Any Gulf War 1 Vets Out There?

[Spock]

If you don't know already here are some good starting point:
In the Media section watch "You're Not in the Forces Now" it may be long but it is excellent!
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[abnvet]

I was with the 82nd ABN during Gulf1. HOOAH!

 

[reddevil1111]

2nd Marine Division I was attached to Recon doing humit intel during the 1st gulf war. Funny as I don't speak Farsi or anything so I had to rely on another guy to do translations. Kinda slap stick way to do an interrogation in the field. I remember parts of it like it was yesterday. Things like the sand getting everywhere. Half burned bodies. the flies. the stink/stench. I don't miss it at all.

 

[super-dave]

There were so many crispy criters everywhere. I remember setting up and being in a hide for 3 days underneath a burnt out t64. The driver was half hanging out the hatch crispy as bacon. The Conner tried to get out and half his body was hanging out of the turret. His helmet was on the ground near by. The top part of his skull and his brains was in the helmet. I guess his head popped of or exploded. Anyway it was a good spot to have a hide.

 

[Anglesachse]

Sorry to piss on the parade guys, but can we keep the details of casualties out of open threads.

I don`t need my head playing up again, especialy as I have gotten into a reasonably good sleep pattern of late.

 

[Ned]

Morning Dave, agree with Angle, although hearing 'Crispy Critters' again took me back.
Brit, NI & Gulf 1 & Bosnia and a few other little arguments.
Mate I think the delay in the symptoms is about average, I think Combat Stress reckon 14 years to onset is typical.

 

[steviebeegee]

personally i think there was one hell of a difference between the 1st gulf war and the second
the first being the threat of biological and chemical warfair having all those injections prior deployment and more when we got over there. i served with the rhf who responsible for building the pow camp. a rather heavy bergen with chemical suits, respirator always close by, ammo, rations which being brit were crap. scuds going off all over the place, tempormental chemical monitors, being woken up gas, gas, gas panic stricken to get the respirator on asap and putting on chemical suits. it was relentless and on several or mostly false alarms which took a while for the adrenaline to calm down. the land war and the liberation of kuwait. heading up the devils highway so many civilians caught up in the fire fight, burning bodies limbs scattered all over the place.
on a more serious note i think is saddam had chemicals there would have been a hell of alot more casualties because the theory was there how to survive but i dont beleive for one moment we could have survived. even buddy buddy senario who was going to break the seal of respirator then put it back on while your buddy was standing ready with his combo pen incase you took on the chemical symptoms.
the whole thing left me quite cynical about the war and the chemicals which he was supposed to have had didnt. then on route to bahgdad saddam announces a cease fire. why did we take him on why didnt we just go and get the job done only to be there a decade later.

 

[Ned]

Yep. I remember the halt order on the Basra road. Never understood that.

 

[Sarg]

In Nam, they didn't say a damn thing about chem warfare, they just exposed us to it and "screw you, idiot". I knew we were using some pretty nasty shit. We would get a pallet of 55 gal drums and we would get this crap splashed all over us, plus breathe the vapors all the way to the destination.

It was in the air, water, earth, everywhere. The Vietnamese are still suffering child deformities even today.

Nasty stuff

Sarg

 

[reddevil1111]

Thre habit of sleeping in the heat with a gas mask on was something else. We slept in them as there is no way you can wake up and suit up in time. The least popular guy was the one who had to unmask and "test" the air to see if it was safe for everyone else to breathe. I remember trying to drink water from my gas mask and the straw failing and filling my mask with water. Funny but not at the time. And we thought Brit rations were better than the 12 freeze dried crappy rations we had. French were the bomb as a small bottle of wine came with them.

 

[JarHed]

The NVA used tear gas. I carried a gas mask the entire time I was there. People laughed at me till we got gassed and I was the only one that had one. Can't imagine having to sleep in one, just the thought make me claustrophobic.

 

[steviebeegee]

i fired the law 90 standing with one on and still hit the tank 300 metres only practise. but to fight with a respirator and chemical suit in the gulf i dont i would have lasted long