Contemporary Issues in the Persian Gulf I
American Military University
Upon reading the assigned writings for this week, I was thrust back to the summer of 1990. At the time, I was a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed at Camp Lejeune with the Headquarters and Service Battalion of the Second Force Service Support Group, under Commanding General Charles C. Krulak, who would go on to become Commandant after I left active duty in 1995.
I recall the build-up to war left the base both excited and nervous. There was far too much to do and too little time to attend to every necessary detail, especially given the fact that the Corps received the smallest portion of the defense dollar and often were forced to use U.S. Army hand-me-downs. The workload and equipment upgrades kept us sane and held the nervous energy at bay, for the most part. We didn’t know what to expect from desert conditions, given that we did all our training in the forests of North Carolina, which bore absolutely no resemblance to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Iraq.
I was not trained as embarkation specialist, but like many Marines, was thrust into this unfamiliar role as many garrison billets were temporarily downgraded in order to maximize available hands for the buildup to a deployment we weren’t yet sure was going to occur. I learned quickly about embarkation and load balancing and recall that I didn’t lose a single crate from Camp Lejeune to Al Jubayl. However, I can’t speak to the final disposition of said crates once they left my custody and were returned to their individual platoons upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
However, creeping into this mix of sweat, nervous energy, on the job training, and constant inspections was the rising talk among the ranks of the previous Administration’s involvement with the man we would likely be sent to battle in the middle of the desert. I seem to recall this having a slight effect on morale, but not a major effect. That said, it was not lost on the enlisted Marines that we may be asked to spill our blood in order to take down a former ally. However, it would play a role in my own political views years later.