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ASSEMBLY AREA HAMMER, KUWAIT
A solitary silence hangs over camp
By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff, 3/19/2003
Anything, even the rigors of combat, seemed preferable to a monotonous waiting game among the 4-foot-long lizards, deadly scorpions, and flesh-eating camel spiders that appear every spring with the inexorably rising heat. But now, with war imminent, the easy camaraderie and ready laughter so prevalent just days ago have given way to quiet soul-searching.
Many of those moments were spent alone yesterday, because there are no telephones here, no Internet access for the troops, no means to say good-bye to loved ones. The brigade's last outgoing mail from this scorched encampment was picked up at dinner time.
If he could, Private First Class Justin Melott, 23, of Watonga, Okla., would call his mother and 15-month-old daughter, a child he has spent just two months with. "I'd tell them that I love them, that I'm thinking of them, and that, hopefully, they're thinking of me," Melott said.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Tyler, 27, of Bainbridge, Ga., said he would telephone his wife and 3-year-old son and ask "if everybody's doing fine."
Tyler, the chief of a 155mm self-propelled howitzer crew, said he has no complaints. "You've just got to be mentally ready and deal with this as it comes. That's part of being a leader."
This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 3/19/2003.
SSEMBLY AREA HAMMER, Kuwait -- The Army's Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division has been living under some of the most austere conditions of any US troops on the Arabian peninsula for the past three weeks, so Monday's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein came as something of a relief for these 5,000 desert-weary troops.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
