[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, I was never in Nasariyah, so I wouldn't know the local climate. I can relate to the desert dust though, but as I said - my weapon was a priority and ANY downtime was spent maintaining it. And I wasn't on the 'front lines'. I just can't for the life of me understand the mentality of any soldier or sailor or airman or marine or whatever who would allow their weapon to get dirty and not notice it - nor can I understand the mentality of any NCO or Officer who would not make this a priority for those under their command...

[91B]

I don't know all the particulars of what happened to the 507th (saw the Army's report on Hackworth's webpage and scanned over it) but I would guess that they made a long drive up Tampa and most were more concerned with scanning the horizon looking for haji than taking care of their weapon. I would also guess that the unit NCOs were probably wondering where in the hell they were and why they weren't on the planned route.