army called it Thompson the rest of us just didn't care. It was no place really just a grid square on the map. One of many to be sure.
The A.C.E. came in and with blade down cut a trench around our perimeter in about a half an hour, with one big pit in the middle for all our trash.
it was one big circle with all of our trucks spred out within the middle. with three major guard points manned 24-7. The tents GP med's 15 or so went up in about an hour.
My section or squad would have a lot of work to do over the comming months
so we got down to setting up shop. you see we supported 7/6 and 6/6 infintry they had alot of bradly fighting vehicles - 35 armor who had alot M1-A1- A2 Abrahms tanks-air defense arti crews with stinger mistles mounted on hummers-field artillary unit with M109 Paladins and 105 Howitzer tow behinds.
Our company was made up of 4 parts,
HHC or headquarters
Alpha was and supply.
Bravo was the mechanics.
Charlie was the medical unit.
I want to tell you about the people who made up our unit. Following is a grouping of incidents that happened while we waited for the ground war to start.
Mostly at first alot of the stuff that happened to us was chaulked up to inexperiance. Then there was the stuff we placed in the I had my head up my ass syndrome. I will leave the names out for the most part for the people who did these things had already been punished at the time.
Fighting possition #3 this pointed toward charlie company.
A certian spec 4 was showing off with the private he was paired off with, He decided to teach the younger of the two how to charge an m-60 and ready it for fire.
Needless to say he did not do it right and discharged a round with the weapon
pointed right at charlie company. and for his trouble he was given an e-tool or
for all you not in the know a shovel , and he was told to dig two graves, one for the soldier he could have killed over at charlie co. and one for him for bieng
So careless.
I lost my squad leader the night we moved into Iraq.
We had gone a couple miles past the berm. The Iraquis placed hugh piles of dirt or one long berm along the length of the border. When we entered Iraq
the A.C.E's and engineer Dozers pushed a path thru the berm then we moved thru engageing the targets on the other side.
The column had stopped and the radio sqeeled ( DISABLE THE FRONT DRIVE LIGHTS IN ALL THE VEHICLES) you see there is a little light bulb in front that gives off enough light that we can see each other up close without the enemy
seeing us also. Well it dawned on someone in command that these guys just might have N.V.G. and they could track us. So the command came over the radio to break the bulbs or remove them. Matt was driving and so he placed it in neutral and put the brake on. He leaped out with a screwdriver in hand and he began to try to break the thing out. Then all of a sudden the Truck shook and jumped backward, the crane we used to lift the heavy stuff was in front of us. The operator felt as if he was moving so he threw it in reverse and jumped back pinning matt between it and my 2 1/2 ton truck it pushed us back a good four feet. When he relized what he had done he threw it in 1st and pulled forward. Matt came flying out from the middle of the two vehicles and colapsed on the ground.
I thought he was dead at first, I couldn't get a pulse. And I didn't want to move him for I knew he was royally messed up. I just kept praying out loud for him to be ok. And then what seemed like hours he spoke.
You see matt liked to argue with me about my faith in jesus and alot of times
we had some really long heated debates about the bible. The last one was really intense. And as he lay there in the Iraqui soil he finally spoke.
He said you know Kim I finally understand what you were trying to tell me the other night about the book of 1st John. I whispered back " I'm glad, Dude just hold on the medics are comming". Then the 1st Sgt. showed up and made us get back in our trucks and keep moving. We found out later that Mat would be OK!
and that he was headed for germany. After the cease fire we found out that the commander of charlie co. felt it would be great training for his people to transport matt with the column. You see they never had a real injured subject before. A friend of mine told us he was in such agony that even with morphine he was begging to be left on the side of the road. They finally, after a long day sent him to the rear in a chopper.
I did find him after the war a year or two later. He suffered a broken back, fractured tibia- broken hip and just alot of general trauma to that whole area of his body. He was working on getting better and the best news of all was that he had become a christian. Thank you lord!
Thursday, August 28, 2003
FORWARD
I wanted to dedicate this blog to the men and woman of our armed forces and those I served with in the
125 Forward support battalion
and in honor of my good friend Mathew Badeau who sustained life threatning injuries the night we crossed over the border from Saudi to Iraq.
