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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.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Oilfields are on Fire

Sitting in the co-pilots seat of the Black Hawk, I look out across the desert to the north where a black plume is spiraling into the sky. The pilot Captain Marks, call sign "Dr Dave", turns sharply to the west heading back to my remote desert home, Log Base Echo.

As the chopper turns, I gasp involuntarily as giant black plume after giant black plume comes into view. Dr. Dave's voice comes into my headset. "The Iraqis are retreating and their farewell gift to the Kuwaitis and Coalition Force is setting several hundred oil fields on fire".

Horrific scenarios start to run through my mind. Blackout conditions. Air filled with oil. Will we be able to breathe without venilators this close to the oil fields?

"Burgan?" I mouth the name of the largest oilfield in Kuwait.

"Burning." Dr Dave's is silent for several minutes. He is listening intently to the radio traffic.

"The radio operators keep refering to Burgan as Inferno." Dr Dave listens and talks to me simultaneously. "Apparently the heat is so intense that the Kuwaitis can't get near enough to figure out how to put it out and..."

I wait for the rest and finally ... "And?"

"Not certain I heard this correctly." Dr Dave looks puzzled, "It is raining oil? Pools of oil are forming in the desert just a few miles from here."

"Is that possible?"

"Something about trying to use salt water to smother the fire. The oil is bonding to the water mist and ending up on the desert floor in small ponds."

There is the sound of a massive explosion as another oilfield is set on fire. In the helicopter we can't feel the earth shake but on the ground that must have felt like a small earthquake. In minutes another oil plume takes shape. This time closer than the others.

Dr Dave cuts into my thoughts, "The Iraqis put in minefields around many of the oil wells after lighting them on fire."

We are quiet for the rest of the flight watching the plumes and wondering what will happen next. What will the impact be to us? To the people in Kuwait?

Dr Dave's voice comes back over the headset. "I've got orders to drop you and get the hell back to the airbase asap. Sorry I can't stick around."

"Thanks for the ride."

"Any time LT. Thanks for securing the radio gear for the engineers."

I was opening the door and preparing to leap out of the helicopter before the skids touch down. I leap and feel the beating wind from the rotor blades whipping over my head. As my feet hit the ground, I duck my head and clutch my gear to my stomach. Moving quickly but carefully I get away from the helicopter.

Within seconds Dr Dave is back in the air and gives me a quick informal salute.

I return the salute and turn to see a HumVee with a handsome Sergeant in the drivers seat waiting for me at the end of the makeshift desert helipad and Jet A refueling point.

"Thanks, I wasn't looking forward to the hike back into camp."

"Dr Dave radioed back that you got some bad news and might appreciate
seeing a friend."

"It was a three strikes day. Bad news from HQ on our ammo and flak jackets. Bad news from the Red Cross about my grandmother. And bad news that our path into Kuwait is on fire. Not a great day."

Author Note: The Iraqi troops set over 700 oil fields on fire as they fled Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm in late January 1991. For weeks the oil in the air formed around our mouths and noses. Soldiers living exposed in the desert developed severe respiratory problems. And the blackouts came throughout the middle east as the oil worked its way through the air and back to the ground. It took 4 major firefighting companies 9 months to put out all the fires. The true human and environmental impact of the fires is unknown.

2 comments:

  1. We should have absolutely no war, we should live in peace under God's law...
    but, yet, there are the 2%ers who wanna control everything from the top-down (ever see the dollar bill? what's on the back at the top of the pyramid? that ain't the eye of God, dear; that's the eye of Satan who controls the earth till the Second Coming... then, Jesus will kick-his-ass). Looky...

    But, seriously, folks, as I stand-up
    here on this Great Stage of our lifelong demise
    (only 66ish feet across and 1-outta-1 croaks),
    what's the MOST important objective in your
    finite existence, dear? I certainly know what mine is:

    Hope2God this provides some knowledge
    on your everlasting, spiritual journey;
    I may see you again Upstairs... maybe not...
    depending on how well WE mortals have fulfilled
    our voyage to the Great Beyond by 1) loving God
    and 2) loving our neighbor to the best of our ability.

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile!
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2 all-go-rhythm?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    with both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete
  2. We should have absolutely no war, we should live in peace under God's law...
    but, yet, there are the 2%ers who wanna control everything from the top-down (ever see the dollar bill? what's on the back at the top of the pyramid? that ain't the eye of God, dear; that's the eye of Satan who controls the earth till the Second Coming... then, Jesus will kick-his-ass). Looky...

    But, seriously, folks, as I stand-up
    here on this Great Stage of our lifelong demise
    (only 66ish feet across and 1-outta-1 croaks),
    what's the MOST important objective in your
    finite existence, dear? I certainly know what mine is:

    Hope2God this provides some knowledge
    on your everlasting, spiritual journey;
    I may see you again Upstairs... maybe not...
    depending on how well WE mortals have fulfilled
    our voyage to the Great Beyond by 1) loving God
    and 2) loving our neighbor to the best of our ability.

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile!
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2 all-go-rhythm?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    with both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete