European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday october 18, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 3crisis in the gulf24th inf unit last in line for comforts Quot is on in or \ it it a Quot so ? ?>?.�?� or a / so. I it. Quot .1.a a a my Mem Ltd it ?&Quot s a amps Ron jon3on a 24th inf div Soldier sprays his armoured vehicle during a decontamination exercise in saudi Arabia. By Vince Crawley staff writer with the 24th inf div saudi Arabia a if they gave out awards for the roughest desert duty the soldiers of the 2nd so 4th Cav regt would be finalists. The 24th inf div Mech troopers spent 40 Days and nights guarding a saudi Oil pipeline before being pulled Back from their Forward fighting positions late last week. They did no to have a base Camp to go to. Instead they be been told to build one. Their newspapers arrive a week late and a division postal tent recently burned up destroying several sacks of mail. So gis from the 24th inf div based at fort Stewart ga., Are Reading singed letters. Luckily most of the larger packages survived but the troops can to help joking a Little grimly that its not Worth writing letters now that they get burned up anyway. The cavalry troops lived inside their Bradley armoured vehicles and ate Only Field rations for 30 Days straight. They re now getting some to rations which Are sort of army style to dinners. But Kitchen cooked meals or a rations Are yet to come. They done to get armed forces radio broadcasts and if you re one of the desert shield gis with an air conditioned tent or Barracks they done to even want to talk to you. One group of the cavalry men oddly enough did have an electric window fan. Nowhere to plug it in though and someone said it was busted anyhow. A a no base Camp. No pm. No females a said sgt. Maurice Alexander 29, of Atoka Tenn. Others told the same Story. A with us living up Here at the front the units in the rear tend to get a few More creature comforts a said sgt. Michael Acosta 22, from Lumberton Texas. A a in be heard sometime in the future Well get a rations a Acosta said. A the Day before we leave a predicted spec. Phillip Matthews 23, of Wynnewood okla. Pfc. Collier Cahee was resigned to life at the american front line. A was Long As we re out Here a said the 20-year-old scout from Lake Charles la., a we wont have phones our mail will always be slow Well have the last of everything. Anything we get we got to get it ourselves because they those in the rear ainu to Gonna give it unlike other desert shield soldiers the troops of the 24th Arentt talking about being Home for the holidays. A a in la turn 30 out in the desert a said staff sgt. Evan Bush a flight operations sergeant from Fayetteville . A a that a in january. We All gave up going Home by Many soldiers Are assuming their desert tour will in fact last a year or More. A if we done to get Back until �?T92, that a be a lot of Money in your pocket a one Soldier pointed out. They All agreed that they were saving Money. Many Are talking about buying new cars when they get Back to the United states. But no one laughed at the idea about staying in saudi Arabia until 1992. Sgt. Wayne Moody started a Short timers Calendar on aug. 26, the Day he flew out of Hunter army air Field a. Its one of those laminated Wallet calendars that insurance companies give out and Moody a been punching one Hole in it for every Day he a been Here. A the Way people Are talking i might need two or three More of these a Moody said after notching his 48th Hole. The 24-year-old from Kinston ., has other souvenirs from his time in saudi Arabia. So far the army scout has collected five different water bottle labels an empty pack of English cigarettes an arabic Nacho cheese dip package and bag of Peanut a amp a Candy and an import sticker from a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He keeps his Little treasures sealed inside a san proof Freezer bag. He also has three arabic soda cans that he a Cut with his Swiss army knife so that Roll out Flat onto the pages of a scrapbook he plans to put together. Spec. James Lacey said he a surviving with radio and a pocket size Nintendo game boy video toy that came in the mail. A a in a Gonna turn 21 out Here and wont get no Beer a said Lacey a flight Ops Soldier from Paris Tenn. A a we re out Here for How Ever Long it takes a he said. The radio had survived the postal tent fire and had just arrived in the Days mail. He listens to voice of America broadcasts and is in