Please let me first introduce myself: Spec. Kim K. Paulsen, US Army Retired. I served 8 years in the army from 1988-1996. My first two years I was a weekend warrior, just happy to wear the uniform and be all I could be.
Boooom!!! The invasion of Kawait was plastered all over the pages of the local news, the Clinton News Network (CNN), of course, and the debate was on!
Should we go? What should we do? How much should we take on? With who?
and so on, etc....
I was so tired of hearing all the liberals argue points of view that they had no clue about, I wanted to find out for myself. So I decided to go and ask the company commander how would I go about signing up to go see first hand what was going on there.
A resounding, "not a chance in hell Specialist." echoed in my ears for at least an hour. Of course, I just had to insist on why? You should have seen the look on his Hawaiian, local boy, macho injected attitude. I just picked a fight with a brand new US-Army Ranger, fresh from the mainland. "Pick a fight?" you ask. Yes, anytime, as a soldier, you question the reply of your Company Commander, you better be prepared for a fight. So, I took the traditional ass chewing, and after being dismissed made an about face and went back to the motorpool. "Ouch!," I thought as I sat down next to the CO's hummer Bravo6. Then my good ol' bud, Sgt. Smith, from supply walked over and asked how things were going. Had he heard about happened already?! Woohee, that's fast, and actually the whole Company already knew.
Well, after the traditional, "you dumb ass!" comments had subsided I was determined to win, and set about the task of finding out any and all info that would get me out of Hawaii and transport me to that garden spot we all know as Southwest Asia. Well, after a few failed attempts at the First Sgt. My ol' buddy Smith had the answer for me, quit the 411th on a ninety day letter and find a unit that would let me go active duty. So, after careful review of the regulations, I drafted the letter and presented it to the CO. Let's just say I won't be getting Christmas cards from this guy, ever!
I quit my job at the prestigious Embassy Suites Hotel, and gave my recently seperated wife the divorce papers, and caught a MAC flight to California. I stepped into the recruiters office in my home town of sunny San Diego, with a huge smile and an attitude to boot. The Master Sgt. behind the desk was nice enough and asked, "Just how may I help you, young man?" After the story telling was over, he leaned back in his cheap US Gov. office chair and grinned from ear to ear. "Let's see what we can do for you specialist."
The next thing I knew, I was aboard a flight to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and active duty service. I got off the bus there at the reception station in my class A dress uniform, with a renewed purpose in life. Anticipating the moment when I could ask to serve in the Gulf. Yes, I was about to commit the biggest taboo that most old soldiers warn about. I was trying to volunteer! After a couple of days the time came for the unit assignments to be given out. So I popped the question. The clerk looked up and without skipping a beat said "NO! You Get what you get when you get it." After that little pause, that uncomfortable peace between two people, the clerk said, "If it is the Gulf you want to go to, I can tell you this, everyone right now is going to be assigned to the 1st. AD. in Germany. When you get to 21st replacment you can ask them."
Frankfurt, Germany Sept. 1990 was cold. The bus for the new arrivels was late so we had a little time to stroll around the airport and get our sealegs after that 9 hour flight, a well needed stretch, let me tell you. The ride to 21st replacment
was short and sweet. I was eager to ask the same question, "where do I sign so I can go?" And agian the word was, NO! But, you are going to the 1st AD, and the word is they are headed there in a month. Cool! I was headed down the autobahn at about 90 mph thinking how cool, there is a GOD in heaven. This, I already knew though. I had been a Christian for about 4 years and I was asking daily for this to work out.
Bamberg, Germany Sept 1990.
There I was standing in front of the headquarters building 125th FSB 1st AD,
waiting for a bravo company Sgt. to pick me up and take me to my unit.
On the way there, he told me we had our movement orders to go to Iraq, and we would be loading our equipment on the ship and rail cars soon. I was as happy as any soldier could be, getting the assignment of a lifetime- Combat!
I will leave out most of the boring stuff involved in shipping out with your unit to the battlefield, but suffice to say everyone, so far, in the unit was pretty cool.
