20. GAS! GAS! GAS!

Written: March 19 & 20, 2003

Wednesday, March 19th
I am doing well. I am safe and I am well trained. I volunteered to do this and am ready for the challenge. I love you all. --My final letter home before the war started

I have been staying up very late to keep myself on a night cycle. This morning I was sleeping in our tent and was totally shocked out of my deep, deep sleep.

I heard a muffled yell and a marina horn whailing. It took only a split second to snap me out of my sleep. Again I heard the horn blaring, screaming at me--Hoooooooooooooonk, Hoooooooooooooonk, Hoooooooooooooonk. Again I heard the muffled voice and finaly grasped what it was. I leapt out of bed there was a man standing in our tent yelling at us. As I moved for my protective mask (gas mask) I could tell that the muffled voice was coming from this man. He was in full MOPP gear (chemical protective gear) and was shouting through his mask. I felt a wave of fright pass over me as he looked squarely at me and yelled, GAS!, GAS!, GAS! My heart felt like it was going to tear out of my chest as I struggled to find my mask. As my friend Fred says, I let out a scream, levitated off of my cot and flew out of my sleeping bag.

My background training took over. I held my breath, closed my eyes and began the search for my mask. When I was an enlisted man, my job was an NBC specialist. Quite simply--I was the guy who taught people how to protect themselves in the event of a Nuclear, Biological or Chemical attack. I was well trained and used my training to teach the soldiers in my unit what to do if it happened to us here. I was dead serious about it--especially in this environment. While in Desert Shield / Desert Storm I spent most of the deployment training people on how to protect themselves from any attacks we would encounter. During that War, the 100 hours of it, I never wore my protective mask. This war would prove to be much different.

While I searched, I could still hear the loud marina horn being sounded as a warning that a chemical attack had taken place. I knew that when I went to bed, my mask was next to my cot. But now I was having a hard time finding it. It seemed like an eternity had passed when I my hand finally landed on the case to my mask. I ripped the case open and put the mask on. I pressed it up against my face, blew out as hard as I could then breathed in to be sure the mask was sealed. I opened my eyes. I could feel my eyes burning and my heart beating very fast.

I was scared. Really scared.

In my mind, I thought, my eyes are already burning--shit--this is it, I am going to die a horrible death--an NBC guy dying as a Chemical casuality. Not so great. I got my mask on and settled down enough to realize that my eyes were burning only because I only had 2 or 3 hours of sleep and was exhausted when I went to bed. After a few seconds I realized that I would be ok. I didn't breath in the chemicals. I trusted my equipment and my training. Now I looked around the tent at the others who were in various stages of getting their equipment on. I looked around as if I was trying to see the chemicals in the air--as if I could see the gas. Thoughts flashed through my mind of how we would decontaminate all of our gear--of how much gear would be burned and left behind. I calmed down and kept hearing the alarms going off and people yelling, Gas!, Gas!, Gas! I thought, Wow, Saddam did good. He gassed us and took the surprise out of our attack. Whatt a brilliant strategy!

After a while, things calmed down and we were finally given the all clear call. Apparently someone was wearing their mask to keep the dust out of their eyes and someone else saw it and figured we were under an attack. So, it turned out to be a false alarm but I must say that it was certainly the most scared I have ever been in my life. I initially felt like it was over.

Stripped my mask off and tried to sleep. Ended up telling war stories about what just happened and how scared I was.

Thursday, March 20th

Anabelle's 3rd birthday. Woke up at 10am. Had a decent sleep.

Fred came in and told us that the US launched cruise missiles last night. He got the news from CBS Bob who has a sattelite uplink--so Bob provides us with current news. Amazing that we found out the war started from a CBS reporter and not through our Chain of Command. Its funny that in the civilian world, everyone thinks that becuase you are in the Army you "know" all the secrets that our Government has. You somehow know all the timelines and schedules to all military action. The plain truth is that we are kept in the dark as well. If they told us too far in advance, someone would slip up and tell their family then it would spread like wild fire. Unless you have a need to know, you won't.

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM has begun. For the preceeding 6 weeks, we have referred to this as OPERATION XXX. The XXX was the place holder for the mission name. Now we have it. We were also informed of the operation name by CBS Bob and I must say that initially we were all kinda dissapointed. It didn't sound cool enough. Just pretty plain. It lacked a certain level of imagination and mystique.

