August 2, 1990

On August 2, 1990 I was stationed at Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia, having just arrived there in May after completing a year-long tour in Korea without my family. I was pretty happy to be at Langley because I'm originally from Virginia and Hampton was only an hour away from my old stomping grounds of Highland Springs, and I also knew that Langley would most likely be my last duty station before I retired from the Air Force. My family and I had for the most part made it through the awkward period of getting reacquainted that always comes after the service member returns home after a remote tour, and were looking forward to the time we were to spend in Virginia.

I was also looking forward to the time I was going to spend with my unit, the 1st Security Police Squadron, because for the first time in my Air Force career I was stationed at a base where there was a Federal Magistrate's Court nearby, which meant that when we of the Base Police wrote a civilian a ticket, he couldn't just wipe his butt with it since the standard AF Form 1408 means nothing to a civilian. But the DD Form 1805/Magistrate's Ticket, however, was another thing entirely - this was a TRAFFIC CITATION in every sense of the word! Points against your license, fines, the whole thing! At Langley I felt more like a bona-fide cop than I ever did before.

So I was working the Day Shift as the Flight Chief of "A" Flight and was still trying to get to know the people on my shift and in my unit. I was also pretty secure in the notion that since I had just completed my second remote tour, the Air Force was going to leave me alone as far as lengthy deployments or reassignments went for at least the next 18 months, because according to regulations that's how long it was going to be before I was eligible for either.

And then Saddam Hussein changed all that.

I was off that day and was at my quarters in the Bethel Manor off-base housing area when the phone rang. I answered it and was told that a base-wide recall had just been initiated; I asked why, and the Desk Sergeant on the other end told me that Iraqi forces had just invaded Kuwait, and Kuwait was screaming for help. So I did exactly what you're supposed to do when you get the "recall" phone call - I stopped what I was doing, put on my BDU uniform without bothering to shave or shower or anything like that (time is VERY critical during a recall), grabbed my pre-packed Mobility Bag containing enough uniforms and personal hygiene supplies for 30 days in the field, kissed my kids and my then-wife Mary good-bye, got in my brand-new blue Chevy S-10 pickup truck I had just bought the month before, and drove to the base to report in. Needless to say, the traffic heading into the base was a nightmare, but it was an orderly nightmare.

Once I arrived at my squadron area and signed in, I was sent to the Armory area to wait. Nobody knew what was going to happen since the President of the United States hadn't decided whether or not to send troops in; seems he wanted to give the Useless Nations a chance to act first. So we sat around for about six hours or so, and finally were given the word - go home and wait for the phone to ring. Normal duty assignments in the mean time, but be ready to go at a moment's notice.

Was I worried? Nope. For two reasons: One, I had just gotten back from a remote tour so I wasn't eligible for deployment, and Two, I seriously believed that Hussein would back down and pull his troops out of Kuwait. And I spent the next 4 days telling everyone who asked me if I thought we were gonna go "no," because he'd back down. NO WAY would he risk incurring the wraith of the entire world and especially the United States by remaining in Kuwait. The outcry from the rest of the world, even from the other Muslim states, was universal and deafening, all of them calling for his immediate withdrawal. As the reports of looting, pillaging, burning and raping started to flow in, the calls for his withdrawal turned into demands and finally into ultimatums.

But he'd pull out. Sure he would - NOBODY could be THAT stupid.

Or so I thought.

More to come in 4 days.

IHC