Grandpa’s War – Part 23 – In the Storm

As I sat eating the “First AD Sandwich” the cooks had given me, I reflected on the night before. We’d driven out of Saudi Arabia, across the border and were now in Iraq. We were in the belly of the beast so to speak, only there was no beast to be seen.

I’d expected crossing the border to be a little like the invasion of Normandy. At the least, I’d have expected to see some burnt out tanks and bunkers.

But crossing it had been nothing more than a marker. There was no debris of war. Nothing. It was about as exciting as driving from my Native Colorado into New Mexico. All we’d done up this point was cross a line that in reality existed only on paper.

“Dang,” I muttered. Yolk from the sandwich had dripped onto my MOPP jacket. I wiped it away thinking now I’d go through the war dirty. Somehow, the humor was lost to me.

We started out after a few minutes. And all we did that day was drive. We’d stop, eat a hasty meal, refuel, and then get on our way. Only once did we see anything that even remotely looked like combat. About noon, one of our MLRS systems located a few miles away fired a single missile. It arced away and I wondered what that was all about.

I never did find out.

We stopped moving about sunset. Our first night in enemy territory and we hadn’t seen any evidence they were even around. I admit I was getting a little worried.

I’d have expected something by now. I wondered if Saddam wasn’t trying to do to us what the Russians did to the Germans in WW II. Get them in deep, then cut their supply lines.

What never occurred to me was they thought it was impossible for us to cross the desert.

The Iraqi army was pretty much road bound. Navigating the desert was difficult at best for them.

And it would have been difficult for us except for one little thing they didn’t have. GPS.

To find their way around, they had to have roads. In our case, our mantra was the same as Doc Brown’s from Back to the Future. “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”

By using GPS or even Loran navigation devices, we had a good idea where we were at all times.

So, we drove, and drove, and drove some more.

About 10 PM. we stopped moving and set up the perimeter for the night.

Along about midnight, a storm moved in, and it started raining. We’re not talking a small storm, but buckets of water from the sky.

Small rivers flowed about, and the heavy rain swallowed up what little light there was. I’ve seen dark. But I’ve never seen dark like this. Later, someone would comment that it had an almost supernatural quality to it.

And the cold. I recall looking at some of my buddies and could see puffs of vapor coming out of their mouths.

We’d all put on our rain gear which kept us somewhat dry. Had the MOPP tops and pants gotten wet, it would have cut down on their effectiveness in an Chemical environment.

Of course, they would have taken hours to dry and probably put the whole division down with colds.

And out there, someplace, a battle was underway. We could hear it on the radio. Occasionally bright flashes of light would erupt on the horizon through the darkness. It looked like something out of a Sci Fi movie.

When the sun came up, the storm moved out. In the sky, I saw a meteorological phenomenon I couldn’t explain then. The clouds were marching out in what looked like waves. I was reminded of one of those animated diagrams of wave propagation. You’ve seen them. These show a radio wave moving away from a radio antenna.

I’d never seen anything like it before or since. For all I know, it’s a weather event peculiar to that area.

Years alter I’d see something very much like it on the Discovery Channel show called “What on Earth.” It was caused by wind and moisture impacting a slight rise in the terrain. This would cause the clouds of moisture to back build then be pushed out of the way. Then the process would repeat itself.

I’m sure that’s what I witnessed. But I never shook the impression I was seeing weather warfare. The rain and darkness would have certainly given us another edge in what was already an uneven fight.

Sometime in the afternoon, we began to see evidence that the Iraqis had been around. We started coming across abandoned bunkers.

Their places looked like the city dump. Abandoned gear, helmets, clothing, and the like were scattered everywhere.

Until a few hours before, soldiers had been living here. They’d left in one big hurry, and in a lot of cases left most everything behind.

It was eerie. I didn’t realize until later that a battle had been fought here. I’d have expected to see bodies. Maybe even blood trails.

But there was nothing. The dead and wounded were long gone. And the evidence of the fight had been washed away by the rain.

Maybe I should have been thankful I didn’t see the dead and dying.

I remember we got out and looked down into one of the bunkers. The Iraqi’s had been here long enough to have dug them out and made them somewhat comfortable. I didn’t dare go in, but instead crouched at the entrance and studied them.

The bunkers struck me as the perfect places to put a booby trap or two. I’ve a relative that lost a body part while souvenir hunting in a German bunker in WW II. I wasn’t eager to carry on the tradition.

I figured the only souvenir I wanted was me back home, intact and alive. I crouched down and took these pictures.

 Braver souls than I went into the bunkers. One came out with a spiral notebook like a kid would use in school. There was a picture of Saddam on the cover.

I settled for some stuff I found lying about topside. I found a spoon and a beret (some war souvenir). I still have the spoon, but the beret was taken by my son to show and tell. One of his classmates stole it. I was a little upset about that.

Years later, my boy made up for it by bringing me back a helmet from Afghanistan. It’s one of my most treasured items.

We moved on.

Somewhere out there, the Iraqis had figured out we were here.

They were starting to fight back.