Home > Gulf War Diary > AA Horse
Living in the desert is not easy. One of the first lessons we learned in Assembly Area Horse was that the desert does not easily support human life. We learned that to survive in the harsh desert environment, we had to put as much effort as we could into life support, without sacrificing security. In addition to being a survival issue, life support was also a morale issue. Realizing that soldier morale would quickly plummet if we did not establish sound life support systems, that became our number one priority upon occupying AA Horse. To establish the right attitude, we stopped referring to AA Horse as an assembly area, and started calling it a "life support area", or LSA.
Coming from a temperate climate, it took us a while to internalize what we were up against in the desert. The desert exposes one to climactic extremes; obviously hot during the day, the desert is nonetheless cold at night, since the sand does not easily retain the sun's heat. Indigenous sources of water are very rare; wells are few and far between, and most contain water that is not potable by Western standards, unless treated with foul tasting chlorine or metallic tasting iodine. Food in the desert is largely unavailable, unless one's palate can handle insects, rats, and lizards. Shelter from the sun, sandstorms, and rain during the winter months, must be imported. Wood to build things must be imported. What life the desert does support is often hostile and/or repugnant: scorpions, poisonous snakes, kangaroo rats, and dung beetles, to name a few.
However, the Bedouins had been living in the desert for centuries, and we
resolved that we could do it too. Therefore, we spent our first two weeks in AA
Horse establishing a first class LSA. The first thing we did was to establish a
hierarchy of needs: water, food, shelter, field sanitation/hygiene, security,
and recreation. Then, we structured and prioritized our logistics systems to
import all of our life support.
Water: We imported tractor trailer trucks full of bottled drinking water that had been donated to the U.S. Army by the Saudi Government. We used tanker trucks to bring in well water for personal hygiene, laundry, and emergency drinking. This water was normally transported from its source to the 2nd Brigade support area; from there, it was a unit responsibility to pick it up and bring it back to the individual life support areas using organic transportation.
Given the heat, the sand, the hard work, and the grime, our soldiers consumed a
tremendous amount of both bottled and well water daily. On an average day, we
had to make two or three water runs to keep up with the consumption. Due to our
wheeled vehicle mobility problem, we had to use ammunition HEMMTs to ship
water.
Food: Food, in addition to being a survival issue, was also a morale issue. For a U.S. Army unit in the field, the staple was the "Meals, Ready to Eat," or MRE. Pre-packaged and easy to transport, soldiers could always count on having something to eat. However, eating cold MREs got old very quickly. Therefore, our leadership challenge was to provide as many hot meals as possible.
When it came to hot meals, we had several options. The first, and clearly most desirable, was to cook and serve "A-rations." A-rations are the Army's version of real food. The only problem was that these rations required refrigeration. Eventually, we received a refrigerated "reefer" van, but, initially, A -- rations were few and far between.
The next option for hot meals was "T -- rations." These rations are
pre-cooked and hermetically sealed in tin containers, thereby negating the need
for refrigerated storage. They are easy to prepare; all one has to do is
immerse the tins in boiling water for a few minutes to heat up the food inside.
Unfortunately, the Army's relatively meager stockpile of T - rations was very
quickly consumed during the initial deployment, causing us to have to live off
of commercially procured rations, such as "Lunch Buckets", as well as
meal supplements purchased off of the Saudi economy, such as Pepsi's, fruit,
pastries, and vegetables.
Shelter: If the food situation was not simple, the shelter situation was:
everybody lived in tents. We had two types of tents: standard U.S. Army canvas
"General Purpose tents" (three sizes: small, medium, and
large), and white cotton Bedouin tents. Unfortunately, this created two
standards of living: bad, and worse. Soldiers staying in G.P. Mediums could use
stoves to help ward off the cold at night. They could also have candles and
electric drop lights; and could smoke in them. Soldiers staying in Bedouins
could do none of the above, since Bedouins were highly flammable, and would go
up in flames at the slightest spark, putting the lives of soldiers at risk.
Regardless of what type of tent they lived in, every soldier slept on cots to
protect against scorpions and snakes (Early in the deployment, before cots
became readily available, soldiers simply slept on the ground. We found out
early on that this was a "No Go," after several soldiers were bitten
by snakes and scorpions).
Field sanitation: Every soldier who has spent an extended period of time
in the field knows that field sanitation (or, more specifically, a lack
thereof) is a potential "war stopper." Military history is replete
with examples of combat units being ravaged by diseases spread through poor
soldier hygiene, poor pest and rodent control, and improper disposing of human
feces. Therefore, we made field sanitation a priority. The Army gave us locally
purchased wooden prefab showers and "porta-potty"-- type latrines. We
improved upon the showers by building them up "locker room style"
with wood, and by heating the water with standard U.S. Army issue immersion
heaters. This greatly encouraged soldiers to take showers. As anybody who has
spent time in the field knows, it is an absolutely miserable experience to take
a cold shower on a cold night out in the field. We improved upon the
"shitters", as they were affectionately called, by enclosing them
with screens to keep the critters out, spraying insecticide to keep away flies,
and spreading diesel to keep scorpions out and to reduce the stench of human
feces. Naturally, the 55 gallon drum half barrels that contained the human
refuse were burned daily, as were the trash pits. Everything we took for
granted in "the world" was hard here.
Security: Apart from a possible Iraqi invasion, there was also an active
terrorist threat. We used firing battery howitzers to man the battalion
perimeter. OPs (observation posts) ringed behind them on
the high ground (rocky mounds) to provide early warning of any impending
threat. Each battery maintained a roving guard patrol to reinforce any
penetration of the perimeter. The battalion reaction force backed up the
battery reaction forces. Battalion reaction force duty rotated from battery to
battery.
Recreation: Sitting in the Saudi desert with no end in sight caused morale to go south very quickly, and we did what we could to lift it. We continued to train very hard, of course, so we did not have much free time, but what free time we did have had to be filled with what few recreational activities were available. Unfortunately, the two favorite recreational activities for soldiers were not an option. No alcohol consumption whatsoever was permitted. There were no women around, since we were an all male unit. We played lots of sports (mostly football and volleyball) to pass the time and work off some of that unused energy. Of course, this occasionally caused the potential readiness problem of sports injuries. Other recreational activities included:
- Card playing (probably the third favorite soldier recreational activity).
- Watching movies on the TV and VCR we had set up in our recreation tent.
- The DIVARTY (Division Artillery) and 2nd Brigade PX trucks, which would come around every couple of weeks.
- "Shield 107," the AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) radio station set up in Dhahran.
- The DSA (Division Support Area) "Soldier's Mall," that had a PX truck, Phone center (graciously donated by AT&T), Arab gift shop, and a "Wolfburger" hamburger stand.
- Mail Call: We continued to receive overwhelming support from the home front, to include packages and letters from home, as well as tons of "Any Servicemember" mail.
- Newspapers, to include Stars & Stripes, Arab News and Saudi Gazette (two local English language dailies), USA Today, and Newsweek.
- Additionally, there were two Rest & Recreation areas in theater: "Half Moon Bay," a Saudi resort located near the Dammam/Dhahran/Al Khobar metropolitan area, and a Canard Cruise ship docked at the little Persian Gulf island of Bahrain. Unfortunately, the vast majority of combat troops out on the desert floor never got a chance to go to either of those R&R sites; U.S. troops frequenting those sites were mostly rear echelon troops stationed in or near big cities.
