Regards, Ivan
Posted on 06/19/2004 2:06:31 AM PDT by MadIvan
WITHIN the next few days, Lee Ferguson, a highly trained combat soldier, will return to Iraq and face one of his most formidable enemies.
Not the remnants of Iraqi military resistance after the second Gulf conflict, but the ghosts of his own past.
Separated by 14 years from the boy he was in 1990, Lance Corporal Ferguson, 27, is now arguably as dangerous as those who made him one of Saddam Hussein’s infamous "human shields".
But he admits that it could take more that the distance of time and military training to lay that ordeal finally to rest.
"I am apprehensive," said the soldier, "but I’ve got no bitterness or thoughts of revenge.
"We all know it was just one guy who was the problem.
"And now I’m going back to help rebuild a country."
In August 1990, on the eve of the first Gulf war, L-Cpl Ferguson, then 13, was a soldier’s son, living with his family in Kuwait City, where his father was with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).
Saddam’s troops arrived at their compound, armed and angry, behaving like wilful schoolboys on a wrecking spree, crashing cars and ripping army houses apart.
A gun was put to the head of his father, Douglas, a career soldier, and the men were separated from their families.
Within days, Saddam had deployed them throughout the country, in an effort to prevent the allied bombing of key installations. It was, and remains, the most terrifying episode in the life of L-Cpl Ferguson, who has followed his father into the REME.
Douglas Ferguson, now 53, who retired as a captain in 1995, was herded away, along with his colleagues, at gunpoint and taken to Baghdad.
L-Cpl Ferguson, along with his mother, Pat, and his brother, John, then ten, endured a 30-hour journey to Baghdad via Basra, where they were reunited with Mr Ferguson. The family then became part of a human shield at a chemical plant.
L-Cpl Ferguson who is currently training in Germany, attached to 1 Regiment, Army Air Corps, said: "I confess to being apprehensive about going back to a place where I was twice separated from my father at gunpoint.
"I’m not exactly sure how I feel, but I’m mostly looking forward to going. A few ghosts can then be laid to rest."
The soldier remembers that even during his ordeal, there were lighter moments.
Said L-Cpl Ferguson: "Some of the guards told us they didn’t want to be doing this, but they were afraid.
"When we were held in Baghdad there was a bowling alley in the hotel and the guards put down their guns to join in.
"It was a bit like that First World War story, where the British soldiers played football against the Germans.
"Because I was tall for my age, the Iraqi soldiers had tried to take me with my dad, but he argued that I was still a child.
"We eventually made the journey to Baghdad and we stopped at Basra.
"I was shocked at how poor the people were in such an oil-rich country," he went on. "They were trying to sell us water they had bottled from an untreated stream."
The family was briefly reunited in Baghdad, but within a month Saddam agreed to release the women. However, he kept the men.
When he returned home, L-Cpl Ferguson and his family faced months of uncertainty over the fate of his father.
He added: "My mother was very strong. She focused on looking after me and my brother, but I was afraid I would never again see my dad."
The soldier remembers the huge relief when his mother arrived at his school in Greenock, Renfrewshire, with the news his dad was coming home.
"I was excused classes so we could fly down to London to meet him. It was a wonderful moment."
L-Cpl Ferguson is going back to Iraq to do the best he can.
"I have volunteered to work on one of the community projects," he said.
L-Cpl Ferguson will be in Iraq for four months, which could, according to his father, be a "very long period".
Mr Ferguson, who lives on Arran, jokes that this time round his son is a lot bigger, stronger - and "armed".
"He can take care of himself in a fair fight," said Mr Ferguson.
He added: "As a former soldier, I have great faith in the military on the ground. And Lee, as a trained combat soldier, is capable.
"But the next four months will seem very long.
"I’m sure he has mixed feelings. He watched me being taken away with a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher at my head.
"But he is a lot more capable now."
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Godspeed to you Cpl. Ferguson.
1990: Outrage at Iraqi TV hostage show Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has appeared on state television with western hostages, provoking a storm of outrage.
Saddam told the group of more than a dozen mainly British people they had been detained to prevent war and said Iraq wanted to see that they were safe.
They are among hundreds of foreigners being held in Iraq since its invasion of Kuwait at the beginning of August.
However, the Iraqi leader told them they were not being held as "human shields" saying Iraq was in a position to destroy any attacker.
Saddam singled out one young British boy - named only as Stuart - and ruffled the child's hair.
Speaking through an interpreter, he asked Stuart if he was getting his milk.
The Iraqi leader told the group: "We hope your presence as guests here will not be for too long.
"Your presence here, and in other places, is meant to prevent the scourge of war."
They would become heroes of peace, Saddam added.
The detainees, who looked strained and nervous, were promised tuition for their children and given permission to write to their families.
At the end of the 30-minute taped appearance, the Iraqi leader posed for photographs with the hostages before shaking each one by the hand.
A spokesman for the Gulf Support Group, set up by relatives of stranded Britons, said the interview "made all of us feel sick".
The British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, also criticised the broadcast.
Mr Hurd said: "I think the manipulation of children in that sort of way is contemptible."
The TV appearance has also been condemned by the US.
Impressive young man.
Very nice story.
It will be a better world because of men like Lee Ferguson.
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