Range of radio Baghdad and the veiled threats of Baghdad Betty who talks about How americans will be swallowed by the dunes and How their girlfriends Are fooling around Back theme music is from the old a dating games television show. A they done to scare us a Lacey said of radio Baghdad a threats. But he added the music a pretty Good. A was Long As everybody a behind us Back Home we re of Here a Lacey said. A and we re still thinking of All the hostages still in spec. Jason Ernst a Forward observer said he understands Why commanders Are hesitant to Tell gis How Long be Over Here. A if you Tell a Bunch of troops they re going Home in sue months and War Breaks out in four. You can to do that a Ernst said. A a in a confident get us Home As Quick As Ernst is 24 and comes from Santa Barbara Calif. Like the others head been out at a fighting position for More than a month guarding the Flat empty Sand. A the worst thing about it a he said a is it looks like you re the Only one out Over in troop a a 2nd platoon the cavalry scouts had just spent their first night in a tent after More than a month in the desert. They a heard about the possibility of Uso shows and were wondering if Veteran troop entertainer Bob Hope might show up at their desert base. They talked awhile longer trying to remember the names of some of the women who travel in Bob Hopes entourage. Then the verdict was reached that Hopes shows always seem to be aboard ships not at the front. Cahee finally decided that like so Many other things the cavalry troop would probably never see the not fiction Gussy up a morale Sag. It is a service that other longer serving soldiers interviewed in the desert Haven to mentioned to correspondents. Another advantage is the weather. Saudi Arabia is beginning its bal Miest clearest season of the year. The Bone bleaching 115-degree temperatures of August have Given Way to the Low and mid-90s. The fearsome Shamal dust storms that began in Early september have begun to diminish As the North winds die Down. The arrival of the 1st Cav adds about 320 tanks and 16,000 troops to the american and Allied ground forces strewn across the Sands of Northern saudi Arabia. In addition the imminent unloading of the 3rd army Cav regt from fort Bliss Texas will add More than 100 More main Battle tanks. _ next off the ships after them will be the 120 British tanks from the famed a desert rats brigade. Together the american and British tank units will roughly double the Allied armoured strength by Early november thus making an american led offensive sound feasible. For 1st Cav troops fast mail is by Joseph Albright Cox news service with the 1st Cav div saudi Arabia pfc. Matthew Knippa was re Reading a fax he had received from his Girlfriend Back Home in Austin Texas. Times change. The troops of the 1st Cav did no to get letters by fax machines when Gen. George Custer led them into the Battle of Little big Horn in 1876. The 1st Cav did no to get faxes when Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur sent them As a a flying column through 100 Miles of japanese territory to capture the presidential Palace in the Philippines in 1945. They were equally fax less in 1970, when Gen. William Westmoreland hurled them against Viet Cong base Camps in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. But when they hit the docks and airfields of saudi Arabia in 1990, the troops of the 1st Cav from fort Hood Texas entered the age of electronic morale building. Around the Start of october the 20-year-old Knippa said goodbye to his sweetheart Jennifer Howes 18. A few Days later a chartered jumbo Jet dumped him off on the worlds loneliest crowded Airfield. It Wasny to Many More Days before Knippa was startled to hear his name at a 1st Cav mail Call. A letter addressed to him bore the words a at amp to desert fax up in the upper left Comer. Inside was a three Page Handwritten letter from Howes. A it makes it 100 percent better being Over Here a said Knippa As he waited for his 1st Cav units Field artillery guns to Roll out of the belly of the Navy transport ship Bellatrix. A i was not expecting any mail Tor three he said that in the 10 Days he a been in saudi Arabia he has received two letters that Howe sent by using an at amp to fax phone at the Highland mall. As the 1st Cav is finding out there Are advantages to being in the last wave of . Troop units scheduled to reach saudi shores. One of the pluses is desert fax a the fast mail service established in mid september to
