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Monday, February 16, 2004 1st ID gets taste of sandstorms By Steve Liewer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Monday, February 16, 2004 Steve Liewer / S&S Spc. Rocco James, 29, of Gallup, N.M., left, and Spc. Jason Cole, 25, of Elizabeth City, N.C., hunker down against a strong sandstorm — one of the first of the season — Friday afternoon. The desert sandstorms, called shamals, began this week and typically continue all spring, with one every three or four days through April, Air Force meteorologists said. Steve Liewer / S&S Winds in Friday's storm topped out at 40 mph, said Capt....

Monday, February 16, 2004 As another round of forces pour in, Camp Udairi offers new amenities By Steve Liewer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Monday, February 16, 2004 Steve Liewer / S&S Some soldiers who passed through Camp Udairi last year love it better this year because of all the new MWR facilities, including a well-equipped gym, a commercial telephone center, an Internet cafe, and a movie tent. CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait — Bigger and better places for soldiers to play. Same old sand pit.That’s the soldiers’ lowdown on Camp Udairi, the aviation outpost in northern Kuwait that serves as the main...

Saturday, February 14, 2004 A long road back to Giebelstadt By Steve Liewer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Friday, February 13, 2004 Rick Emert / S&S Spc. Pamela Smith, one of about 150 soldiers from 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment to return from a one-year deployment to Iraq on Wednesday. CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait — The soldiers joked and shouted as they hustled aboard the buses in a dusty field as the sun set Tuesday in Kuwait.In less than a day, they’d finally be home. “We’re almost there,” warned their commander, Lt. Col. Eldon “Pete” Franks. “Keep your eye on the ball.”...

At Camp Udairi in Kuwait, US armament technicians are working extra-hard in giant hangars on a Christmas gift for US troops plagued by guerrilla attacks in Iraq. It is the Stryker, an eight-wheel drive armored combat vehicle, the first new armored carrier to enter service in the US army since the Abrams tank was introduced in the 1980s. DEBKAfile’s military sources quote US civil administrator Paul Bremer as informing the emergency White House consultations last month on the mounting guerrilla war in Iraq that soldiers of the US 2nd division fighting in the Baghdad area and the 4th division...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait -- A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped late Friday or early Saturday at this desert post about 10 miles south of the Iraqi border, brigade officials said Saturday. Detectives with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division taped off the area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer where the alleged assault occurred. "A 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division female soldier has allegedly been sexually assaulted at Camp Udairi. The soldier is being provided with medical care and emotional support," spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said in a statement. "The incident is under investigation,"...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - It won't be long before Pfc. Eddie Love will be doing the most dangerous job in Iraq. The 22-year-old driver from Federal Way and his buddies with the Stryker brigade's distribution company will run convoys on supply routes, where U.S. troops are most vulnerable to ambushes, roadside bombs, land mines and accidents. U.S. forces at first weren't completely prepared for this kind of war, where there are no front lines and support troops are as likely to have to fight as the infantry. The story of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Company is...

Messy camp costs troops calls to home By Cox News Service April 20, 2003 CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - On the eve of Easter, Fort Hood's sons and daughters couldn't call home from this miserable desert outpost because the place has been declared too messy. The perhaps aptly named "Mayor" Bosse closed the phone tent "until further notice" and created an uproar among thousands of 4th Infantry Division troops waiting here for convoys into Iraq. Dubbed the mayor because he is in charge of administering the camp, Mayor Bosse is actually Lt. Col. Peter Bosse, a reserve officer from Minneapolis, Minn....

WAR IN THE GULF: DAILY LIVES: THE CHOW LINE: Waits are lengthy at 'Bar and Grill' Bob Dart - Cox Washington Bureau Monday, April 14, 2003 Camp Udairi, Kuwait --- Chow was finally close for Sgt. Richard Norvell, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle crewman from Kennesaw. Once he cleared his M-16 rifle, pointed it into a barrel half-buried in the desert sand and pulled the trigger to demonstrate that it was empty, he could proceed to the hand-washing station and enter the giant tent where meals are served four times a day, including midnight. "I usually make it in about...

