Today its 14 years to the day that i shipped out to the gulf as a young inexperienced 19 year old driver/soldier so i thought id treat you all to a few of my war pictures 8)

This pic is of my 1st truck just after it came of the boat and we went out into the desert as you can see it arrived green and we were given 4 5 litre tins of desert cam paint and a couple of brushes every time we stopped we'd jump out and paint a panel :shock: till it was the right colour



These few pics are of me and my 2nd truck a Bedford TM 14 tonne 6X6





This next one is a few of the lads out of my troop



Our 1st main job when we got out there was to run supplies from the port at al jubial to an FMA about 20 kliks away the stuff we was carrying then was mainly clothing and rations
After a boring week of doing that we were then told as we wernt part of an actual battalion we would be running free from the Al Jubial Fma right up to the front carrying ammo then turn round and run back empty and do the same again until told otherwise

A couple of pics loaded up with various artillary shells and some mlrs rockets





in the picture above i had to block the road off to stop people running over a load of shells that had fallen of the back of one of the trucks :shock: :shock:

After the initial fighting was over we were put up in a holding camp waiting for our next job But i was given the job of postman taking all the BFPO freebie parcels upto Kuwait, So a container was lobbed on the back of my motor and i was given directions and told see you in about 3 days basicly what i had to do was go down the forces post office in jubial load up with parcels then disappear into the desert and hand out sacks of goodies to all the british regiments i found

Now as a young lad i was frightened to death at this point but once i'd done it once and got back safely everything was ok and the 2nd time round i started to relax and enjoy it and thats when the fun started with our little excursions

these two pics where from the little town of Al Khafji which is on the border os saudi and kuwait





The town was like a ghost town as some of the iraqis had tried to take it but the king of saudi apperantly said to the brits stop them so in good old fashioned british style they went in and blew the crap out of it

Then we was up on the Basra rd known as death valley and that was a very eerie place to be with death and destruction everywhere









Passing through the oil fields





The oil fields were an amazing place one minute your driving along in daylight the next its pitch black with dense smoke
We decided to take a little trip into the oil fields and discovered an abandoned iraqi unit heres one of the underground bunkers



From there we went up to Kuwait airport but not before a trip through the deserted street of Kuwait city we had an escort through the worst part of the city by a Kuwaiti policeman as the locals used to try and rob us, they used to link arms across the road to try and stop us so as we approached them we fired a couple of warnig shots of to scatter them and just keep driving through then once passed them you could here the bullets thudding on the container doors as they started shooting at us and this Kuwaiti copper was taking pot shots at them

Once in the city it was quite safe to walk around and go where we wanted so a bit of sight seeing was in order

A rolls royce bentley dealers completely gutted by looters



outside the british embassy in kuwait



Me outside the Sheraton Hotel in the city



From there it was upto the Airport for our last drop and stay the night anyone remember that BA plane that was sent out to collect the freed hostages well this is why it didnt come back



One of the maddest things i saw out there was some french soldiers at the airport they had gotten hold of this brand new Masaratti sports car and they where ragging it stupid up and down the airport then when they got bored with it they shot the crap out of it

Well there you have it my experiance from 14 years ago

Simon

 

Thats some great pics and some story to go with them, fair play to you m8

 

Why thank you sir

today i shall be drinking many beers

simon

 

Well done mate!!

went there myself op telic 2, just after gulf war 2..

Going again in May 05!!!!!

 

Good luck to you mate and take it easy

 

thats pretty amazing mate, thanks for posting that makes a very good read!

 

Fair play to you mate, some nice pictures for memories for the future.
Have been lucky enough to avoid Iraq so far but I'm sure as I am due a posting in the new year to put up my promotion I have got will see a posting to Germany will change that

 

Cliff, you war dodger!!!

Fair play though, would not want to be a chef out there.........

It's fookin hot enough!!!!!

