Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160474
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Long
Terry Marshall brought back a cracked jaw, a taste for camel and a reservist's-eye view of around-the-clock preparations for a ground war.
"Roads were bumper-to-bumper truck traffic and that was 24 hours a day," he said. "I've never seen so much stuff in my life, all going up north."
Marshall, 23, is a member of the Galax-based Army reserve transportation unit that was called up Nov. 17 and sent to Saudi Arabia in early January. He spent most of his month in the war zone driving a tractor-trailer hauling military supplies to the front lines.
"From people to tanks, anything in between," Marshall said. "We even moved PXs. Just about anything that could be moved, we were hauling."
From the cab of his 18-wheeler, Marshall got only a glimpse of the allied ground troops dug in along the Kuwaiti border, but the urgency to complete the buildup was palpable.
Convoys weren't allowed to stop. Drivers took turns sleeping, or at least trying to sleep, while their partners drove all night. If a vehicle broke down, it had to pull off the road while the rest of the trucks whizzed past.
"If you broke down, you were on your own. Nobody would ever come to help you, not until the whole unit got back," said Marshall, a state trooper in civilian life. "The mission came first and they worried about the people later. I didn't agree with that, I guess 'cause I was one of the people."
If truckers were forced to stay behind, they were ordered to stay put and not go looking for help. The units were often so close to the Kuwaiti border, and the desert terrain was so featureless, that anyone striking off on his own easily could stray into enemy lines, Marshall said.
There were no days off in the desert, either.
"Sometimes we'd stay on the road 10 days at a time. We'd come home - well, not home, but that's what we called it - and then go back out. Sometimes we'd only be there two or three hours."
Several times, Marshall and his unit returned from a long haul to the front lines only to find that their camp had been moved, either for security or logistical reasons.
From the ground in Saudi Arabia, Marshall saw only hints of the air war being waged over Iraq and Kuwait. The skies often were overcast with smoke drifting off the battlefield. "And you'd see a lot of helicopters, that's all," he said.
For Marshall, the scariest moment came during the first Scud missile attack on Saudi Arabia. "It was 3 o'clock in the morning and the sirens went off. Somebody hollered, `gas attack!' We had to put on our masks and get on the floor. We had eight seconds to put it on, and five seconds after that to get it buckled. When you're scared, you can do it without thinking. That morning, I got mine on in four to five seconds."
The missile attacks were the only thing that could bring the truck convoys to a halt, but just barely. Alerted by radio that a missile attack was in progress, the trucks would stop - but only long enough for the drivers to put on their bulky chemical suits.
Then they'd drive on, although the masks made driving difficult. Driving was hard enough to begin with on the narrow, choked Saudi roads, Marshall said. "At night, you can't tell the difference between the road and the sand and if you get one wheel in the sand, it jerks the whole truck into the sand."
Despite the circumstances, there were some humorous moments, at least to Americans, whose curiosity sometimes clashed with Arab sensibilities.
Not long after he arrived, Marshall snapped a picture of a Saudi woman at an airport. "I've never seen a woman covered up like that," he said innocently. But her husband took offense and chased Marshall through the airport trying to seize the camera. Marshall was too fast for him.
The British troops were more flagrant in their disregard for conservative Saudi customs regarding women, Marshall said. He remembers seeing one British convoy headed north. The truckers had blow-up dolls riding beside them, while the tank drivers popped out of their turrets and waved Hustler magazine centerfolds at onlookers.
Some of the Arabs took a keen interest in America's female soldiers, however.
For the first few weeks, Marshall's unit was housed in a seven-story apartment complex in the port city of Dhahran - often nine to 10 people per apartment. After war broke out, they were moved into tents on what passed for a "farm" in the countryside but which seemed to the Americans to be little more than sand and a water hole frequented by a Kuwaiti refugee and his flock of sheep.
"Every day, he'd thank us for being there," Marshall said. The Kuwaiti was impressed by more than America's military resolve, however. He was so smitten by one of the women in Marshall's unit that one day he offered the Americans $3,000 for her. She was a blonde, which apparently enhanced her market value.
"We didn't sell," Marshall said. He added, with a chuckle: "If I'd I had it to do, I'd have sold her, though. I didn't like her much."
The camp by the water hole offered other hazards, in the form of desert-tough spiders, snakes and scorpions. Some troops trapped the scorpions in jars and tried to make pets out of them. The other wildlife wasn't quite so adaptable. "I saw a cobra as long as this room, and about 4 or 5 inches around," Marshall said. "It had a camel backed up against a fence."
(Perhaps for good reason: Marshall said one military mess hall served up camel steaks. "It was excellent. Like beef.")
For Marshall, the war ended in late January when he was lashing down another load of war material headed north. The chain snapped, delivering 600 pounds of torque against the side of his face. "One inch higher, I'd be dead; one inch lower, I'd probably be dead," Marshall said.
For five days he kept working with a broken jaw, before seeing a doctor who put him on the next plane out. Now at home recuperating with his jaw wired shut, Marshall has lost 35 pounds. As he recovers, he expects to be assigned a military job stateside, at least for a while. If the war goes on long enough, he may be sent back to Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, Marshall said he's learned to appreciate little things. "Like grass and trees." And the winter weather that swirled around Carroll County this week looked awful good. "This snow today is the prettiest thing I've seen in a long time."
Except for his wife, Sandy, that is. They were married the day before his unit was activated.
by CNB