| Somewhere in SWA
(Southwest Asia) >some of my pictures from Saudi Arabia |
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The quonset hut. Everyone here is thinking the same thing - what the
hell am I doing here? |
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Me and my friend Lalmansingh. We met at the processing station in
New Jersey and kinda stuck together for a while, but we both got different assignments and
didn't get to hang out much after our arrival. |
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Khobar Towers. This is where I stayed when I first got to
Dhahran. The buildings were brand new. I heard the Saudi's refused to live in
them because the cement that was used to build them came from Israel. |
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This is an underground parking garage. They fixed it up and made it
into a mess hall (dining facility). The military is always creative. |
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Inside the mess hall. The ground was covered with that plastic green
grass, which made it less like a parking garage. |
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At the Al-Qatif flea market trying on the scarf and veil I would
eventually buy. I wasn't required to wear this all the time. Just when I went
to Riyadh. In Riyadh they were very strict and traditional. They reserved
Fridays for public executions and other punishments, such as chopping off the hands of
thieves, etc. I never witnessed any of this, but did go to "chop-chop"
square on a Saturday. I saw a cement block with blood on it. Must have been
the chopping block.... some people I know would never survive there. |
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A nice Saudi man and his children in Dhahran. |
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Mo-Gas. I was lucky enough to have a new Mitsubishi Pajero,
compliments of the Japanese Government. They donated a lot of vehicles to support
the war effort. This was one of our "gas stations." We could
fill up for free. I got used to that real fast. It was hard to get into the
routine of paying for gas once I got back home. Good thing we don't have the
chopping blocks.... |
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The Saudi Air-Force showing their best drill and ceremony moves. |
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Saudi troops still in boot camp. |
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Yes, we had hot showers. The white boxes on top held water that
heated up in the hot desert sun. The water pressure sucked - it didn't exist, but it
wasn't bad under the circumstances. |
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Lack of plumbing never kept us from being sanitary. Here we have a
nice sink set up outside the latrines. Notice there are no pipes underneath the
sinks. That's because the water was allowed to just drain into the sand. |
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Desert free weights. Another display of creativity. Some of the guys really could lift
this. I was impressed. I wasn't quite macho enough to do it, although I did
try once. Notice the camouflage netting above. Didn't want the enemy to know
our secrets..... |
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Me and Slowman. We became "rill goot friends" and
stuck together like commodity rice the entire time we were there. He's a Dine, and
could speak his language. Sometimes when we were around the Saudis they would speak
Arabic to each other. Not liking to feel left out, Slowman would turn around and speak to
me in his language, and I would pretend to understand. This would piss the Saudis
off, and they would demand that we "speak English." |
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Slowman at the Saudi Culture tent, which is where we hung out a lot.
There were a lot of Saudis there teaching about the Saudi culture and Islam.
They were forever trying to convert us into Muslims. A lot of soldiers did end up
converting. Me and Slowman never did. |
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Me in one of my off moments. |
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Slowman couldn't quite get it. |
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Me and SGT Petty. Another one of my good friends. I used to
get mad because I thought he let people push him around too much. One time I asked
him if it ever made him mad when people treated him bad. He said no, because his
idea was to kill them with kindness and they would eventually change. The guy had
much more patience than I will ever have. He was also very good with money. He
had a budget all worked out for his necessities, and would send the rest of his money home
to be deposited into his savings account. He ended up saving thousands by the time
we left. I envied his self-discipline. I spent all my money... (shopping, of
course). |
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Fahad. One of my Saudi friends. He was very rich. Owned
4 computer stores, and a couple (2 ? 3 ?) huge houses. He was one of the persistent
ones who wanted me to become Muslim. He taught me a lot about Islam and the Saudi
culture, and also about the flaws in Christianity. I'm not sure if he realized it,
but he helped me get rid of all traces of the Catholic guilt that I inherited through my
parents boarding school experiences. I never did get to thank him. |
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My Sergeant Major. He never knew how to take advantage of his free
time. Sometimes he would walk the perimeter of the air base where we worked.
When he got really bored he would go to the dentist to kill time. His thinking
cracked me up sometimes. He used to go to all of the big meetings with some very
high ranking officials. During one of those meetings he thought about just getting
up and kicking the coffee table way up in the air and then walking out without saying a
word just to see what would happen. Through him I was over-exposed to Rod Stewart's
Greatest Hits. I reluctantly learned all the lyrics to every song. |
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Me on an Iraqi tank. |
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Same tank, different pose. |
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SGT Henry trying on a camel bra at a camel auction. Her name was
Valerie, too. She was from Jamaica. We went out to eat that night and she
ordered fish. When they served her a whole fish I thought she would be mad because
they didn't cut off the head and tail. Instead, she dug right in and ate the head
and eyes first like it was going out of style. I was amazed. I thought only
our tupiya's (grandma's) liked fish like that.... |
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Albino camels at the camel auction. They told me these can cost
around $10,000. I wasn't buying. |
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A Bedouin who used to come to Khobar Towers from the desert. Bedouins are
desert dwellers who still live traditionally. They are nomadic and still haven't
assimilated into the rest of society. We had a mutual curiosity and respect for each
other. He let me ride his camel once. I never could explain to him what I
was. Aside from the language barrier, he never heard of American Indians because he
couldn't read and didn't have access to any media in the desert (not that it would have
made a difference - all Saudi media is censored anyway). |
