It looks like division is getting into the habit of rotating the brigades between Bastonge, Oasis, and Dhahran every fifteen days or so. I guess it's supposed to keep us on our toes. Whatever. All I know is despite the 'luxuries' we have here at Fort Camel, I'd rather be up north. Brass' logic is to bring us back to Camel to refit and relax. What a crock of shit! Sure we have electricity, showers, cots but we also have loads of chicken shit details. Not to mention we're missile fodder back here. Up north the Iraqi's have to play our game, here we have to play theirs. It really gets under my skin. But not as much as the chicken shit gets under my skin! Goddamn it, we're staring down the fourth largest army in the world and the powers that be are worried about dust inside our hajs and scuffs on our boots; we're in the middle of the Goddamn desert! When this is all over, and my hitch is up, I'm out. I can't wait to wear civilian clothes again. Sorry about bitching, but this place is tough enough without having to deal with brass' caca.
To answer your question, here's what this Sergeant's thinks of this lesbian afterbirth of a clusterfuck called desert shield: The 101st is part of the larger 18th airborne corps, ABC for short. The 82nd Airborne, the 24th Mech. and 3rd ACR (Calvary regiment) complete the 18th ABC. The jar-headed marines and whatever other Arabs are in country make up the rest of the covering force. ABC still provides the bulk of ground coverage, and there is a lot of Saudi Real Estate to cover. The one oh one sits out front of corps, our job is to slow the Iraqi's down and contour the battlefield - funnel him into a killing zone made up of the rest of 18 ABC. In other words, get him to fight by our rules. Shitty job, but someone has to do it. Why is the 101st out front? Good question when you consider the Iraqi's are tank heavy and the 101st doesn't own a single one. The answer is mobility and firepower; no one else has anything close. Our mobility is a force multiplier. We can get from Point A to Point B so fast that we appear a lot larger than what we are. We're anti-tank latent - we have so many anti-tank weapons it's silly. And that's not including the Apaches. I've seen what an Apache is capable of doing. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of that bird. In a scary way, it is awesome. I'd take 10 Apaches over 100 tanks any day.