OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE

File: 970107_sep96_decls16_0001.txt
Page: 0001
Total Pages: 5

Subject: OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE                                   

Unit: OTSG        

Parent Organization: HSC         

Box  ID: BX003205

Folder Title: OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE                                                                   

Document Number:          1

Folder Seq  #:         41




                                 Department of the Army
                          f:lieadqUarters, 44th Medical'Brigade
                                   APO New York 09773

     ,-.,H-XA                                                        12 February

     ..-.IORANDUM FOR COL Frederick J. Erdtmann, Chief, Preventive and Military
      Medicine Consultants Division, HQDA (SGPS-PSP), 5109 Leesburg Pike,
       Falls Church, VA 22041-3258

     SUBJECT: Operation Desert Storm Update


     1. Greetings from the desert! We REMFs from the Bde HQ deployed forward
     around the 10th a+ January, finally taking the plunge into tent living in the
     real desert.   We stayed only about one week at our first location, moving on
     to another where we've been for over three weeks. In both locations, the
     terrain is flat, flat, and flat.    There are no sand dunes here.. The surface
     is dirt, in places speckled with rocks and sheep dung. There are occasional
     depressions where wadis break the landscape and provide a little dip, but it
     is amazina that, although one can see relatively far into the distance (e.g.
     the water tower of a town 5 km away), one's view is otherwise limited by the
     curvature of the earth. There are no mountains, hills, trees, or bushes
     sticking up over the horizon. I would guess that the top a+ a GP medium
     disapoears below the horizon when one is just a few kilometers away.      0-F
     course, if one is in an aircraft, the situation changes.     At our first field
     location, the advance party had to contend with some heavy rains that flooded
     the field site. I arrived a few days later, when the water had drained, and
     only mud remained in the low spots. Driving to our site I did notice that I
     only vegetation, bushes about 5 to 10 feet tall, grew only in relatively low
       ,ts where water still remained in pools days after the rains. I guess tt.-
        ts provide enough water during the rainy season each year to sustain the
ants +or the entire year.

     2. January and February so far have been chilly. About 2 weeks ago, we had
     two consecutive mornings when there was frost outside.at dawn. Most nights
     the temperatures have gone into the 30's, and the daytime highs have been in
     the low 50's to low 60's. Although that doesn't sound too badg there is
     usually a breeze that slices the cold through our clothing. No one has r--l
     cold weather gear, but the "Parka, Night Camouflage, Desert" and its liner @i
     universally used as topcoat-like protection from the cold and really work ---
     well. I did not bring gloves with me - remember that I deployed in August! -
     but LTC Harlan gave me an extra pair that have been most appreciated.
     Otherwise we have remained relatively comfortable in our tents, with liners
     and heaters. We are using local-purchase "kerosene" heater   's which really @
     much better and more simply than the Army's pot belly diesel Stoves. I will
     not complain about our living conditions because of a recent conversation I
     had with two female officers from a Field Artillery Brigade. One was a FA
     lieutenant and the other was a family practice physician in the FA Bde. For
     the previous three weeks they had been sleeping in holes du4 into the ground.
     At first they had dug by hand holes big enough to accommodate their cots.
     With the help of some engineer equipment they ended up with a hole over five
     feet deep that +its about three cots and their rucksacks. There is no roo-F a+
     any sort over the hole. The entrance is a sloping wall. They sIL-Lp on their
     cots, bundled up into their sleeping bags, which in turn are enveloped in the
        I-lined "space blankets" which many of us have. The latter helps to retain
        t and its outer surface repels the rainwater. They have no heaters. I
     must say that their spirits seemed to be high, although that may have been due
 building
     attending briefings. They came from Ft. Sill. Since the doc had not yet had
     the nerve to tell her family how she was living, I will not identify her.

Document 5 f:/Week-36/BX003205/OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE/operation desert storm update:01029715471617
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-36
Box ID = BX003205
Unit = OTSG
Parent Organization = HSC
Folder Title = OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE
Folder Seq # = 41
Subject = OPERATION DESERT STORM UPDATE
Document Seq # = 1
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 02-JAN-1997