Well, the day came for us to (POM) prepare for overseas movment. You make sure your will is done and your teeth are good, you get a whole bunch of shots 12 to be exact. After my impression of a pin cussion was over, I handed the nurse behind the counter my shot record and asked her to please place the shots I just recieved inside in black and white, so I don't have to get them again.
She smiled and said "I Can't. We have no clue what half of these shots are."
"Great," I said sarcasticly and reluctantly walked away. Hey, it was too late anyway, even if I did object. I was injected already.
I had already been active for about 2 months now and still had not seen a pay check. I'm told to just be patient. It will go through. So, here we are in about 1 foot of snow and ice, waiting to load up the buses for the airport, full gear, pack, weapons, and gas mask, Kevelar , full cold weather gear and 2, full to the brim, duffle bags. On the ride to the airport, I sweat my butt off. I couldn't worry about that now. It was for sure we would not see a shower for at least a week. The flight was as quiet as a church. I think it finally sank in to most that we could all soon die for our country. But yet, no one said a word about it the whole trip. They told us it was a six or seven hour flight, though it felt alot longer than that. We were kept on that plane due to a problem with some other country and us flying through their airspace. We sat on the runway in Greece for about 4 hours.
The flight crew was great. They all tried to make us feel comfortable. I overheard two of the flight attendants talking about the fact that we were probably flying off to our deaths and it made her feel sad. I was glad no one else appeared to have heard her. One of the male attendants was telling jokes and most of the guys were laughing pretty hard. I don't think there is a moment in this whole ordeal I could ever forget.
It was a somber feeling the whole way, up until sunlight crept in from the desert nation of Saudi Arabia, shinning through the little windows in that 747.
We could see the sand, oh the sand, everywhere we looked there was sand.
After we said our good-byes with the flight crew, some of us even caught a good hug from those pretty ladies, down the ladder and on the tarmack of King Fahd Royal Airport we went.
STAY TUNED IN FOR CHAPTER 2
(ARRIVAL IN SAUDI ARABIA)
I wanted to dedicate this blog to the men and woman of our armed forces and those I served with in the
125 Forward support battalion
and in honor of my good friend Mathew Badeau who sustained life threatning injuries the night we crossed over the border from Saudi to Iraq.
Please let me first introduce myself: Spec. Kim K. Paulsen, US Army Retired. I served 8 years in the army from 1988-1996. My first two years I was a weekend warrior, just happy to wear the uniform and be all I could be.
Boooom!!! The invasion of Kawait was plastered all over the pages of the local news, the Clinton News Network (CNN), of course, and the debate was on!
Should we go? What should we do? How much should we take on? With who?
and so on, etc....
I was so tired of hearing all the liberals argue points of view that they had no clue about, I wanted to find out for myself. So I decided to go and ask the company commander how would I go about signing up to go see first hand what was going on there.
A resounding, "not a chance in hell Specialist." echoed in my ears for at least an hour. Of course, I just had to insist on why? You should have seen the look on his Hawaiian, local boy, macho injected attitude. I just picked a fight with a brand new US-Army Ranger, fresh from the mainland. "Pick a fight?" you ask. Yes, anytime, as a soldier, you question the reply of your Company Commander, you better be prepared for a fight. So, I took the traditional ass chewing, and after being dismissed made an about face and went back to the motorpool. "Ouch!," I thought as I sat down next to the CO's hummer Bravo6. Then my good ol' bud, Sgt. Smith, from supply walked over and asked how things were going. Had he heard about happened already?! Woohee, that's fast, and actually the whole Company already knew.
Well, after the traditional, "you dumb ass!" comments had subsided I was determined to win, and set about the task of finding out any and all info that would get me out of Hawaii and transport me to that garden spot we all know as Southwest Asia. Well, after a few failed attempts at the First Sgt. My ol' buddy Smith had the answer for me, quit the 411th on a ninety day letter and find a unit that would let me go active duty. So, after careful review of the regulations, I drafted the letter and presented it to the CO. Let's just say I won't be getting Christmas cards from this guy, ever!
