-: We were deployed to an area outside of Iraq
and we were there for quite a time preparing
to go into Iraq.
We kind of knew when it was going to happen
and then closer to the time,
we were given details.
So, the night before, going across the border,
everybody knew and we were almost lined up
in a huge convoy to go across the border.
That was pretty scary.
The days leading up to that,
there were scuds going over our head,
the Iraqi Military were targeting Kuwait especially
but because we were so close to the border,
the scuds were actually going over the top of our head.
Because we didn't know fully the warheads
in some of these munitions,
it was deemed they could have NBC related,
so they could have been nuclear, biological
or chemical warfare,
so we had to don our respirators
and our protective clothing every time
that we were aware that there were munitions going
over the top of us.
So, that was pretty intense
and when we went across the border,
it was very surreal, very surreal.
We instantly went into a village called Sagrah
and village life there was obviously massively disrupted.
There were coaliltion forces everywhere
but it was obviously a very war-torn country.
There were children with,
hardly wearing any clothing
in very poor health.
There was a huge lack of fighting age men.
We later realized why that was.
So, they were offered to fight against us
or they would be taken away somewhere else.
So, that was quite, yeah, that was tough,
it was tough to see, especially the children
and so, a few children they were close
to our harbor area which was, a harbor area
is where we would sleep for the night
and just resupply.
So, near there, some of the houses had children
where there was no parents at
and that was tough to see 'cause they were struggling
but they're very resourceful people
and very happy, very, very happy.
I like to give that impression off
that they are confident and happy,
so it was just a surreal environment.