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Shannie, September 8th, 1990

We're on the ht I'd ure! Ru up towards the Kuwait border We're nervous, but it beats the hell out standing around Fort Ca out chicken-shit details We don't knohere we're going or e're doing, scuttlebutt has it were going to be part of a covering force near the border Don't shit your pants if you don't hear froure we'll be completely in the sticks It's fucked up to think that Fort Ca

Count

PS Maybe you'll see me on CNN!

Shannie, Septeht, and there's actually a chill in the air I'm 'Up North' at a place the apache pilots call Camp Hell The pilot's say we're about 50 or soa FOB - army talk for a forward base - near a town called An Nuriya - General Peay dubbed it Bastonge Wouldn't Jaured you want to knohy it's called Bastonge Like the Belgium town, An Nuriya is an important road junction If the Iraqi's come after Dhahran or Riyadh they'll need An Nuriya We'd probably have orders to hold it at all costs Say what you will about Peay, he's kno to ns past Tradition creates high expectations

What a night! I've just got back into camp A few of us spent some free time on the dunes outside of town We found a spot on a side of a dune and watched the heavens; I've never seen anything so beautiful The night is so dark; it's the blackest black I ever saw And piercing the blackness is the starlight, they're the whitest white I ever seen Like lasers, they burn brilliant holes in the darkness It's insane, in a good way! Back home, I never could ht is as liberating as the daytime heat is oppressive It feels like a different planet up here I can't explain how different it is than Dhahran Even the sand is different Back at Fort Camel, it is flat and white, kinda like at the shore Up here the sand is yellow, coarse, and it rolls into dune after dune They kinda re to our topo h I bet Beyford could fit on the side of soht up, froot the feeling they were somehow alive, liquid, like water, butA captain on board said it best; he called the sight sublime