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thedrifter
05-01-03, 12:47 PM
Veterans recognize differences between the two wars in gulf


By Jeanette Steele
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 1, 2003

Same enemy. Same part of the world.

But what a difference 12 years makes.

Now, with the shooting mostly stopped and troops trickling home, local Desert Storm veterans are comparing their war to the second Iraq conflict.

They are amazed at the viciousness of the combat and worry about the emotional health of returning troops. They are hoping the government will do enough to watch for war-related illnesses and avoid a repeat of the controversy over Gulf War Syndrome.

Veterans of that first war also feel gratified that the military finished the job they started in 1991 with Iraq.

And yet they feel a former warrior's bittersweet remorse that they weren't there this time to share the dangers.

Some said the greatest difference between the two wars was the type of fighting. This time, Marines and soldiers entered cities, facing down guerrilla fighters hiding among civilians.

In Desert Storm, U.S. forces largely fought against uniformed soldiers in the Kuwaiti desert.

And that key distinction makes some veterans of the earlier war fear that returning combat troops may need more help overcoming the emotional stresses of war.

"There was a lot more eyeball-to-eyeball combat this time. That will have more of an impact on people than in the last war," said Mike Brooks, a retired Marine colonel who led the Camp Pendleton special forces in Kuwait in 1991. He lives in Fallbrook.

Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division fought in Nasiriyah and later Baghdad, first flushing out Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary groups, who dressed like civilians and drove ordinary trucks mounted with machine guns.

Later, Marines manned checkpoints where the threat of suicide bombings by residents turned out to be all too real.

Jim Fulks, who led the Marine 4th Regiment through desert minefields in 1991, said the psychological impact may be the stiffest challenge once the troops are home.

"It's when you are so uncertain about the enemy and uncertain about your decision that it causes that angst when you start thinking about it a year down the line," said Fulks, of San Diego, who is also a Vietnam veteran. He retired as a colonel in 1994.

His troops faced the prospect of uniformed Iraqi troops choosing not to fight, but not of civilians firing on his forces.

"Because of that contact with civilians, that always has an impact on young military guys because they will continue to second-guess about, 'If I waited a minute, maybe I wouldn't have fired,' " Fulks said.

War-related stress may have played a role in what's become known as Gulf War Syndrome, a loose collection of maladies including chronic fatigue, headaches, joint pain, skin rashes and sores, difficulty concentrating and memory loss, chronic diarrhea and gastrointestinal trouble.

Thousands of U.S. troops who served in Desert Storm reported such problems following the war.

The cause has never been pinpointed. But experts and veterans have blamed stress, vaccinations that service members received before the 1991 war, and exposure to chemical weapons and radioactive materials.

Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, is skeptical that stress caused many of the illnesses. Still, he feels it's important that troops this time get care for post-traumatic shock.


Extra care needed
"More people probably saw and did more things related to the psychological factors of seeing death and seeing your friends die, so we've got to take extra care to make sure we provide the services and benefits people need," said Robinson, an Army Ranger in 1991.
Veterans are cautiously optimistic that an important lesson was learned about recognizing Gulf War Syndrome in the mid-1990s.

"I hope we don't have to do battle with the government over these people who are coming out," said Bobby Price, a Navy Gulf War veteran and a San Diego County Veterans of Foreign Wars officer who lives in Chula Vista.

"Obviously, they've seen some things (in combat) this time around they didn't see before."

Brooks said the furor over Gulf War Syndrome will inspire greater help for veterans.

"It will be certainly much better than after Vietnam and probably better than after Desert Storm," said Brooks, who retired in 2000. "With all the publicity given to Gulf War Syndrome, I think it will be very close to the surface of people's minds."

Also on the positive side, some veterans said, the troops in the latest war did not have to face some anticipated threats, or had better protections.

Robinson praised the Defense Department's efforts to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals. There was more extensive equipment on the battlefield to sense sarin gas, or other such agents that Hussein's troops might have tried, he said.

Besides expressing their concerns over health issues, Desert Storm veterans are examining the unexpectedly quick success by U.S. troops.

They believe the military clearly took a lesson from the last war against Iraq: Namely, better communication.


On a cruiser
Veterans said the forces didn't mesh together effectively then. For example, friendly fire incidents – such as when a U.S. or allied pilot bombed a U.S. position – happened because of poor communication.
"What we found in 1991 was we weren't very joint. The Navy and Marines, Army and Air Force didn't do a very good job at being able to talk to each other," said Price, who was an anti-air warfare coordinator on a guided missile cruiser during Desert Storm.

"So, this time around, it seems we were able to operate more cohesively and not in as much disarray."

Brooks said intelligence was "very poorly disseminated" in 1991. "What really enabled success in this war was the logistics and intelligence."

These veterans, who had to watch this war via their televisions instead of through their binoculars, gave high marks to the performance of military planners, whom they might have known as green lieutenants 12 years before.

Some have mixed feelings, because they knew there was unfinished business when troops returned from Desert Storm.

Brooks said that every time he stepped into the shower in late March, he thought about how the Marines on the battlefield probably hadn't showered in days.

Three emotions have been washing over him.

"One is, I miss it, I wish I was there. Two is guilty, because I'm not there. And, three, thanking God I'm not there," Brooks said.

"You look forward to what you would be facing as an individual and that's not pretty," he said. "It's a mixed bag of emotions."



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Jeanette Steele: (760) 476-8244; jen.steele@uniontrib.com



Sempers,

Roger

tommyboy
05-02-03, 04:44 PM
There's no doubt they did a hell of a lot more ground combat. In the first one we bombed them into sumbission and cleaned up what was left of them with ground forces. They had it tougher than us without a doubt. They had alot of direct contact. We didnt. I have great respect for what these guys just went through.