Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120513
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He spoke to hundreds of silent Airborne soldiers, seated in ranks and files on the desert sand at his feet.
"It's like when you [parachute] jump, and something doesn't feel right. The wind is blowing, it's starting to rain and you've got a bad feeling.
"But you fight back your fears and you do it, because you're a unit and the guys around you are doing it.
"You have to prepare yourselves collectively and individually for fear.
"You can't let it become panic. Panic is what causes you to fail, and it will kill you."
He tells them of World War II, during the Battle of the Bulge, when three U.S. divisions broke and ran.
"One engineer battalion did not run. It stayed in place as the others streamed through. They stayed and accomplished their mission, destroying bridges over rivers in Belgium, and stopped the German advance to Antwerp.
One battalion made the difference."
Then he asked them to rise and join him in prayer.
After the prayer - heads lowered, helmets off - their eyes clicked up and back to him.
"Take a deep breath," he commanded. "Let it out."
"Airborne," they shouted.
Flowers lit up a King Edward cigar.
A loudspeaker played Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," the unofficial anthem of Operation Desert Storm.
Then the soldiers - M-16s over their shoulders - marched out.
They marked their cadence with a shout-and-response marching song:
"Oh, hell, oh hell, oh engineers,
What the hell we doing here?
Oh, mama, don't you cry,
Your little boy is gonna die."
- Cox News Service
This is serious business
NORTHERN SAUDI ARABIA - Their motto says it all: "Initial Success or Total Failure."
For the soldiers of the Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, one mistake while carrying out their work detonating or disarming unexploded artillery shells can be fatal.
One of their number, Sgt. Daniel McClendon, 36, of Neptune, N.J., has some simple rules for surviving: Don't lose your cool and don't get cocky.
"Instead of man vs. man, it's man vs. something designed to kill or maim," he said. "Once you feel uncomfortable, your brain starts to boil and you start to make mistakes."
After five months disposing of U.S. ordnance from live-fire exercises in the Saudi desert, the team has moved up to the front lines and expects a lot of business. Many of Iraq's shells may be duds because they date back years.
Army explosives teams handle everything from grenades to one-ton bombs, disarming some and detonating most with C-4 plastic explosive.
"The bigger the boom the better," says Sgt. Paul Wyrick, 27, of Magnolia, Ark.
"It's fun," says McClendon. "A lot of people don't like to admit it, but it's the ultimate thrill."
- Associated Press
He's on God's side
NORTHERN SAUDI ARABIA - When Sgt. Robert Wise was ordered to the Persian Gulf, he had a vision: hundreds of souls, saved by a desert preacher.
And after more than two months in Saudi Arabia, Wise the preacher has come close to fulfilling his dream.
A telephone technician from Baltimore, he has organized prayer meetings, set up his own mobile church and claims he's saved 200 of his fellow soldiers.
"Right now, I'm preaching to a group of people who love God, but have forgot the power of God," said Wise, 28.
Each time his unit moves, Wise's church follows. His first was set up on a motor pool in the port of Dammam, a second arose in a tent north of the port, a third was created in a mess hall and finally he has one in a field hospital.
The church is for Americans only.
Rules against religious services in this conservative Muslim country have eased somewhat to allow unobtrusive prayer meetings. But Wise isn't about to have a try at proselytizing the Saudis.
"God gives you wisdom. And wisdom tells you not to do that," he says.
- Associated Press
The sound and the fury
In one spectacular explosion, three columns of fire shot upward, but the sound arrived more than a minute later - more than 12 miles away.
Forward air controllers, straining to tell the types of bombs by the sounds, said explosions - some nearly 40 miles away - were from either Mark 84 2,000-pound bombs or Mark 82 500-pounds bombs.
Lt. Col. Martin Simek, air liaison for the northern sector command, said the steadier fires at the horizon apparently are from Kuwaiti oilfields set ablaze by the Iraqis. The smoke does little to hamper air strikes, Simek said, but may be poisoning Iraqi troops because it's high in hydrogen sulfide content.
"We enjoy it when we hear this bombing," said Saudi Air Force Lt. Abdulaziz Fahad Alsubayee, who recently trained as an air liaison officer.
The sun set at 6 p.m. The Saudi soldiers turned their backs to the fires, dropped to their knees, bowed and prayed.
At 6:10 more allied planes, still high enough to glimmer in the sun, streamed north.
- Cox News Service
by CNB