The best was finally going to do what I spent 6 years training day in and day out for... I don't think I would have enjoyed the military as completely if I hadn't had that opportunity before I ETS'd. Come to think of it, I'd probably still be in waiting for it.... Kind of like building a race car, and never taking it out of the garage.... just wouldn't make sense.

The worst.... sand in your chow, sand in your ears, mouth, hair, sand, sand, sand.... it's not like being grubby or dirty, it's like wrapping yourself in sandpaper. The crap is just plain irritating... I guess the second worst was knowing that the king sand jockey had chemical weapons. I really never thought much about getting shot or taking my chance against someone else, but thinking about breathing one minute and twitching on the ground the next didn't make me real comfortable you can see it, smell it or taste it and your only warning is when your buddy drops dead for no apparent reason... I think it was the thing that scared most of us. Everything else was just business.

I remember one evening we were in Dhahran (sp) in a warehouse on the port. We had just come back from a staging area where everything was being prepared and setup to hit the desert, sand painting, maintenance checks etc. Some of the unit was outside trying to get the sand out of their pores in these stilt showers. It was a pain in the ass to get a shower, you had to carry your M16, 45 and gas mask with you along with whatever you were going to use in the shower. A nearby SCUD alarm went off and flying through the front door to the warehouse were 25 guys, nothing on, carrying their M16's and 45's with gas masks on their faces.... some still had soap in their hair... It was good for a laugh when it was all over.

Next door to us were the Desert Rats. I have a lot of respect for the Brits (or at least that unit). Whenever they got the chance they would play a game of rugby outside the warehouse on the tarmac, in shorts. What a mess, scraped up banged up... lunatics... the whole bloody lot of 'em..