Soldier shares experience
on Gulf War anniversary
By Vanessa Renderman
Special
Projects Editor
Ten years after being stationed in the desert sands
of Saudi Arabia, Sgt. Maj. Lonnie Slone recalls waking up in the middle
of the night with orders to ready his company for a SCUD missile attack.
He says it was just part of his job.
For four months, Slone lived day-to-day, never
planning for the future because he didn't know if tomorrow would arrive.
Too far from family and friends and too close to the threat of chemical
warfare, it was common for Slone and his company to prepare for a SCUD
attack.
When the warning came, they would ingest a pill
designed to assist the body in resisting chemical agents that might
be present in the fallout. They'd climb into their chemical suits and
wait for the all-clear signal.
"It's not as bad as it sounds," Slone said.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the start of
the Persian Gulf War, and for those who served the United States, it
brings back memories of spending days in the sometimes hot and sometimes
cold desert.
Slone, who works at the army reserve center in
Lafayette and has served in the military for 27 years, was stationed
as part of a support unit and wasn't directly involved in combat during
the war that killed 148 American soldiers and wounded 467 more.
Slone says he feared the unknown while he was stationed
in Saudi Arabia. While the media relayed information to U.S. citizens,
the soldiers didn't know what was going on.
"In the desert, there is no information —
no radio, no TV," Slone said. "A plane flies overhead. Which side does
it belong to? You don't know. Where is the enemy? Is he five miles away
or 400 miles away?"
Aside from not knowing for certain what was going
on around him, Slone and the other soldiers had to live without some
of the conveniences civilians take for granted, such as clean clothes.
On average, a soldier's uniform would last a week
before it had to be washed. "Washed" usually translated into laying
the uniform in the sun to air out. Then the soldier would wear it for
another week.
"If you were lucky, you could wash a shirt once
a week," Slone said.
Sleeping was as much of a luxury as clean clothes.
Slone said that soldiers were lucky to get four
hours of sleep during a night. They slept in 30 feet by 40 feet army
general purpose tents that housed around 10 people.
They had 16-hour workdays and no free time. "There
is no such thing as free time," Slone said as he laughed.
Working all the time is similar to experiencing
SCUD missile attacks; it becomes part of the expected. "After a while,
you're so tired you don't care," Slone said.
Slone says that should another war erupt in the
near future, he's ready to go because it's part of his job. "It's what
I do," he said. "I pack my bags and I leave."
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