Random Thoughts

LETTERS HOME

It's been three years since my Mom passed away and some boxes containing her possessions remained unopened. To say that she saved and stored away scraps of life's bits and pieces would be an understatement. Although she was no pack rat or hoarder by any stretch of the imagination, my Mom did save some unique mementos of people, places, and events that occurred during her lifetime. The complete edition of the November 1963 Aberdeen American News newspaper detailing the assassination of President Kennedy is in one box. Upstairs in the 'boys' bedrooms' hanging on the wall is a framed newspaper clipping from the same Aberdeen American News with a photograph depicting General Norman Schwarzkopf with outstretched arm pointing at a wall map that depicts his operational plan of the sweeping left hook that floored Saddam Hussein's army during Operation Desert Storm. As a Captain and company commander of an infantry rifle company serving in the First Infantry Division during that conflict, I have glanced at that framed newspaper clipping for over 30 years, and still question why she saved it often asking myself, "What's the big deal?" I don't need reminding.

For those that were there, many will recall the docks of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia where the ships carrying our combat vehicles and equipment were unloaded. There was the large warehouse adjacent to the docks with wall-to-wall folding cots for temporary use by new arrivals until they could be married up with their equipment coming off the ships, and then hustled out to the desert staging base known as Log Base (short for logistics base) Echo. That same large warehouse was hit by one of Saddam's SCUD missiles in late February 1991, and a Pennsylvania Army Reserve unit awaiting their equipment to come off the ships suffered extensive casualties in both killed and wounded.

The rest of what occurred in that 100-hour War can be found in a number of books and articles, many of which I've read. Perhaps the most interesting to me was the one authored by my West Point classmate then Captain (later Major General) Dana Pittard detailing his actions during the Battle of 73 Easting. But before I dive down a rabbit hole reminiscing about events that occurred more than 30 years ago, let me share some thoughts about the letters from home we received that arrived in bundles too numerous to count.

The build-up of our forces in the staging bases in Saudi Arabia took some time to consolidate before we were capable of launching combat operations. This included a lot of down time for troops waiting for ships to arrive with their equipment onboard that were being sent either from the continental US or from ports in Germany. Many of us were housed temporarily in a large unfinished apartment complex near the docks that had cold running water but lacked almost everything else including toilets and windows. If you have no real experience living in a desert climate, take a hair dryer, turn it on and set it on HI, then hold it about six inches from your face. You'll quickly turn the hair dryer off and seek to cool your face. Now, imagine if that was not possible.

The one benefit of the large unfinished concrete apartment building was that it had an unfinished underground parking garage complete with dirt floors. The huge below ground open space was about 20° or so cooler than the rooms above. So instead of 120°, it was only about 100° in the parking garage. As an added benefit, the PX and Commissary folks had set up operations down there complete with barbers with their chairs sitting on the dirt floor, coolers connected to generators that sold ice cold drinks, a 'snack bar' that sold microwaved sandwiches which were a welcome relief from the two-a-day meals ready to eat or MREs, newspapers, books, and more. More importantly, there was an Army Postal Unit located there that collected and distributed mail. The Post Exchange, or PX, sold postcards that some enterprising publishing house back in the US had mass produced in record time, and the Army Postal Unit had set up metal picnic tables near their station where you could sit for a few minutes, drink your cold drink, write a postcard, and do your best not to drip sweat all over it before dropping it in the mail slot. That is my lasting memory of the docks at Dhahran.

I also remember the bags of mail addressed TO ANY SOLDIER. There were so many, mostly from school kids from around the country, and we were encouraged to take as many as we wanted, read them, and if time permitted send a short note back to the sender thanking them. I don't recollect where the notes I read came from, or how many letters I wrote in reply, but in one of my Mom's boxes I found one that I had addressed to her and that she had saved. I wrote this postcard to her on 24 January 1991, instead of complaining about the heat in true solder tradition I am instead griping about the cold. It was probably around 70°, but I recall putting on about as much clothing as I could comfortably wear because our bodies had adapted to the heat and anything less than 90° felt chilly. Note that I crossed out the word SHIELD and over the top wrote STORM.

I mailed this postcard using the MPS (Military Postal System) free mail. If you were unable to buy a postcard at the PX almost any paper product was acceptable. Many troops were using pieces of cardboard MRE boxes cut down to postcard size and then addressing them much like mine. All that was required was a valid mailing address, and the notation FREE MAIL in the upper right hand corner. The Army Postal Unit and the US Postal Service did the rest.

As I write this, I am unable to recall the last time I received a handwritten letter from family or friends. That form of correspondence has almost disappeared completely, and the ever-increasing cost of postage stamps can no doubt be linked to this current state of affairs. But there was a time, MAIL CALL was one looked forward to by officers and men alike, and the handwritten letters we received, even the ones TO ANY SOLDIER if you didn't receive mail from home, were a welcome diversion.

For those of us that got to do the Iraq Tour in 1990-1991 and then again in 2003 or later, the difference in mail call was considerable. I doubt that I wrote any letters home in 2003. I do not recall receiving any either. Email and SKYPE, or something like it, was available. There was a large, hardened tent structure that I vaguely recall that had computers set up for use on a first come/first serve basis. There were time limits for use of course, and if memory serves the network was monitored to ensure unit names and locations were censored and not transmitted.

Such is how times have changed and letters home are now transmitted electronically and instantaneously. I for one have no complaints other than to groan at the expense of mailing the monthly bills that seems to cost more than some of the bills I am paying. But that's progress, and I for one liked getting mail from the family back in 1991, but I loved being able to see my wife's face and hear her voice in 2003.

There are two ways to fight the United States military: asymmetrically and stupid. Asymmetrically means you're going to try to avoid our strengths. In the 1991 Gulf War, it's like we called Saddam's army out into the schoolyard and beat up that army.

- H. R. McMaster