 

excellent piccies m8

if you've got more then stick em up because im sure people wont mind

 

Your right I have been war dodging

Might take a while for me to acclimatise from Northern Ireland to Iraq as it's fookin freezing in Northern Ireland

 

respect

 

superb story and pics

Puts my 9-5 job to shame

 

This pic is of my souvenirs



The story behind the shell is the evening before the ground war started we were given orders to move forward ready to resupply the tankies for the breach the next day. Our dip shit straight out of sanderhurst 2nd LT troop commander read the magellan wrong and put us 29 kilometres inside iraq before anyone else and the troop was shelled by the an iraqi artillary unit 221 shells where fired and not a single one hit after air support had been in and flattened the fcukers a few trucks motored up to clear the area and came back with a shit load of shells and every soldier from my regiment was given one which had been engraved with the unit name and dates we where there

simon

 

Excelent Simon love the pics and the story behind the pics!

What are the medals and whats the story behind the Aces?

 

The top left medal is the saudi liberation of Kuwait, from the King of saudi

The top right medal is the liberation of kuwait medal then some geezer who owns kuwait

The bottom right medal is the UK liberation of kuwait of the queen

The bottom left medal is from the previous year when i was in cyprus working as part of the UN peace keeping force It sygnifys that i survived 9 months of serious alcohol intake 2nd best time in life that was but thats another story

I think the ace of spade cards are an american thing going back to vietnam whenever a soldier made a kill they used to leave a card on the dead mans chest as a calling card there were loads of them knocking about in the gulf

simon

 

In 91 i spent 4 months in kuwait and all i seemed to do was change air filters on everything from a landrover to a chinnock.Somedays everytime a chopper landed the air filter was changed equating to 10-12 a day.

 

Great topic, has the makings of a quality read and very different to our normal garbage, please continue with more pics and info if possible...


And this is for you and your colleagues..

 

Thanks stu it means a lot when people say that

simon

 

Hi mick
on the trucks we had we took the air filter out every day and cleaned it but the worst problem we had was the starters on the trucks jamming we used to have to bump start them by pushing them with the front bumpers

simon

 

Wow a very interesting topic,thanks for the pics ,would love to see more(i like the repair on the truck windscreen )

 

wow mate, looks like you had a great time over there. some really nice pics. it looked proper hot all the time in them pics.

my brother went over there for six months and when he came back i didnt reconize him, he was that tanned lol!!

 

great pics and story

 

That made cool reading Good pics too

 

to everyone in the armed forces
had a few friends who were in the gulf first time round and other friends who are out there again now
excellent pics and a nice story to read

 

i really feel for the guys out there this time, the one before was a bit like a holiday in comparison, over and done with in no time with few casualties.

simon, we tried that with the lynx's we learnt the hard way , the first couple we did wouldnt start, on strip done the complete assembly was fubar..... to be honest i didnt see any "action" i spent all my time fixing sand damage or keeping sand out of the important bits of machinery.The only time i did any live firing was on the ranges.On return to germany we seemed to bring back half of kuwait.

 

Well done mate ,massive respect , some excellent pics and a great story

 

Good pics!You ex RA matey? I was in 29 Commando for 2 years and AMF for 3 years, I find I appreciate the things I got up to more now than I did when I was in the mob.You?

 

Andy
Ex RCT before they disbanded it and called them all The RLC

simon

 

interesting read simon, respect to you for being out there

 

good stuff, I'm gonna join the Army cadets as an instructor in the new year, can't stay away from "Green " stuff!

 

WOW, good topic, big respect to you guys and the guys who are still in Iraq

 

an amazing read mate, and well done!! you've got my respect

 

andyescos, are you going to join a local one or one further out, the van looks better in the flesh than in your sig.i see it fairly often as i live in thatcham.

 

Wow, like Stu said, Respect to you, your mates, and the boys over there now.
I do have a sad memory from the Gulf though, the first American killed was my mate
from high school.

 

Respect mate, im in the RAF at the moment and have been in 3 years


i had my name down for iraq but nothing ever come up, but now im not to sure



Nice one and Great pics

 

Total Respect mate moan the troops!! great pics btw!

 

Lovely story mate made a very good read and has also makes me think how hard it must of been for familys with loved ones out there that never returned total respect to ya buddy

 

very interesting read. Thanks Did you see the UK history channel yesterday? there was hours and hours of Gulf war history, was great watching and some amazing sights and secrets revealed