Overheard from 1990

Today begins the first of excerpts from letters from the past. Some may be from the near past, some may be from the middle of the last century. Others from points before or after. A couple of things they will have in common:

1. There will be background information to the best of my ability, but no identifying information. I have no idea of whether or not some of these people are alive or dead. And, for purposes of what this will be, identity should not matter.

2. These slices of life will, for the most part, either human interest and/or something that interests/amuses me. Occasionally, they will be commentary on the state of the world such as this first one (largely because it was the first one I found that immediately called out to me). Tomorrow, I will be digging into the motherload of correspondence.

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Sent by a soldier in November 1990 stationed somewhere in the Middle East waiting for what would become the Gulf War.

One of the things I meant to say in my last letter was that I am much more understanding now of how much the Vietnam soldier went through. I know that I haven't experienced the combat aspects yet, but I've faced everything that leads up to combat. Also, if things keep going the way they are now, I'll have the combat patch before I go home.

Speaking of going home, it's beginning to look a lot like Easter. If we do go to war, it will probably be between New Year's and Ramadan. The war will probably last about a month and Ft. Bragg units will be the first home after that. If we don't go in, then I'm almost certain that the Ft. Bragg units will be rotated home during Ramadan. After all, VII Corps in [sic] enough to defend Saudi Arabia during the summer. My money, though, says that this whole thing will be resolved by Ramadan.