Two things happened every morning.  First one, always occurred right at sun-up.  Three B-52’s would fly by, northbound.  Although it was never confirmed, rumor had it that they were working their way, one day at a time, from east to west, bombing one Iraqi unit at a time along the Kuwait/Saudi Arabia Boarder.   They would drop bombs on one unit, turn left (west), and drop leaflets telling the Iraqi soldiers if they didn’t surrender, the bombers would visit them the next day.  And so, each day a new unit.   I'm not sure if its true, but it makes a great war story.

The second thing that happened every morning, was burning the previous days buildup in the latrine.  Here is a picture of the best intel Saddam Hussein could have had to tell him how well the 1st Armored Division was being fed.

Here’s Brett, other guy standing next to Brett was a crew chief in the attack platoon and I don’t remember his name.  We didn't get issued any desert camo until after the ground war when we arrived back at the port to pack up our stuff and go home.  We wore the “chocolate chip” camo only once, for the Division Review back in Germany to celebrate our victorious return.

Keith flew with me as an Aerial Observer.  This picture was taken right after a kerosine powered heater blew up on us while we were trying to light it.  Blackened faces and singed eyebrows.  Shortly after we returned to Germany, Keith went Warrant Officer Candidate’s School and became a rated pilot.   Keith a was super Aerial Observer, and a really good friend as well (and after flying at night under Night Vision Goggles with me at the controls he'll never have to prove his bravery in any other way).

We had some peaceful moments during our time before the ground war.

We also took the time to have a little fun.  I remembered during one of our briefings with the Brigade Commander, he said, “and don’t be out there doing any whooferdills”. I had to get a picture of my rendition of a whooferdill. Did I get it right, sir?

Early February we continued to train in the general area just to south of Hafar al Batin. We were ask to mark our aircraft and vehicles with the distinctive “upside down V” that was being placed on all equipment belonging to coalition forces. We were also told to put a yellow circle on our aircraft to help identify that the were assigned to Charlie Company. We must've been short of yellow paint because all of the circles came out looking like “C’’s”.

A little dusty but no the worse for wear.  The Air War dragged on almost through the month of February, and then we were ordered to re-deploy to an Attack Position just south of the “diamond” on the boarder between Iraq and Saudi Arabia (see the map below). From there we moved north into Iraq.  You can spot a couple of additions to the Aircraft: Loran Receiver on top of the instrument panel. Chemical Detection Tape on the skids. Reverse Flow baffles on the engine inlets to aid in keeping out dust.