We employed Position Location Reporting Systems(PLRS), AN/TTC-42 TRI-TAC automatic telephone switching, AN/TSC-93B Ground Mobile Force(GMF) SATCOM, AN/TTC-38 to SB-3614 analog telephone via AN/MRC-135 VHF multi-channel radio links, and several different variations of lightweight solid-state and digital radiotelephone voice communication systems.
You can read a fascinating history of the work we did in communications-electronics during the Persian Gulf War.
Corporal Weller and I had been on perimeter security patrol the first half of January at the Direct Support Command (DSC). We interviewed with UPI while standing detail, the night after the air strikes took affect. A strange Lieutenant approached us with an elderly civilian who began to ask us our backgrounds, and talk about his experience as a Marine in the Korean War. A week later, we were given a copy of the Arab News, where UPI had skewered our interview and titled it, "Soldiers finding rumors, truths in war" Here are my fellow Marines reading about the Washington Post article where UPI apparently tried to debunk Corporal Weller and my reporting the orange horizon during the air strikes of January 15th, 1991
Another article later featured Corporal Trecartin and Lance Corporal Church. Our squad leader always kept a good sense of humor when it came to the control of sensitive data - especially when mis-information and political claptrap reared their ugly heads on cnn from time to time. Obviously, any reports of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical(NBC) munitions sites being destroyed along the Kuwaiti/Iraqi/Saudi border areas were not going to be reported or given it's due through public media. Here is SSgt Marcus Campbell. A man of leadership and great humor.
I was occassionally tasked to make communications repair runs out to remote comm-link sites in Kuwait. After the ceasefire, Corporal Robert Habib and I went on a small road trip to secure some areas. We stopped in one area that the week before we had known to be a pretty heavy junk yard after the USS Missouri lobbed some Volkswagon sized rounds in the sector. Here is Corporal Robert Habib standing in front of a hole made by the U.S.S.Missouri To put it bluntly, these craters were large enough to hold about 30 minivans - stacked on top of another.
Some of my best memories while doing electronics spaghetti repair were of Corporal Hargraves. He was a scrappy guy from Easton, PA who shared my sense of humor and expertise in communications. Here is Corporal David Hargraves. Communications -Electronics Tech on the front
One fine morning, we were all catching some rest in our tent which was set up about 30 feet below ground level. The chemical alarms went blaring and we had 3 minutes or less to get into MOPP Level 4. (MOPP equipment include the over-garment and helmet cover, the vinyl overboot, the mask and hood and the gloves. There are five MOPP levels which represent the success of donning pieces of equipment in response to increased threat levels. The MOPP equipment protects against solid, liquid or vapor chemical agents. The mask permits breathing through special filters that absorb airborne agents and protect the lungs and eyes. The other components, the overgarment, the hood, the boots and the gloves protect against agent contact with the skin.) I took the opportunity to make it a Kodak moment disregarding the possibility that a SCUD missle might ruin breakfast. Here we are Having a party after getting all dressed up in our chemical suits for a scud party.
A mosque for Islamic prayer was available, so, we made the best of it and converted it to a SHF,VHF,HF relay site. mosque we turned into a communications relay on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border. Notice the hole in the oil tank...it was there when we showed..and so was the nice stain on the ground. It was at this place where some of us encountered some strange burning in our eyes and found rooms full of camouflage clothing. There was a suspiscion it was used as a detox site for some runaway Republican Guard troops who might have come in contact with chemical agents after the air strikes. They were poring over the border nightly to surrender out of starvation.
Since the Middle East forbade alcohol, we found it a task to obtain one frosty cold beer. Here I am, having a celebratory beer on news that Pres Bush has determined "mission accomplished".
Here is Corporal Robert Habib having a beer in celebration.
Here is Corporal Smith taking a smoke break.
Here is The team getting ready for the road for communications-electronics repair.
Those Russian T-72 tanks just don't work well when you bury them in the sand up to their neck. (Republican Guard left some cluster bombs and grenades around their stuck tank.)
When all was said and done, I found myself and Corporal Jamison on an M-60 guarding about 14,000 POWs from the first days incursion into Kuwait. Republican Guard POW's.
This is the postcard that was popular over in the Middle East.