I quit my job at the prestigious Embassy Suites Hotel, and gave my recently seperated wife the divorce papers, and caught a MAC flight to California. I stepped into the recruiters office in my home town of sunny San Diego, with a huge smile and an attitude to boot. The Master Sgt. behind the desk was nice enough and asked, "Just how may I help you, young man?" After the story telling was over, he leaned back in his cheap US Gov. office chair and grinned from ear to ear. "Let's see what we can do for you specialist."
The next thing I knew, I was aboard a flight to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and active duty service. I got off the bus there at the reception station in my class A dress uniform, with a renewed purpose in life. Anticipating the moment when I could ask to serve in the Gulf. Yes, I was about to commit the biggest taboo that most old soldiers warn about. I was trying to volunteer! After a couple of days the time came for the unit assignments to be given out. So I popped the question. The clerk looked up and without skipping a beat said "NO! You Get what you get when you get it." After that little pause, that uncomfortable peace between two people, the clerk said, "If it is the Gulf you want to go to, I can tell you this, everyone right now is going to be assigned to the 1st. AD. in Germany. When you get to 21st replacment you can ask them."
Frankfurt, Germany Sept. 1990 was cold. The bus for the new arrivels was late so we had a little time to stroll around the airport and get our sealegs after that 9 hour flight, a well needed stretch, let me tell you. The ride to 21st replacment
was short and sweet. I was eager to ask the same question, "where do I sign so I can go?" And agian the word was, NO! But, you are going to the 1st AD, and the word is they are headed there in a month. Cool! I was headed down the autobahn at about 90 mph thinking how cool, there is a GOD in heaven. This, I already knew though. I had been a Christian for about 4 years and I was asking daily for this to work out.
Bamberg, Germany Sept 1990.
There I was standing in front of the headquarters building 125th FSB 1st AD,
waiting for a bravo company Sgt. to pick me up and take me to my unit.
On the way there, he told me we had our movement orders to go to Iraq, and we would be loading our equipment on the ship and rail cars soon. I was as happy as any soldier could be, getting the assignment of a lifetime- Combat!
I will leave out most of the boring stuff involved in shipping out with your unit to the battlefield, but suffice to say everyone, so far, in the unit was pretty cool.
Well, the day came for us to (POM) prepare for overseas movment. You make sure your will is done and your teeth are good, you get a whole bunch of shots 12 to be exact. After my impression of a pin cussion was over, I handed the nurse behind the counter my shot record and asked her to please place the shots I just recieved inside in black and white, so I don't have to get them again.
She smiled and said "I Can't. We have no clue what half of these shots are."
"Great," I said sarcasticly and reluctantly walked away. Hey, it was too late anyway, even if I did object. I was injected already.
I had already been active for about 2 months now and still had not seen a pay check. I'm told to just be patient. It will go through. So, here we are in about 1 foot of snow and ice, waiting to load up the buses for the airport, full gear, pack, weapons, and gas mask, Kevelar , full cold weather gear and 2, full to the brim, duffle bags. On the ride to the airport, I sweat my butt off. I couldn't worry about that now. It was for sure we would not see a shower for at least a week. The flight was as quiet as a church. I think it finally sank in to most that we could all soon die for our country. But yet, no one said a word about it the whole trip. They told us it was a six or seven hour flight, though it felt alot longer than that. We were kept on that plane due to a problem with some other country and us flying through their airspace. We sat on the runway in Greece for about 4 hours.
The flight crew was great. They all tried to make us feel comfortable. I overheard two of the flight attendants talking about the fact that we were probably flying off to our deaths and it made her feel sad. I was glad no one else appeared to have heard her. One of the male attendants was telling jokes and most of the guys were laughing pretty hard. I don't think there is a moment in this whole ordeal I could ever forget.
It was a somber feeling the whole way, up until sunlight crept in from the desert nation of Saudi Arabia, shinning through the little windows in that 747.
We could see the sand, oh the sand, everywhere we looked there was sand.
After we said our good-byes with the flight crew, some of us even caught a good hug from those pretty ladies, down the ladder and on the tarmack of King Fahd Royal Airport we went.
STAY TUNED IN FOR CHAPTER 2
(ARRIVAL IN SAUDI ARABIA)
