January 1991
Dear Mom,
You told me to be careful what I ask for and you were right.
I came to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to find a great adventure.
Our “first class accommodations” are in the northern Arabian Desert bordering Iraq and Kuwait. The living conditions can be summed up with five words: sand, cots, tents, dehydrated food.
The SCUD missiles explode overhead and the big MI Abrams tanks fly across the open desert with their turrets spinning. It is both amazing and frightening.
I’m enclosing several rolls of film to help you envision this barren and desolate landscape. Hopefully you can still develop the pictures. The sand grit invades and ruins everything here.
When you look at the pictures, please don’t be upset when you see my hair. It looks like I got a haircut with a hacksaw but it is starting to grow back.
Sometimes I wear my Army camouflage uniform. Other times I attempt to go native to work with the Saudi contractors and local peoples. My Arab style outfit is complete with veils to cover my hair which looks terrible anyway. BUT I absolutely refuse to cover my face.
The guys in my unit started calling me “Florence of Arabia” when we first got here. The name caught on and now people from other units are using it too.
If I had any free time, finding a date would be statistically in my favor. There are more than 10,000 men to every female. One of the guys pulled an amusing prank on me. He is clever and handsome but completely off limits.
I’ll tell you about it later.
Private moments are rare now. The time for the ground war is coming.
Love you,
Flory
First Lieutenant Florence Maxton
Log Base Echo, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
PS. Are you keeping all my letters? I have not had time to write in my journal.
About Me
- Airborne_One
- My writing talent is just average but I have a fun story to tell! Once in a Blue Moon is the often action packed and humorous book about life in Saudi Arabia during the 1990-91 Gulf War. My journey is full of military adventure, cultural misunderstandings and falling in love with a guy who is completely off limits.
so far, I'm loving it. I've read back throug your other psts as well. What an insider's view to to the frontline, but more importantly, it sounds like a very intriguing story. Thasers have me very curious, especially since they are moving back and forth chronologically. Very nice, Flo! I think you do yourself an injustice calling your writing talent average--it is far more than that.
ReplyDeleteJust the perfect amount of making us want more with the mention of the off-limits guy!
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