This is a picture of the a platoon in Alpha Company I was attached to, I am on the far left with the M-60 on my shoulder. I was once a smiling laughing person, but that all went away. We all became harbingers of death. We were dug in on the border doing patrols and preparing for a tank attack and were dug in for tanks. A fighter jet dropped its bomb rack behind us about 2 or 3 in the morning, and some of the bombs were cluster bomb units....the explosion was like the size of a football field or two. Talk about sitting up and almost losing everything...and I don't mean from your mouth. We thought the Iraqi army was attacking us. We had been on 75% alert for about two weeks and sleep was like getting gold. But at least the pilot didn't drop it on our lines. I forget how close, but too damn close is about right. The day came finally and on Feb 23 1990 we launched the ground war against the Iraqi troops. We had mentally prepared for World War 1 style trench warfare. A lot of us did not think we would be coming back. I had sharpened all of my knives and my entrenchment tool not for digging but for close hand to hand combat in the trenches. We all prayed in circles on that dark black night, and the feeling was nothing like I have ever felt before, I felt I was closer to God than ever before, because I was fixing to meet him soon. Fear is something that makes some people run, and some people cowards, but we all stood up and were all ready to fight to the death. Then you become somewhat crazy afterwards. We chased the fear. In our breach zone, the 2nd Marine Division was the spearhead, and 1st Battalion 6th Marines were designated as the tip of the spear. Alpha company was the very tip of that spear that I was attached to and the AAV I was in was the very right flank, the end of the line. So we would be the very first ones into everything and get the initial welcome from the fun loving Saddam's Iraqi elite army waiting for us . While moving forward in the mine field lanes the engineers made for us, we were hit with various mortar and artillery fire. None of us could see (inside the AAV) and for awhile and we all thought that everything was out going, when in fact it was incoming. A mortar round hit our tracks on our AAV but did no harm. Eventually we came across the enemy and had a few small fire fights, and cleared endless trenches. Then the Gas! Gas! Gas! alarm came in and we all went into combat in MOP level 4, which trust me sucks. Going into combat in to enemy fire into trenches wearing a gas mask and protective suit...is not the way to die. We took a few causalities, but believe me we caused 1000 times more on the enemies side, they were so scared of us, they were tearing up their mattress sheets and waving them at us in surrender, but left their damn AK's slung on their shoulders. One morning as the sun came up, I looked up and seen about 400 or so Iraqi surrendering to our right flank...they clearly out numbered us, but they were surrendering to us. Me and a few others, took them prisoner. I think I had a 400 round bandoleer attached to my gun, one for each roughly, if their weapons did not hit the ground. I do not know how to speak Iraqi, and they do not speak English, but they do understand the language of a 7.62mm machine gun going off over their heads, and then they seen the light and started dropping their rifles. I let them keep their bed sheet. That same morning, after that incident, I went back to my hasty machine gun pit, and noticed that I had dug right beside a unexploded missile. I mean I barely missed it, digging in the dark. That was not the last time I dug into unexploded ordnance. Overall, we took about 10.000 prisoners in our Battalion alone but just pointed " go that way". The enemy started firing artillery at us from time to time, and we had some more small fire fights that ended really fast. A few tank battles here and there that ended fast, and even a few fake artillery positions. In my AAV I was the machine gunner on the right flank of the company, and I had no spotter or team leader, I was both. I had 2 ammo men that carried my barrel bag and rounds, I only had about 3000 rounds to last who knew how long. I was a good machine gunner and pretty good at hitting my target fast. I had borrowed extra machine gun parts from a armour friend, so my gun would not go down in a fire fight....you know a few extra firing pins...the most common thing that broke on a machine gun. If your operating rod broke, then you were...screwed, and that is where the 9mm and entrenchment tool came into play. As far as the rounds, I only went though about half my rounds luckily. The platoon I was attached to was just like every other platoon, but it was chaotic on the battlefield at times, I had to clear a few trenches by myself here and there because the rifle squads would all of a sudden split up and leave a trench open. We started blowing up ordnance that we found underground, but stopped when some of the caches turned up chemical artillery rounds. We found out that we were facing an Iraqi army mostly of cowards, when we expected fierce resistance and all the stories we heard about the powerful Iraqi army....just was not there...to our luck. We were fighting their militia troops while the Republican guard were on the run. Death was everywhere, the smell of death was everywhere. I remember while we were moving through the oil fields, it was so dark that you could not see your hand in front of your face, and you could not see anything...so we did not move at night. At night is when they would start shelling us , but were mostly hitting us in the rear, because they had no idea where we were at, and where firing off their artillery aimlessly. I was like "why dig in?" no one could see us, then a FROG missile landed near us and exploded...out came the entrenchment tool. You never forget the horrors of war, things you see, people you kill, body parts everywhere, screaming and burning flesh. War changes you. It stays with you everyday for the rest of your life. Desert Storm was nothing like Vietnam (no where close), we did not have a lot of casualties, but we killed so many of the enemy, that we wiped them out for the next war, because they never recovered from their losses going into the 2nd Gulf War, which helped out in the taking of Iraq...army strength and armor strength. Some Iraqi Divisions were completely wiped out. I was no desert hero, just a warrior doing what I joined to do, be in the infantry. I read too many Vietnam stories, and watched too much John Wayne...I knew who I was and why I was a US Marine. So moving on, We took trench after trench until we had taken all the enemy trench lines in our sector front and finally stopped with a seize fire. We dug in and were in the same spot for about 2 or 3 months and they named our battalion the forgot battalion because we were so far forward, and no one would relieve us, eventually a tent city developed around our parameter. While there, I captured an Egyptian defecting. I also while digging in a machine gun bunker hit a mine. Thank God it was a Tank mine, so I removed it and placed it out of the way and marked it. Finally we went back to the rear and rode down the Highway of Death and those imagines never leave you. It was a blood bath everywhere you looked. I remember when we finally got home, the first thing I remember was seeing green, green trees, green grass....because for a long time, all we seen was sand and blood and smoke....but you never forget those days, ever. I was proud to serve as a United States Marine in the Infantry as a Machine gunner, and would do it over and over again.
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