Entry #44: May 9, 2006

Kuwait City, Kuwait (On the Persian Gulf)

So much for keeping a low profile. I made the Kuwait City newspaper. Heck, I can’t make the news in the Rockdale Citizen anymore, much less the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But I can have my photograph plastered across a newspaper with a circulation of two million Arabs.

As an intelligence officer, I don’t like to be on the forefront of things in a country in which I’m operating, much less make the most popular newspaper. In other words, I like to keep a low profile or blend in, which is why I wore a cowboy hat that day (I figured I’d look like a Texas oilman on business). Instead, I’m a poster boy for a contingent of Army officers visiting Kuwait City.

Let me explain how this all came about. My task force commander and chaplain organized what is called a “staff ride”, which is basically an excuse for the officers to get off base and unwind, veiled behind the reason that we’re going to visit historic sites, which we did. We traveled down to Kuwait City, met with two prestigious former Kuwaiti generals who led the defense of Kuwait during the Iraq invasion in 1990, then toured a museum that commemorated the invasion, occupation, and liberation of Kuwait. Somehow, I didn’t notice the photographer snap a photo of me as I toured the museum. So therefore, I ended up in the newspaper.

Besides me becoming the cowboy American officer riding into Kuwait to learn about its history, we had a good time. I had lunch at the restaurant in the Kuwaiti towers, 82 stories high, overlooking the Persian Gulf. We walked along the gulf shore and basically enjoyed a pleasant day in a real city. I had dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Kuwait City, where a couple of the waitresses hit on Shawn, myself, and another buddy of ours, a guy named “Moose” who is of Pakistani descent. I did not expect that bit being in an Arab country that is very conservative. They tried to get us to go to a party later on, which we obviously couldn’t go to, though it was very tempting. They told us they had real beer at this party, and Shawn had to restrain Moose and I from going AWOL. Kuwait is a dry country, kinda like high school parties are dry. It’s illegal, but you can find it if you want to. But we did the right thing and got back on the bus and headed back to lovely picturesque Camp Buehring. And so the Soldier’s life continues…