OFF TO WAR

            

The date was August 2, 1990 and I was with my team doing a mine recovery exercise (MINEX) off the coast of Santa Rosa Island in Southern California.  Around 6:30 pm, while we ate dinner, the news came on saying that Kuwait had been invaded by Iraq.  We all sat there in the galley watching the tanks roll in to Kuwait thinking that it was just like in the movies.  Somebody said something to the effect of "Well, there they go again, another neighborly war." The speculations started flying  fast and furious; and being that we were the next mobile detachment in rotation to deploy, it got worst.  At the time I was attached to EOD Mobile Unit THREE detachment THREE THREE, out of San Diego.  The det included Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jim Alexander, Machinist Mate First Class Bill Woodward, Parachute Rigger Second Class Fred Fleener, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class John Carr, and Gunner’s Mate Guns Third Class Brian Economy.

Some of us did not even know were Kuwait was, so we started searching through the ship's library for a chart or map.  After finding the speck of the country in a National Geographic map we figured that it was too far; some other mobile unit would send their team.  The topic then turned to what kind of terrain, weather and type of ordnance those poor bastards going over would encounter.  This went on until midnight.  In the morning we finished the operation and Kuwait was forgotten until nine days later.

August is a good month for some of us.  Some classmates of mine, who were also stationed at Mobile Unit Three, had birthdays in August with me. Mike J. Bowers, James Edwards and myself  decided to have a big party and celebrate all of them on Saturday the 11^th, at Mike's house.  We had a very nice party with a lot of friends (I don't recall everybody present that day) and the topic of war in the Middle East came up once or twice but nothing too serious. 

Around 2:30 pm my beeper and John's went off and without saying much we looked around and it seemed like every one knew what that meant.  Some of the wives had watery eyes.  We called the command immediately and the XO answered.  We were told to start packing now because we were going to war aboard the USS Okinawa Monday morning.  I took my wife and daughter home and headed to the shop.  All I remember was feeling fear, uncertainty and anxiety but at the same time also felt lucky to be going; after training for so long to do a job, I was going to get a chance to prove myself, do it during a war and we would probably be some of the first ones there.  I was very exited, although I don’t know if that is the right word.

The shop (Navy slang for the workplace) got packed in three triwalls and we were ready to leave by Monday morning.  In the middle of all this, the command fired our OIC (Officer in Charge) and replaced him with CWO3 Gary Burns.  Alexander wasn’t even notified of the impending deployment. So Monday morning comes around and he shows up for work and finds the shop packed and all his things neatly thrown in a box.  He asked Bill what was going on and he replied: "Well Gunner, if you don't know I guess you ain't going!"  We all laughed for the first time in three days. Monday came and went, and the week, and the next and the next.  It became the old “hurry up and wait routine”, standby to standby.  In the meantime Fred "developed" a strange case of back pains and was replaced by Sonar Technician First Class Pete Williams.

 An interesting thing happened when we asked for our weapons; the command said that there were no weapons for us.  So obviously we raised some serious hell about it, we could not believe that they wanted us to go to war without weapons!  We then decided to buy our own and we started shopping for carbines and pistols.  When the command found out what we were doing, weapons mysteriously

appeared.  They came from the bottom of one of the SEAL team's armory, but they were weapons and that's all we wanted. I kept telling everyone that we are not going anywhere…that this thing was going to be resolved before we left. I even told the guys that if and when we ended up going, I would shave my mustache off. 

Then one day we were told that there was a change of plans and that now we are going by plane to Saudi Arabia as a land team instead of on a ship.  Once again the panic button set in and instead of just three triwalls, we were scrambling to find a trailer, a boat, a pickup truck, and a Blazer to take, plus a pallet of High Explosives, a pallet of hazmat (hazardous materials) and a pallet of personal gear.  We were given two weeks to get everything ready.  We did and on 28 September 1990 at approximately 5:00 pm we gathered at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego to say goodbye to our families and friends.  After leaving everyone behind, CDR Lanning, our skipper, gave us his final words of wisdom: "Stay low, keep your heads and asses down and don't get shot". We took off from San Diego; onboard a C141 headed into God knows what…with my friends, weapons, explosives and my razor to shave my mustache.