Home > Gulf War Diary > Homecoming
AA Killeen was a temporary holding area for the First Cavalry Division, located about halfway between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the port of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. We could not move directly to the port, because there was a limited amount of port, ship, and aircraft space available for redeploying units. Since other units were (at the time) using those resources to get home, we had to wait for them to clear out and free up some space for us to move to the port, clear customs, put our vehicles and heavy equipment on ships, and board aircraft and fly home. While we were at AA Killeen waiting for redeployment, we were expected to perform as many redeployment tasks as possible while maintaining sufficient readiness to move back into Iraq (if necessary) in case Iraqi troops did anything to violate the cease fire terms.
We implemented a much looser security posture in AA Killeen than we had in any of the preceeding five months. Even though we were still in the middle of the desert living in tents, AA Killeen had much more of a "garrison environment" feel, with tents lined up "dress right, dress", soldiers wearing soft caps instead of Kevlars, vehicles lined up in track parks (instead of dispersed tactically), and security consisting only of roving guards. Some officers, concerned about terrorist attacks, resisted this; the prevailing attitude, though, was that the payoff in increased soldier morale made the relatively low risk of a terrorist attack in the middle of the Saudi desert worth taking. As it turned out, the biggest security threat in AA Killeen was fending off thieving Bedouins who would try to sneak in and steal anything that was not nailed down.
Property accountability was the priority of the day in AA Killeen. The battalion, DIVARTY, and Division commanders directed all company-level commanders to conduct 100 percent inventories of all of their organizational property. The prevailing policy was this: if you identified it as having been lost while still in Saudi Arabia, the higher-ups would allow you to write it off as a "combat loss." If, however, you procrastinated and waited until you got back to Fort Hood and then tried to report an item of accountable property as missing, you would end up buying it. Most company-level commanders took advantage of this and accounted for all of their property in theater; there were, however, a few commanders who waited until they got back to Fort Hood, and those people ended up spending a few paychecks for their laziness.
This liberal property accountability policy was well received for obvious reasons, and it was the most common sense policy to have in effect at the time. It was, nevertheless, abused by some people who would throw perfectly good equipment into burn pits because they were too lazy to clean it, then write it off as a "combat loss;" this unethical practice cost the taxpayers millions of unnecessary dollars, and commanders, for the most part, would "look the other way" whenever it happened.
On 6 April, we finally received orders to pack up our gear and make the long 500 kilometer road march to the port of Dammam to prepare for redeployment. Once we got there, we were billeted in a condominium complex called "Khobar Towers", in the nearby city of Al Khobar. Originally constructed by the Saudi government to give the Bedouins a place to live during the winter, Khobar Towers was handed over to CENTCOM after the Bedouins had repeatedly rejected offers to come out of the desert and spend the winter in Khobar Towers' nice apartments. After five and a half months of living in tents and vehicles and defecating in sawed off 55 gallon drums, it was pure heaven to live once again in hard billets and relieve oneself in a porcelain commode.
The first order of business at Dammam was to clean all of our vehicles and equipment thoroughly enough to pass the U.S. Customs' rigorous re-entry inspections. The Customs agents, concerned about introducing new organisms into the United States (which could have a devastating impact on US agriculture), demanded that every piece of equipment be absolutely spotless before being put on a USA-bound ship or aircraft. Additionally, Customs agents would conduct spot searches to ensure that soldiers were not attempting to ship home any contraband, such as Iraqi weapons, ammunition, and war trophies. Amnesty boxes were set up everywhere to give soldiers an option to "come clean" without fear of prosecution; nevertheless, some soldiers (and even officers) were stupid enough to try to ship contraband, and, when they got caught, were punished to the maximum extent possible under the UCMJ.
After we cleaned and shipped all of our equipment, we relaxed at Khobar Towers waiting for enough aircraft to be made available to fly us back home. For my battery and me, the big day finally came on April 22, 1991; after 192 days in the hell that was the desert of the Arabian peninsula, I boarded a chartered commercial aircraft and flew back to Robert Gray Army Airfield in Fort Hood, Texas. It was finally over....
