Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991 TAG: 9102200131
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
1. Edwin Alvarez, a 30-year-old Navy master of arms, or military policeman, had trouble finding any privacy on the Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship. So he began sleeping in the brig. It was quiet there, he said.
"When we don't have people in the brig, my partner or I slept there sometimes," he told a pool reporter.
It was a habit that nearly killed him. On Monday, the Tripoli struck a mine, destroying a section of the ship directly below the brig, directly below the bunk on which Alvarez was sound asleep.
"I was asleep and was thrown out of my rack," he said, using the Navy's term for a bunk. "I remember wondering if I was dead."
He continued: "At first I thought a plane had hit the side of the ship. Then I realized I was cut up and covered by something. It was just paint."
He said he would be sleeping above deck for a time.
2. Soldiers find comfort where they can.
Sgt. Bobby Martin and two other members of his tank crew have begun sleeping in body bags, using the nylon pouches as a warm, waterproof shell over their sleeping bags.
"After I heard it was a body bag, I said wait a minute," Martin said. "It was a weird feeling."
But in a body bag, he said, he can stay warm and dry. And the bags prevent his sleeping bag from becoming coated by the chalky desert sand. - The New York Times
by CNB