Grandpa’s War – Intro

A long time ago in the Gulf War. And while there, I took about a hundred million pictures (okay, slight exaggeration) of 1st Armored Division’s 501st MPs. Over the next several days, weeks, and months, maybe even years, I’m going to tell the story.

I’ve told the story several different ways. One was to write and publish a huge rambling page on my site. The other was to put it in a book format which you can still download free of charge. Now, I’m going to break it down into bite sized chunks.

I was officially the unofficial photographer of the unit. I’ve tried hard to record who we were and how we lived.

So, stay tuned for that.

I’ve also made a promise years ago that I’d get the pictures out there. We’d looked at photobooks,
yearbooks, and so on. Doing it that way was just too expensive. So, members of 501st MPs (or general public for that matter), feel free to download the Book. Consider it a promise fulfilled. The pictures are copyrighted, but I’ve no qualms about you downloading them for personal use.

One thing I’ve very sorry about is I don’t have many pictures of the other platoons. It would have been
easy enough for me to set up (all I had to do was ask). Looking back, I wish I had. Sorry Guys.

Here’s the first of the many pictures that will make it in here. It’s yours truly standing in in front of my HUMVEE.

I suppose our deployment started in August of 90.

I was patrol supervisor that day. I got up and got ready to take my team of MPs out for road duty. I shaved, combed my hair, and while dressing, I realized I hadn’t seen any of them. So, I went knocking on doors. They were all up and ready to go, but their eyes were fixed on the TVs. Their eyes were wide with disbelief. They were watching the news, and it showed Iraqi tanks rolling into Kuwait City.

I recall one of them asking if I thought we’d be going.

My response was “bet on it.”

Next: Part 1 –Leaving on a jet plane.

All photographs Copyright – Richard L. Muniz