Happy New Year. We have reached 2020. I look at that date and I'm a bit incredulous. Thirty years ago this day I was in the Persian gulf as a part of an operation codenamed Operation Desert Shield/ Desert Storm. In a shadow box on my bedroom wall hangs the medals I have to show my participation. Yes, my ship left Earl New Jersey just before Thanksgiving 1990 and I was in the gulf for all the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I returned to Earl New Jersey just before the fourth of July. I remember that well, my wife and children where on the pier waiting. I still have the little yellow banners that were being waved by everyone. The name of the ship was the USS Nitro AE-23, nicknamed the Duke of Earl, from an old song for those of us old enough to remember that. Doesn't seem possible it has been that many years. That ship has long since been decommissioned and cut into scrap. She met her fate in a scrapyard in Texas.
I remember not being very pleased when we received the word to ship out. All our plans for the holidays where now thrown in the trash. Load up the ship for an extended voyage boys, anchors aweigh! No, it wasn't like anything you may have seen in the movies. We weren't bustling about anxious to get in the fight! No, I never heard one person say anything like that, all I heard was complaints. I admit I was among those complaining. You know it's a lot more fun being a hero after the mission is done and you are back home safely. At the time, it was just a job to be done, I had signed up and was obligated to fulfill that contract. I didn't really care that Hussein had annexed Kuwait. Fact is, I didn't know anything about any of that beyond they were fighting about oil. But we were being sent over there to remove Hussein from Kuwait, which we did, quite expeditiously, employing what was called shock and awe! I watched from a safe distance as the Nitros' mission was to supply fuel and ammo. It was shock and awe in the night sky on the horizon. Still there weren't any great cheers or anything like that going onboard the Nitro. It was mostly just boredom, refuel and resupply the other ships. Operations, as they are called, almost twenty four hours a day, day after day.
Looking back though gives you perspective. War and the fighting of it is a young mans game. I believe that is so because it does require a sense of impartiality and a certain naivety. I didn't really care about Kuwait or Iraq. I was impartial in that regard. Naïve? You bet I was not having a clue about the reason we were going there. Yes, I heard that Iraq had invaded Kuwait and was taking over the oil refineries. I understood that meant a lot of money was at stake here. I was around during the big gasoline shortage in the mid 1970's. I got it, we were going to " liberate " Kuwait. But that is about all I knew or understood about the politics of the middle east. I know that not much has been resolved since that time either. Same old thing, same old players for the most part. Just seems to me our response has been far more tempered. but that might change.
So here I am thirty years on and listening to pretty much the same narrative. Of course now the push is to do away with fossil fuel altogether. Guess that will resolve those problems right? No oil, no problems. Well, time will tell. We have sent Marines to defend our embassy where? Iraq. Who is responsible? Is it the country of Iraq or a group of their citizens acting outside of their laws? Who knows. All I know is, shock and awe worked fairly well , at least for a while. Now we have sent one hundred Marines to defend our Embassy. Politics! I say just close the Embassy, get our people out of harms way. 2020 and I'm talking about something that happened thirty years ago and it may as well been yesterday. Progress? I'm not so sure about that.
I remember not being very pleased when we received the word to ship out. All our plans for the holidays where now thrown in the trash. Load up the ship for an extended voyage boys, anchors aweigh! No, it wasn't like anything you may have seen in the movies. We weren't bustling about anxious to get in the fight! No, I never heard one person say anything like that, all I heard was complaints. I admit I was among those complaining. You know it's a lot more fun being a hero after the mission is done and you are back home safely. At the time, it was just a job to be done, I had signed up and was obligated to fulfill that contract. I didn't really care that Hussein had annexed Kuwait. Fact is, I didn't know anything about any of that beyond they were fighting about oil. But we were being sent over there to remove Hussein from Kuwait, which we did, quite expeditiously, employing what was called shock and awe! I watched from a safe distance as the Nitros' mission was to supply fuel and ammo. It was shock and awe in the night sky on the horizon. Still there weren't any great cheers or anything like that going onboard the Nitro. It was mostly just boredom, refuel and resupply the other ships. Operations, as they are called, almost twenty four hours a day, day after day.
Looking back though gives you perspective. War and the fighting of it is a young mans game. I believe that is so because it does require a sense of impartiality and a certain naivety. I didn't really care about Kuwait or Iraq. I was impartial in that regard. Naïve? You bet I was not having a clue about the reason we were going there. Yes, I heard that Iraq had invaded Kuwait and was taking over the oil refineries. I understood that meant a lot of money was at stake here. I was around during the big gasoline shortage in the mid 1970's. I got it, we were going to " liberate " Kuwait. But that is about all I knew or understood about the politics of the middle east. I know that not much has been resolved since that time either. Same old thing, same old players for the most part. Just seems to me our response has been far more tempered. but that might change.
So here I am thirty years on and listening to pretty much the same narrative. Of course now the push is to do away with fossil fuel altogether. Guess that will resolve those problems right? No oil, no problems. Well, time will tell. We have sent Marines to defend our embassy where? Iraq. Who is responsible? Is it the country of Iraq or a group of their citizens acting outside of their laws? Who knows. All I know is, shock and awe worked fairly well , at least for a while. Now we have sent one hundred Marines to defend our Embassy. Politics! I say just close the Embassy, get our people out of harms way. 2020 and I'm talking about something that happened thirty years ago and it may as well been yesterday. Progress? I'm not so sure about that.
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