My time in the Cav are and always will be my best memories of my 
9 1/2 years in the Army. I was assigned to Ft. Riley from the 25th Infantry in 
Hawaii where I received all my Jungle Warfare Training, so I know what time in 
the "bush" is like.  I would like to think all of you for your service for it 
is you we learned from, good or bad.  Desert Storm was a dry war except for the 
"Neer Beer"...Yuk!! I was a light wheel vehicle mechanic but as you know in the 
Cav, you have no job.  It's whatever your placed in at the time.  I've done time 
in Bradley's, M-1's and Hueys and enjoyed them all.  Before Desert Storm, I was 
the Squadron Driver's Training NCO. Teaching safety to all our young soldiers and 
I really enjoyed that.  In Desert Storm, I was the combat Trans NBC NCO.  I remember 
the day we left our families and left on that long flight to Saudi.  We had a short 
layover in Belgium and then on to King Faad airfield.  We left the freezing weather 
to hot and even with all my desert training at NTC, it was a sight to behold.I have 
never seen something so flat for miles.  For the next 3 or 4 days we unloaded our 
equipment at the docks and trained on things we knew over and over again.  I never 
saw those young soldiers so willing to learn, but they knew this just was not field 
time.  We then left what was called the MGM Grand (Kobar Towers), to TAA Rosevelt.  
It was a long drive up Tapline Road  and I had SGT of the Guard that night.  I 
remember seeing bedouins that night all travling in caravans and feeling uneasy 
about all the commotion we caused them. There until G day -5, we stayed. When they
were supposed to be having peace talks which fell thru, we tried one time to make 
some hooch from our dired MRE (meals ready to eat) fruit.  We got a recipe from 
someone in our any soldier mail. Boy, did we all get sick, and lucky none of us 
got court martialed...I remember the night the air war started.  the F16s were 
flying so low as I was running out to my fox hole the vacuum sucked off my helmut. 
Did not have to tell me to fasten that chin strap anymore...I will never forget the 
night an F16 crashed outside our camp.  The pilot went down with it so not to hit our
camp.  The Air Force had us dig through the wreckage looking for remains.  We only 
found part of a boot. I read a story from one of those books and learned his name...I 
wrote his name and the date in my calendar. It was good to know his name. Gday -1, 
we were at the berm not even a 1/4 mile from Iraq Republican Guard.  It was 2am and 
the MLRS went off scaring the hell out of me. I wished they would have warned us.  
I did not sleep  for the next 4 days.  We were constantly on the go. The M1's and 
Bradley's knocking out Artillery and Armor units. Cobra and Apache's taking out 
Infantry and T-27's.  We got the word that we were going to close the door on Kuwait 
and catch  Iraq in a box, and we did.  I was so proud of the unit I served and the 
people in it.  Young boys became men and men became wiser.  I will never forget going 
into Kuwait from Iraq.  I remember my fear of mines.  There were a lot of them, 
searching bunkers, my training in the Orient was used her checking for mines and 
booby traps.  Learned a lot from thos Thai soldiers on my Cobra gold trip.  Those 
Thai soldiers are good!  By nightfall we were deep in Kuwait and I remember seeing 
what I thought was a truck stop and joking that I hoped they had hamburgers and come 
to find out, it was the oil fields burning.  The closer we got, it brought tears to my 
eyes, no matter how bad it was it was beautiful at night.  So bright and high it burned.  
It was also easier to spot the enemy at night.  In the Combat Trans we were a small 
group. The whole Squadron had only a little over 300 in it, but the combat trans was 
forward of the rest.  We captured over 1800 POWS that night.  Most gave up quite easy 
but there were those stubborn Iraq-Iran war vets who thought they were God, who they 
soon met with.  We were north of Death Valley as it was known.  We were to capture and 
seize Safwan Airfield which was strongly guarded by the Republican Guard.  It was a 
long night but the morning brought victory to the Quarterhorse and we moved in on that 
Airfield.  It was now cease fire and rest time.  I crawled on the hood of my Hummer and 
crashed, just to be woke up by an Iraqi soldier wishing to surrender. I remember that 
he scared the s--t out of me because he had an AK47 and I asked myself, How the hell did 
he get this far in with a weapon.  But he soon turned it over to me and I escorted him
to the POW site with a perimeter of Bradley's for guards.  We were told Safwan was to be 
the site of the peace treaty and cease fire.  Just remember this, your Quarterhorse 
soldiers captured that airfield and we were there long  before anyone else.  That day we 
did body detail, collected weapons and document, gave POWs food, gas masks and blankets 
that we had collected.  We gathered the largest cache of weapons during Desert Storm.  
It made Life Magazine.  Stormin' Norman showed up the day of cease fire and spent time 
with us.  He promised us all steak and burgers, we said, yea right! We had a bunch of 
Iraqi equipment lined up on the runway approaching the tent. Gen Norman told us to move 
it. He said "boys, we want a cease fire, we do not want to embarass them. The Iraqi 
Delegation showed up and the rest is history.  We spent the next month doing checkpoints
in Iraq and breathing all that burning oil. Yuk...I'm proud to be a vet and even more of 
being a Quarterhorse vet..So this to you my friends..Prepared and Loyal...
PS:  Gen Norman sent up 3 refer vans full of Saudi steaks, burgers and hot dogs and last but not
least, Schlitz Neer beer!!!

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