With news that the war had officially begun we set out to fulfill one of our promises. Weeks ago, many of us agreed that when the war began we would shave our heads bald and then continue to grow out of control mustaches. At around 11am the fun began. Kenny found a set of hair clippers and we held our word that we would shave our heads when the war started. I went first. Then Jim Hester then Fred then Sam. We all were enjoying our new looks. CPT Hester went next and just as I was finishing his new cut, the Chemical Officer burst out of the TOC telling us that he received an alert that SCUDs had been launched. We put our mask on and anticipated the attack. After 30 minutes, "All Clear." Got reports that a few SCUDS landed in the desert and one was destroyed by a Patriot.

We spent the rest of the day getting in and out of our masks and MOPP suits and cutting hair. By the end of the day we were sick of cutting hair and sick of getting SCUD alerts. After the first few times it got really old and everyone seemed to don their gear slower each time--lack of enthusiaism...kinda like crying wolf I suppose. Either show me some results or stop yelling at me to get in this gear.

Bob let me use his Iridium phone to make a call to Stef. I called home and talked to her very briefly to let her know that I was ok and to tell her I love her. Also talked to all the kids and told Anabelle happy birthday.

Went out to the flightline. Our aircraft was fixed (it had a bad auxillary power unit but had since been fixed). We preflighted but had a hard time doing it since we were in and out of our masks due to multiple inbound missile alerts (more Scuds). Nothing happened. Was not nice to know that we were pretty much helpless sitting on the flight line--was hard to get any word of what was going on in the Battalion which was a mile away.

Tonight the ground forces began to move across the border. We were in the Personnel Recovery (PR) tent and got word that an AH-64 Apache went down. We plotted the grid and it was right on the border. They told us to get ready. We sprung into action--our first mission! we went to work but stood down after they sent ground forces in to pick the crew up. Apparently the Apache landed (for whatever the reason) and the crew was surrounded by Iraqis and had to defend themselves until the ground guys showed up. They returned to Udairi safely.

Read reports that the Armor elements destroyed 12-15 vehicles and an undetermined number of troops. I guess the Iraqis are not surrendering like they did last time (Desert Storm). Probably because we didn’t bomb them (Air Force) like last time and now we are actually invading their country this time. I guess they have a little more to fight for?

The 11th Regiment prepared to launch for their mission--a deep attack against an Iraqi Armored Division in the town of An Nasariyah near Talil Airfield. They have been rehearsing this mission for many months and are ready for it. They will attack beyond the line of our advances forces to destroy the division so our lead elements of the 3rd Infantry Division can continue their push to Baghdad.

I stood on the flight line and watched as the deep attacks took off. It was dark but I could make out their sillouhettes against the black sky. They dissappeared into the night. As they were leaving, I watched (and heard) an huge long range artillerly barrage. I could see the rocket assisted artillery as it headed into Iraq. Could see a glow from the burner as they departed. Saw about 20 to 30 rounds. As I walked back to our tent from the flight line, I could see many soldiers looking in the direction of the artillery. It was like watching a 4th of July show. Spectators and all. After about 30 minutes I heard the roar of helicopters and was shocked to see the flight heading back to our airflield. As it turned out, they turned back around due to poor visibility due to low clouds. Everyone came back and we watched all aircraft as they circled around the airfield to land. Looks like they will have to try again tomorrow. I see a problem already--the weather abort criteria for the mission 700’ and 2 miles visibility. When they took off, the visibility was only 1 mile...things that make you go hmm.

Moved the Gabriel TOC into the Flight Ops tent. Set up all the computer equipment and consolidated everything.

Went to bed at 1:30am.

NEWS SUMMARY
Operation Iraqi Freedom began shortly before Bush addressed the nation Wednesday night in Washington to report that selected targets of military importance had been targeted in Baghdad.
Iraq responded to the first night of the U.S. attack by launching Scud missiles into Kuwait. Members of the 1st Marine Division donned suits masks, gloves and full combat gear in case of a chemical or biological attack. None of the Iraqi missiles caused injuries or damage, and two were intercepted by Patriot missiles, according to U.S. Central Command, which is coordinating the war.