An Enigma in a Desert City

You ever seen something that just drives you nuts? You think about and go, what did I really see?

Some of us have been lucky enough to get it on film, tape, or some other recording medium, and then we pull it out once in a while and go what is that? People look at some of these pictures and see things that startle them. There’s the story of a guy and his fiancée hiking in the mountains. She poses for the picture and is all smiles. When they looked at the picture later, and crouched in some bushes not far away, was a mountain lion.

Others see lens flares, or mysterious lights in the picture and chalk it up to UFOs, Ghosts, or some other paranormal activity.

But in most cases, it just something so out of place, you don’t see it right away.

So, it was with a picture taken during the route recon 6th Platoon Regulators did prior to moving 1st AD back from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. We took a small detour from our mission and went into Kuwait City. I’d never been there but I could see where once upon a time, it had been a beautiful city. The Iraqi invasion and subsequent war had made a mess of the place.

There were, like any city, numerous overpasses. Almost every overpass had at least a couple of fighting positions dug into the sides. Houses that had coverage of the roads, had been sandbagged and turned into forts. Some were intact, others burnt out. I had no idea what happened to them, but I could easily imagine our Marines taking out these positions as they went in to retake the city.

Our route took us through the city and past the Kuwait City Sheraton. The building looked like at least part of it had been fire damaged. In front of it, several men in hard hats were working. I had my camera out, snapping pictures as we drove past on our way the Gulf. That’s how the picture that would drive me nuts for years was taken.

Eventually, we reached the Gulf and looked the place over. Extensive fortifications had been established, and signs posted in several different languages warned not to go down to the beach. There were unexploded mines down there.

One thing that did impress us was a sculpture. It was some modern art looking piece, made of metal, and I thought it was a very attractive piece of work. All things considered, I was surprised it hadn’t been torn down and the metal used to help build the pillboxes that lined the beach. It looked like the sail on a small boat, and maybe honored fisherman or such. We got a few pictures around it. I’ve tried to find this place on Google Earth maps, but never have. I don’t know if it’s been removed or if I just couldn’t find it.

I used elements of this trip in Broken People, only it was Pam, her husband, and assorted other Marines who went into the city to see it. She says in the story that they had a picnic lunch at that sculpture, and after eating, they’d removed their Cammie tops, laid back, and soaked in the sun.

It would be the last perfect afternoon she’d spend with her husband.

While writing the book, I pulled out the old pictures. I looked over what I had of Kuwait City to help get the feel for it all over again from my memories. I found that old picture taken of the people in front of the Kuwait City Sheraton and still wondered what it was that bothered me about it.

I just couldn’t understand what I was missing.

Then one day, I saw it. On the left was a man. He was dressed in a blue sweat top and was wearing something I never expected to see in the middle east.

The man wore a Mexican Sombrero, and he sure didn’t look like he belonged.

In a Mexican restaurant playing the guitar with a band? Maybe.

On the freeway in some border town selling oranges? Maybe.

In Kuwait City, a place a world away from the Americas? Not in a million years.

The guy sure doesn’t look like any of the Arabs I’d seen (not that that means anything. My Green Beret son often times passed as a local in the Middle East). He looks more like someone who took a seriously wrong turn on his way back from the mercado.

The only explanation I can come with is maybe there was Mexican Restaurant inside the Sheraton or one nearby and he was working to get it back up and going and put on the hat the help increase the morale of the workers.

If that’s the case, maybe it’s a good thing I hadn’t noticed how he was dressed. We’d have all cheerfully killed for a take order from Taco Bell by then.