From his camouflaged post atop a dune, a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal keeps watch over the barren Arabian sand that stretches unbroken to the horizon.
”It`s boring,” he says, scanning the vast desert terrain. ”That`s for sure.”
Boring for now. But he and the rest of his 70-member mortar platoon are among the first American combat soldiers to dig in for possible desert warfare since the North African desert campaigns in World War II, after the 1942 landing of U.S. troops in Algeria and Tunisia.
If it comes to that, the harsh desert conditions will impose unique hardships for American forces.
These range from the difficulty of hiding from Iraqi warplanes to the logistical complexity of maintaining a water supply.
Down the hill from the lookout, the Marine unit has established its camp. The camp is concealed behind an arc of sand dunes about 200 miles from the tense Saudi Arabian border with Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.
Their vehicles are hidden by camouflage covering that blends in with the desert`s light brown hues. Their mortars are set up pointing north toward the Kuwaiti border. There is an open-sided tent where the men pile their gear and come to escape the sun.
For now, it is time to wait.
That is not an easy task when there is no immediate enemy and desert conditions make heat stroke a constant danger.
And there is little by way of diversion besides the brown plastic pouches of military ”meals, ready to eat,” known as MREs, that provide troops with a high-calorie breakfast, lunch and dinner.
”Defense can be a boring thing,” acknowledged their platoon leader, named Chris, from Woodbridge, Va.
Among the biggest complaints is that they are cut off from most outside news. And so they are unaware of political developments that will determine whether they are called upon to fight.
The Pentagon is talking about broadcasting Armed Forces Radio. But that needs the approval of the conservative Saudis, who already are jittery about the effect such a large influx of foreigners will have on their culture.
This group of Marines, who have trained for desert combat in the Mojave at Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif., know the hardships of functioning in a hostile environment.
Still, ”this desert would make Twenty-Nine Palms look like Aspen, Colo.,” says Maj. Gen. John Hopkins, who commands the 16,000-member 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, the first of the three Marine brigades dispatched here.
(Under the Pentagon`s press censorship rules, senior officers can be identified, but not other soldiers, their locations or the names of military bases.)
The desert conditions put enormous strain on men and machines.
Water is the biggest concern. The unit is supplied with cardboard cartons of Saudi mineral water and are told to drink at least a quart an hour during daylight hours to avoid dehydration.
Medics are provided with intravenous fluid packs to help soldiers who collapse in the heat until they can be evacuated to air-conditioned hospital tents.
”I`m not happy to be here, but it`s the job,” says a 20-year-old lance corporal named Brian from Portland, Ore.
But his buddy Bob, a private first class, sees something more. ”We`ve got to stop these Third World countries from pushing us around,” he says.
”We`re here to take back Kuwait and show they can`t push America around.”
Not far away, past a wandering herd of camels, a 170-member Marine infantry unit also has taken up a position.
Some of the troops are filling sandbags to build a secure ammunition dump; some others are engaged in machine-gun training. After just a day or so in the desert, there are a lot of very red faces and red necks, despite the use of sunscreen.
”I have a nasty feeling we`re going to be here for quite a while,” says Danny, 21, a lance corporal from Chicago, sitting in a tent cleaning sand from his M-16.
All the weapons and other equipment require frequent cleaning because of the sand, which can be as fine as talcum powder. The extreme heat can damage electronic gear, and it shortens the life of batteries.
The Marines have been told that Iraq has massed 170,000 tropps and hundreds of tanks over the border in Kuwait.
But they say that tanks exposed in the desert would be easy targets for the sizable America arsenal of anti-tank weapons, such as TOW missiles, which can be fired from aircraft and from the ground.
What worries them most is the threat of chemical warfare; each man carries protective gear and an injectable nerve-gas antidote on his belt.
They dread the idea of fighting chemical weapons, an enemy they can`t see, and having to wear protective equipment in the searing heat.
”You can fight a tank, you can fight infantry, but you can`t fight chemical weapons,” says Randy, 21, a lance corporal from California. ”That`s our biggest fear.”
Marine pilots who fly Cobra helicopters from an air base in northeastern Saudi Arabia worry about engines overheating, and say the shifting desert topography makes navigating difficult.
Pilots such as Henry, 26, a first lieutenant from Green Bay, Wis., say they are spending time with briefing books as well as flying over the desert to try to learn the alien terrain.
”You have to be able to recognize the Iraqi vehicles from the Saudi vehicles,” he says.
Out on the tarmac, where the temperature is above 125 degrees at midday, chopper maintenance crews are rotated in 30-minute shifts to avoid heat exhaustion.
The Cobras, equipped with TOW anti-tank missiles, and transport helicopters have been airlifted here partially disassembled aboard the giant Air Force C-5 transports. The crews have them ready to fly within hours after the parts come off the plane.
Military officials said the U.S. has never before, even during World War II, moved so much equipment and so many men, so far, so quickly.
Saudi airfields and ports are clogged with American servicemen and their equipment of war in a complex logistical ballet narrowly avoiding gridlock. At one airport, newly arrived GIs are loaded aboard air-conditioned buses to be taken to the aircraft hangars and other compounds that serve as staging areas. For the first time, the Marines activated the 10-year-old contingency plan that pre-positioned cargo ships at the Indian Ocean port of Diego Garcia for just such a scenario.
The five ships, named after Marines awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, carry enough supplies to fully equip and maintain a 16,000-Marine brigade for 30 days.
Col. Bob Redlin, the brigade`s logistics officer, is overseeing the unloading at a port where arriving troops meet up with their equipment. In a period of 36 hours, he said, about 2,000 containers and 3,000 pieces of equipment-from tanks and 155 mm howitzers to trucks and first-aid gear-were taken from the ships.
The cargo includes food, fuel, water, clothing and ammunition, as well as cargo trucks, armored vehicles, electrical generators, aircraft refueling equipment, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and a 260-bed medical facility.
The modern Saudi port, one of the kingdom`s oil-financed megaprojects, is bustling with Marines hauling equipment, stacking supply containers and putting about 50 tanks into operating condition. And more is on its way. Another five cargo ships are due here shortly to meet up with the next Marine brigade arriving to take up positions.
Still, the military hasn`t provided everything. Pointing to a roll of paper towels that serves as toilet paper, one Marine says, ”I`d kill for a roll of Charmin.”
