understand. This was one of the scariest times during my stay overseas. In my
group (we were on the last flight of the three that carried my company) there
were twelve of us. We had no idea where we were being taken. We only hoped
that we would rejoin our company. We were brought to the apartment buildings
that had been named Kobar Towers. There were (I guess) somewhere around 25
seven- or eight-story apartment buildings that had been built for the Saudi
Bedouins. We were told that they would not live in them because of their
belief that if someone lived above them, it meant they were better than them.
There we met up with our company and were told where home would be for the next
few weeks. The weeks we spent
here were quite hectic. Because of the concentration of American troops, it
was a major target for SCUD Missiles. Luckily, all of the ones heading our
direction were either shot down by Patriot Missiles or they missed. One thing
I have yet to figure out is that during our stay at Kobar Towers, we moved
three times. Each move was to either a different floor in the same building or
to a building just across from the previous. I guess the army had its reasons,
I just can't figure that one out.
We would load up other companies on the buses and convoy with their equipment
out to their field sites. All of these missions required us to drive on the
stretch of pavement that the media had named "Tap Line Road." We had another
name for it. Since it was not really wide enough to be considered a road, and
considering the number of deaths that occurred on it, we gave it the name
"Suicide Alley." This was much more suitable.
with missions. I traveled a good portion of North Saudi Arabia. One of the
main roads we traveled ran East / West about 25 miles South of Iraq. Planes
and helicopters also traveled this road....anywhere from a couple hundred to
about 20 feet (or less) off the ground! It seemed that our trucks were in high
demand. Upon the onset of the ground war we were hauling supplies of every
imaginable kind to places all over the country. We didn't seem to have enough
trucks to go around. Then, after the ground war ended so quickly, there was a
lull in our missions. All of the units had brought plenty of supplies to last
them for several days of heavy combat. With the combat being relatively light
and only lasting three days, they had supplies to last for much longer. The
lull was short-lived, though. The number of Enemy Prisoners of War (EPWs) was
more than expected. For the next several weeks every one of our cargo trucks
(and sometimes the tractor trailers) were going up into Iraq and bringing a
load of Iraqi EPWs back to Saudi. Our trucks once again came into high demand.
On every mission that I went on (just about every day) someone from another
company, usually "representing a General" would try to "commandeer" me and my
vehicle for their own use. I came up with the line, "I'm under orders not to
be commandeered." Amazingly that seemed to satisfy them. The steady stream of
EPWs slowly stemmed down to nothing and the missions once again slowed.
(BTW--These camps were built by the 527
th
Combat Engineering Batallion, also a National Guard Unit from Louisiana).
This mission was the last for us. Upon returning to our base camp at Log Base
Echo, we received word that we were returning home. We promptly moved out of
the desert to King Fahd's International Airport. We stayed there in a parking
garage for a few days before boarding a 747. After refuelling stops in Italy
and New York City, we touched down back at England Air Force Base. We were
home at last.
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