Think back to your last arrival home after a long business trip or vacation. You round the corner and there it is, home. It is that familiar place where you know where everything is, where your dog licks your face hello and where it even smells like home. That is not quite the mental image that came to mind as we pulled into the parking lot of the sandy, sun baked Army base I temporarily call home, but it was pretty damn close. Even the cement-floored tent had a welcome feel to it, after a mere three days in the Kuwaiti desert. And to think I used to like the idea of camping out in the Southwest.
The whole point of our trip (about 60 of us trekked out into the middle of nowhere for a few days of convoy and IED (improvised explosive device) awareness training) was to give us the basic information in case we got attached to a convoy (either as passengers or crew) during our stay “up north” (as the instructors put it). Like the infantry training at Fort Jackson it is all intended to make us at least partly aware of what is going on should we have some bad luck when in country. And for that reason, most of us were very appreciative (there are, of course, always some idiots who don’t take training seriously – and I, for one, was glad they were not going with me). One of the things I swore was to never go on a convoy with people who weren’t paying attention.
The event started off poorly, with us arriving at a camp surrounded by a sand berm in the middle of nowhere (ok, there were a few oil wells around, but they’re everywhere in Kuwait). We were all hot and irritable after loading and unloading cases of water and MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) and it was dark and windy by the time we finished our in-brief.
We step outside and discover we are in the middle of a blowing sand storm, which is practically indescribable unless you’ve lived through one. Thankfully we had the protection of the sand berms, though we still ate a lot of sand as we sat down for a dinner of MREs in the dark (sip water, spit out sand, have a bite to eat, drink water, breathe, repeat). The sky was dark with sand, rolling over us in an oppressive wave of undulating, hissing, spitting grit. Impossible to see very far, but the lights of the camp illuminated vast sheets of sand spilling and racing overhead as the wind howled in our ears.
That night the tent was a pretty unhappy place, with everyone miserable and wondering what the heck was going on. Sailors all, we were all at sea (a category 5 hurricane at sea is fine, but this?) in this kind of environment. But it is amazing how adaptable the human brain and body is, as we all got used to the blasting heat, sand and hot drinking water within a day or two.
I got to drive around a humvee as part of the convoy training, which was pretty cool (i.e. all the crashing about in the desert as we avoided IEDs or reacted to contact, etc.) and, just like at Fort Jackson, it was intensive enough to give us all a feel for how things work in order that we are not completely clueless.
And like all things with many people involved, I am constantly amazed at how much work it takes to coordinate the movement of people and vehicles in even non-stressful situations. Herding cats is easier. It gives you a new appreciation for the ability of the Army to coordinate the movement of vast numbers of people on the battlefield. And it makes you feel really good when you react the right way in an exercise.
The desert here is a pretty empty place, very dusty and gray, with some very thin scrub grass kept mowed by herds of camels. Of wildlife, I only saw some dung beetles, the usually hordes of biting flies, some ants, some sparrow-like birds (they don’t fly during the day – its’ too hot!) and one washed out yellow monitor lizard (about 3-feet long) with a bright rust-colored head. While I did not get a picture of him, I did get a shot of Daisy, a local camel that died during birthing a few weeks ago.
I've attached pictures of Daisy (she's looked better), the HMV I owned for a few days and a picture of me with some camels in the background.
Fair Winds and Following Sands!