Don't play until you read at least half way through

It was late March, 1991, and we were given the call that we could finally get out of Iraq. We have been in the middle east since July 1990, part of what we called "Club 20,000", otherwise known as the first soldiers to deploy into what was to become known as "Desert Shield" and ultimately, "Desert Storm".

The Armed Forces network was set up by December 1990, and broadcasting inside of Saudi Arabia, but we were part of the unfortunate group that went up into or near the Iraqi border the 1st week of January, 1991. We were then out of range of AFRTS then, and wouldn't hear any music for some time. Not that it really mattered, on January 16th (Jan 17th your time back here in the states) we started the air war, which was as you know, the first phase of the Persian Gulf war.

So we got our notice to go back home, and we convoyed for many hours at breakneck speed just to get the *uck out of Iraq. As we were approaching the Saudi Border early in the morning of our second day in convoy, I asked a young soldier in the back of our Hummer to turn on his portable radio to see if he could pick up AFRTS.

At the exact moment we crossed out of Iraq and into Saudi, this song came on. Now I don't pretend to know very much about the group Wilson-Phillips, no am I a particular fan of radio-pop music, but just hearing an English spoken song - so incredibly ironic as we crossed that border and into what we all knew was our first safe-haven in months...well...you know. It was just nice, and I asked him to turn it up.

As the music and the melody washed over me, I closed my eyes and thought of my dad and mom, my brothers and sisters, and my then 10 year old daughter. As tears welled up in my eyes, there was a feeling of complete comfort in my own emotion. This morning, I had my car radio on some station, and was barely listening to be honest with you, when this song came on.

And I turned it up to a deafening loudness.

Peace