Desert Storm - 31 years ago today

At that point, I had been there for months and I had spent the whole time thinking about how much I did not want to fight the desert in MOPP 4.

I do remember right around this time I was looking around my company and thought how it was like a group of kids getting ready to go ride the biggest roller coaster they had ever seen. The mix of false bravado, excitement, dread, and anticipation was palpable.

Almost my entire platoon was with me in Panama so they knew what it was like to be shot at but this was a different ballgame, or so we thought.

I had discussions almost daily with others about how we had joined the "peacetime Army" and this was the second time in barely over a year we were going downrange hot.

I was aboard the USS Okinawa with HMM-164(C) getting mission briefed.

<———OEF x 2

21B Hooah!!!

Armor lead the way!! Desert Storm

quote:

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I was in Panama in ‘88

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I was just there for a couple of weeks over the Christmas/New Year holidays in 89/90. Went down for a little "meet and greet" with Noriega's boys. Got my mustard stain and headed back to Bragg. They made us jump out of the plane onto Sicily when we got back. Normally I liked jumping out of planes but I figured they would let us land like normal humans when we got back, but no. It was cool though there were thousands of people waiting on us and our family and friends brought Christmas gifts. Kinda surreal actually.

Friends in SoCal who went to Polk before being shipped to Vietnam hated that place and were almost glad to be sent to Vietnam

Cool stories

My buddy's son must be about 31 then.

He knocked up some old broad that was trolling the bars when her husband was off fighting for our country, they had to get the soldier home to sign a divorce so she could marry the baby daddy before the kid was born.

The new husband (my trashy friend) and his bride had a wedding picture on their mantel showing her in a red dress with what looked like a watermelon in her belly

Of course they were divorced also within a few years and she was back trolling the bars.

I was too young when my dad left but I remember the homecoming vividly. He served in the marine corps and was a crew chief/door gunner on an Hmm-263 helicopter. When they came home we were at camp lejeune standing in a hanger. As far right and as far left I could see were blue skies dotted with helicopters. Probably my earliest memory and one of the coolest events of my life. It was short lived bc dad got in route to Somalia not too long after that.

Thank you for your service in responding to the false flag in Kuwait.

I was sitting somewhere in Northeast Saudi Arabia with Wpns Co. 3/23 from Baton Rouge(3/23 was known as the “Lost Battalion”)....we were attached to the 8th Regiment based out of Camp Lejeune. We heard the bombings going on nightly for weeks before the ground war started on 2/24. We steadily kept moving north til we got to the berm that separated Saudi and Kuwait.

Lots of vivid memories from the whole time there. Wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. Lifelong friends and brothers were formed from that time. We still get together a few times a year and have a large group text with about 20 guys and we shoot the shite damn near daily.

Link to an old article about our battalion

LINK.