Another Crazy War Story V: The Storm

Previous installments of the series here.

There is an ever present enemy aligned against every military force ever mobilized.  The Marines of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea knew her very well, as did I in the deserts of Iraq.

Weather is a neutral enemy.  She does not give a damn what uniform you wear, she's just as happy to kick your ass either way.  If God exists, It makes Its opinion of war known through the machinations of the atmosphere.  

Most of what sucks about Iraq is the heat.  100 degrees is a chilly day in the summer, and wearing all that gear only makes it worse.  However, I very nearly froze to death one night, and if that doesn't prove irony is alive and well, I don't know what will.

After our encounter with a minefield,  the advanced party arrived at the Division's new location, and set about creating a perimeter.  As we were digging our new hole, the wind started to blow.  

When the wind picks up in Iraq, there is nothing to cut it.  If it gets going fast enough, it brings the sand up with it.  I have trouble describing what that's like.  The closest I can come to putting a sandstorm into words  is that it feels like thousands of dull needles flying into your flesh.  They don't pierce, but they sting.

As this storm started up it wasn't much, just some gusts of wind.  Then the gusts became the norm.  I couldn't tell you how fast the wind was blowing.  I just know it was bad.

As the sun went down, it wasn't just the sky that turned orange.  The air was so thick with sand that the air turned orange.  It was so bad we donned our gas masks, just to keep the sand out of our eyes and mouths.  There is a picture in the comments, but it won't do the experience justice.

The sun continued to set, and the ambient light faded.  Outside of Baghdad, there is no light pollution.  I saw some of the most beautiful skyscapes I have ever seen in Iraq, because there were no lights anywhere.  I wouldn't see anything this night.

Once the sun went down, the visibility went down to zero.  That is not an exaggeration.  I literally could not see my hand in front of my face.  The dark was total.  We were blind.  And, just as I think things can't get any worse, it starts to rain.

I had already put my poncho around the machine gun, because it was necessary for our mission.  Now, I put my Gortex coat around my M-16.  This is my rifle, and all that shit.  So I get soaked, and then the temperature drops. I nearly freeze to death.  

Sgt  Bludev, a Marine to the end, demanded that we kept up the watch cycle, even though it was futile, so we rotated around an hour later.  I go to sleep, and I don't remember much of this, because I was so out of it, but do remember waking up calling for help.  Not waking up and then calling for help, but waking up with the words coming from my lips.  My body must have known what was happening to me.  I manage, once waking a little, to get to my pack, where I have a spare chem suit top, and I change into it, which helps a little.  Then I lay down next to LCpl Gross, and we exchange body warmth.  I stave off hypothermia.

This is an incredibly embarrassing story for me to tell, and I feel even worse considering four Marines from 1st Tank Battalion died when their tank flipped over into the Euphrates river.  They drown, in the dark, and I was just cold.

When I wake up in the morning, the dust has settled, but it's still bitterly cold.  All four of the men it the hole ended up asleep, which pissed Sgt. Bludev off to no end.  Our relief just went to sleep, which is a violation of General Orders.  We didn't know this at the time, but an order came over the radio just to bed down.  We never got that word.

I resume my position on watch, and as the sun comes up, I hear this noise.  It sounded like a something dying, a gargling noise.  I had no fucking clue what it was.  The morning marches on, and slowly but surely I begin to make out a herd of camels on the horizon.  I had never seen a camel before, much less a herd of them, and I had never heard one before.  As the sun continues to rise, the camels get closer without moving, a trick of the light, which was sur-fucking-real.  

To this day, that is the worst night of my life.  It was torturous.  I don't go to beaches anymore, because I can't stand the sand.

Tune in next time, because I'm going to get really dirty.