I hadn't gotten anything really started for Gunfight Central.  Between work, school and real life, I just haven't had the time.  This February was sort of rough for me for some reason.  The 16th & 24th were always sort of special to me, and for 20 years I have celebrated St Patrick's Day in my own manner.  My post today, is a piece I wrote back on the 16th of February.  I dunno what motivated me to write it, nor to actually start and finish in one sitting.  This is pretty much as it was written, no revising or monkeying with lines.  This was one of those rare ones where the words flowed from mind to pen, and didn't stop or require thought.  Iffn you all can ride this one out, next week I'll be back to the old west and the fun stuff.

The National Anthem and I

The wife seems to find it amusing that I do not like being in public when the national anthem is being played. Something about the gruff old fart bawling like a baby, tears streaming down the cheeks, and choking on his words as he tries to sing it.  Yeah, I admit it very begrudgingly, but it is the truth.  It all began about this date some 20 years ago.

Out in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert in early 1991, our first inkling of the beginning of “Operation Desert Storm” was the flight of B-52s that flew overhead, and the distant thumps of bombs going off a hour or so later.  As the first days progressed nothing really changed.  We watched the camels roam around doing whatever camels do.  In the Morning a flight of B-52’s would approach from their airfields, make a sharp right turn and head into Iraq. We’d hear/feel the thumps of the bombs awhile later, and the B-52s would return, making the sharp left to return home.  From what we were hearing on the Troop radio net, and the short wave, about anytime an Iraqi soldier stuck his head out of a hole, the air force would drive a bomb in the hole after him.  After a bit, I truly began to feel sorry for the poor bastards.

Long about the night of the 19^th or 20^th of February, the air force was carrying out a strike against targets some 15 or 20 miles across the border form our position.  One could hear the rip of the A-10s as they fired the mingun, and feel the concussions as nasty toys fell from the sky.  Wearing night vision goggles, one could see Iraqi tracers arcing towards our aircraft, then the contrails of missiles launched by the A-10s and F-16’s.  Watching this, all I could think of was the 3^rd stanza of the Star Spangled Banner: And the rockets read glare,”

I must have been thinking aloud.  From beside me I heard: “the bombs bursting in air…”.  Then behind me: “Gave proof through the night..”  and then us all: “ that our flag was still there..”  We finished the rest the anthem.  Most have been a hell of a sight.  There myself and PV2 JD Jenkins sitting on the front slope.  PFC Ted Limbach was lounging in his driver’s hole, with SSG Marvin Wilson and SGT Clarence Williams up in the turret.   Marvin and I were the “old men”.  Marvin was a Cheyenne Dog Soldier, and Vietnam veteran.  I had just turned 30, and was wondering iffn I would see 31.  Ted and J were only 18.  We were a hell of a crew.

I flash back to that night when I hear the Star Spangled Banner.  It was a time for extreme emotions for me. A time for praying like hell there wouldn’t be any shooting. A time for praying like hell we’d be given the chance to kick ass, take names, and forget how to write. *  A time of being scared shitless that’s we’d get hurt or killed.  A time of being scared shitless we wouldn’t get the chance to do what we had trained to do. It was one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride until the ground war actually began.

It was a huge sigh of relief as we crossed over into Iraq, weapons loaded, safeties off, ( and discovering after a test fire, that camels can out run Bradly’s and M-1s.) The worrying and wondering about what was gonna happen were gone.  We had a job to do, and we were finally doing it. Scared? Hell yes!  Worried? Hell no!  See much action? Ironically, the only real action we saw was after the Cease Fire was announced.  I guess no one had told the Iraqis that there was a cease fire.  I saw some real heroes there, on both sides.  Am I one of them? Hell no, I just did my job, and got my people home in one piece.

So yeah, I bawl like a baby when the national anthem is played.  After 20 years, I can get through the first part mostly.  I still lose it at the beginning of the 3^rd stanza.  The wife may find it amusing.  I don’t.

Guys, where ever you all got to, I'm still thinking of you.