HUt~~~N INTEREST.STORY FOR CMC

File: 082696_d50022_145.txt
Page: 145
Total Pages: 242
 .,~ -r~~::..     -                                                         1.-


    The following article is offered~as input to~LtGen Boomer `5
    *request~for interesting items that may have ~appened during
    the liberate Kuwait exercise.

               The 1st Battalion, 12th ~a~ines receivei.~ Kuwaitee
    national, honorary rank of Lieute~~ant, prior to Operation
    Desert Storm.        This officer was assigned for purposes of
    interpretation should the unit take Iraqi prisoners or meet
    up with )Cuwaitee nationals/resistance fighters.       During the
    actual offensive, the Battalion took many enemy prisoners of
    war and Lt Saud was extremely valuable in the interrogation
    of the prisoners and identification of ~raqi Officers.
               After the Battalion had moved to the Kuwaitee
    International Airport area and a cease fire was ordered, Lt
    Saud requested to go into Kuwait City to see what damage had
    been done to his home.        We received' clearance to go into the
    city and Lt Saud led a convoy of two HMWWV's with the
    Battalion Commander, Sergeant Ma~or, Headquarters Battery CO,
    First Sergeant, 2 Drivers and 2 riflemen.        After we cleared
    Lt Saud's home (reports from local Kuwaitees indicated Iraqis
    were still present in some of the homes), we saw that the
    Iraqis had totally demolished the interior.        Not one thing
    was left in intact.
               As I waited on the street while Lt Saud took inventory,
    two Kuwaitees came up to us.        Both were well dressed, one was
    a doctor who had to continually escape from the Iraqis for
    fear of being shot.        The elder Kuwaitee told me that se,eee
    Kuwaitees died in. i'uwait City and ie to 2e,ee~ Kuwaitee women
    had been raped; but all that was not worth one American life.
    He further said that they would not kill Iraqi prisoners
    because that would bring them down to the Iraqi level.        Had
    Iraq invaded the US and committed the same barbaric acts,       I
    wonder how restrainted we could be.
 *             The other Kuwaitee had a little girl on his right sid~
    and they were holding hands.        He told me his daughter (I
    believe~her name was Moona and she was 3 1/2 years old) had
    seen her mother and brothers killed and left on tk~ street
    for three days.        She was~wearing a black outfit with red,
    green and white design on the shirt (that I recognized was
    the colors o~ the Kuwaitee flag).        She had a beautiful face
    and as I reach for her \\and to say "hi, what's your name
    sweetheart?~ She looked up at me with her big dark eyes, too~
    my hand in her little soft hand and said *thank you.1 I was
    kneeling by then and I felt my        eyes water because it was
    obvious to me she knew what had happened and I have two
    daughters,       age S and 9 months.  The First Sergeant, my
    driver, and I were greatly moved.
               If anyone ever wants to know why we fought the agression
    of Iraq, that was why!


                                         R. -W Rivers
                                       - LtCoi *BnCO 1/12