Desert Storm(part 7)

REAR DETACHMENT – KHOBAR TOWERS

When things started winding down for my unit, I volunteered to stay back with the rear detachment. Somebody had to clean, sort, and load all our gear onto the ships, and I figured I could handle that part. The Rear-D crew turned out to be a solid group. The vibe was different — more relaxed, more human, none of the constant edge we had during the main push.

We were staying at Khobar Towers. At the time, it was just a place to rack out — big concrete buildings, kind of bland, nothing memorable. But after it got bombed later on, long after I’d left, it hits you different. You don’t forget that you once lived in a place that later became the center of something that tragic.

Guard duty had its moments. One night, another guy and I were out there in the middle of the night, everything was dead quiet, and then suddenly, Muslim prayers blasted over a PA system right next to us. We had never heard that before. It scared us for a second — we didn’t know if something was happening or if we were supposed to make a move. It was just this loud, unexpected shock cutting through the silence.

And then there were the dumb things we did to keep from losing our minds. One night, while on guard duty, we took a HUMWV out for a joyride in the area we were supposed to be guarding. Because of course we did. We managed to high-center the thing and got it stuck. We had to dig like crazy to get it out before our relief showed up. Dirt flying everywhere, both of us sweating and trying to stay calm, hoping nobody rolled up and found us sitting on top of a stuck Hummer looking ridiculous.

And since that apparently wasn’t enough, we also tried to get a Russian T-72 tank started so we could take that for a joyride too. No shame — we were absolutely going to drive that thing if we could’ve gotten it running. It never kicked over, thankfully… or maybe unfortunately. Depends on how you look at it.

We had access to a little PX, too. Nothing fancy, but enough to grab some comforts from home — snacks, toiletries, small stuff that made a difference. And there was this burger trailer that was supposed to be like Burger King, even though it didn’t taste anything like BK. Still beat MREs, so nobody complained.

Morale and welfare kept trying to entertain us with goofy dances and little events. Cheesy, yeah, but honestly, it helped. It gave us something else to focus on besides everyone just wanting to go home.

Rear-D was a weird in-between world — not in the fight anymore, but not home either. Just stuck in that middle space, doing the jobs that still needed to get done, keeping each other distracted, and trying to stay sane. Those days still stick with me.