My Life As a Desert Rat

From November 1990 to April 1991 I was deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.  I was with the 2-33 Armor, 3rd Armored Division.  I served as a medic in the Medical Section of my battalion's headquarters company.  Our job was to provide daily medical care to the men of the battalion and to provide emergency care for the wounded until they could be evacuated to a medical facility.  During the ground war my fellow medics and I rode in an armored personel carrier behind the combat vehicles and responded to and evacuated any wounded.  Luckily there were not all that many.  Most of my patients during the conflict were surrendering Iraqi POW's.

Preparing to leave Germany.

Arriving and unpacking in Saudi Arabia as part of the advance group.

Our temporary housing at the at the port facilities.  We had to wait for our heavy equipment and vehicles to arrive by ship from Germany.

The triage area of the brigade field hospital.  A mobile medical unit, this is where the wounded we evacuated would go for treatment.

A traffic Jam in a slight sandstorm as we geared up to leave our temporary housing and move to our Forward Assembly Area.

Our Forward Assembly Area deep into the desert.  In the middle of nowhere it was a hastily built area with few amenities.  Here would assemble the division and continue our training for upcoming ground operations.

An air defense vehicle protecting our encampment.  We never saw a single Iraqi aircraft.  Apparently most of them flew away to Iran.

Our tents.  Home sweet home....notice the laundry strung up.  We had yet to paint the vehicles desert brown.  That would come as the air war started.

One of the battalion's M-1 Abrams tanks practicing gunnery outside our FAA.

Our battalion's Saudi Liaison Officer celebrating Ramadan.  He was a police official of some sort.

Preparing to move out for the ground war.

The retreating Iraqis set fire to oil wells in Kuwait.  The dark smoke turned daylight into an odd twilight.

Some Chinook helicopters.  We were advancing so quickly that sometimes our supply train had trouble keeping up.  These helicopters would bring up emergency supplies or evacuate wounded to hospitals.

Literally tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered.  Entire units were surrendering en masse.  They were poorly equipped, had little food or water and only wanted to go home.   Most of the people I treated for wounds were these POW's.

A destroyed T-72 tank.  The crew of this one tried to shield it by burying it in the sand...to no avail.  The few Iraqi units that stood and fought were quickly wiped out.   Most of the heavy fighting we saw came near the very end of the ground war.  We came up against the 9th Brigade of the Tawakalna Division of the Republican Guard.  It was a one sided fight.  In a matter of hours they ceased to exist as a cohesive unit with the survivors literally fleeing for their lives.  My battalion suffered only one soldier killed and seven wounded.

A female MP assigned to our battalion for security and POW control stands by a road sign in Kuwait.  This was on the last morning of the war shortly before the official cease fire.  Notice the relaxed attitude...by this point there was no organized opposition al all.  The remaining Iraqi forces were in full flight back toward their homeland.