Home » Kuwait » Stories about Middle East Trips (3)

These are recent stories - the rest are in my latest book,"Walking Through Adversity."

Stories about Middle East Trips (3)

Rob bryant
2006-01-09 11:43:42

Displayed times (last time: )

Can't wait to see Kuwait - I woke at 4 AM, left the villa and was in the air by 7AM. I landed in Kuwait just South of the mighty and evil Iraq. There was a dust storm that limited visibility to a few hundred meters. The pilot landed via instruments as he could not even see the VOR at the end of the runway. With the Gulf Air crash fresh on everyone's minds, we applauded the pilot as we touched down. Iraq is feared by the entire Middle East as having one of the largest military arsonels in the world. It made me proud to know that my company was helping the US keep Iraq in its place. A manager picked me up and took me directly to our DynCorp Kuwait office. I met Ormon Keathley, one of our employees who was held hostage 5 months during desert storm. In 1990, after the UN declared war on Iraq for invading Kuwait, Ormon and a British friend were hiding in a Lebanese home. However, another Lebanese neighbor turned them in and Iraq soldiers kicked down the door in the middle of the night. He and his friend were taken prisoner and Iraq soldiers hid them in various places in order to keep them away from UN soldiers. He was finally released after Iraq surrendered. He was flown to Washington DC and was interviewed on CNN. It was an honor to meet this brave man. In order to understand the Kuwait mindset we have to remember that the people of Kuwait were nomads until 1953 when oil was discovered. Believe it or not, the first cars were introduced here in the mid-fifties. They are one generation from being nomadic desert people. Here fifty years later, they have some of the most sophisticated military equipment in the world (like Patriot Missles, F-16s, F-18s, etc.). I am proud to say that DynCorp is the largest military contractor here. A major cause of death and serious injury here in Kuwait are mines. There are still many mines buried in the sand and they kill and maim children. As a matter of fact, DynCorp use to have a contract to detect, disable, and remove ...