<p>CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwaiti Desert — Cpl. Daniel L. Sullenberger sat in the driver's seat of an Army jeep here on Friday reflecting on how much he misses his wife.</p> <p>After a long day in the desert driving through the dust during mock road march operations and firing dozens of machine rounds at practice targets, Cpl. Sullenberger, 26, was tired.</p>

<p>CAMP SAYLIYAH, Qatar -- Facing mounting skepticism about their strategy in Iraq, senior Pentagon officials launched the fiercest defense yet of their decision to send in limited ground forces, dismissing reports yesterday of discord between US political and military officials over how to prosecute the war.</p>

KUWAIT CITY, Mar 30, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A man in civilian clothes drove a pickup truck into a group of soldiers standing outside a store at the desert base of Camp Udairi in Kuwait on Sunday, a U.S. military official said. Col. Guy Shields, chief U.S. military spokesman in Kuwait City, said 15 people were injured in the incident. Fourteen of them were treated at the scene, and one soldier was taken to a military treatment facility with a knee injury. The driver of the pickup truck was shot, Shields said. "He was shot twice," Shields...

CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait -- A U.S. soldier was being held early today in connection with a grenade attack on the 101st Airborne Division's infantry brigade. The attack killed one and injured about 15 soldiers. Eleven of the victims were airlifted to the combat support hospital in nearby Camp Udairi. The sergeant, whose identity has not been released, was himself wounded either before or during his capture, Army officials said. Early this morning (late Saturday night in Florida), the sergeant was being questioned along with two Middle Eastern civilians, Army officials said. Authorities declined to say whether the two civilians were...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait -- This may surprise the folks back home, but the U.S. Army forces massing across the Iraqi border are largely unarmed. Even though all U.S. soldiers deployed to the six main Army camps in northern Kuwait must carry their rifles at all times -- even to the latrine in the middle of the night -- few are carrying any bullets.This is not an oversight, or a lame-brained cost-saving measure ordered by the Pentagon, or an indication that American military leaders believe they can take Iraq without firing a shot.Rather, it's an effort to stave off the sad...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait — The withering desert heat that U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf area have been hoping to avoid arrived abruptly yesterday, prompting military commanders to warn soldiers about heat exhaustion and soldiers to contemplate fighting Iraq in triple-digit temperatures while wearing heavy biochemical protective suits. A penetrating sun pushed the temperature into the low 80s, making it the hottest day in Kuwait since the estimated 120,000 U.S. troops began arriving in January. That's nothing compared to the 120-degree sizzlers that can occur in July and August, but still hot enough to turn the inside of a tank...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait, March 11 -- Sheathed in bulletproof camouflage vests and carrying rifles, the men who hauled plastic footlockers off a giant CH-47 Chinook helicopter here today looked like any of the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers practicing for a war with Iraq. It was an officer's barked order that gave them away. "Weapons of mass, check! Weapons of mass, check!" he cried. With exercises like this one, the little-known 75th Exploitation Task Force is preparing for a crucial mission: flying into Iraq on helicopters close behind advancing allied troops to document suspected weapons of mass destruction those...

CAMP UDAIRI, NORTHERN KUWAITI DESERT - Crack US airborne units are pouring into Kuwait, boosting American military might in preparation for a potential war against Iraq, military officials said Monday. Major Michael Miller, an executive officer of the 101st Airborne Aviation Brigade, said the majority of troops from its parent Air Assault Division had now been deployed to Kuwait. The remainder would arrive shortly, he said. They have travelled largely by commercial airliner over the past week from their base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to five camps in Kuwait, including Camp Udairi in the north of the country, the division's...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait — U.S. troops in Kuwait spent last week getting light. This week, they are getting tight. In a move jokingly being called “Operation Sardine,” soldiers in the forward base camps started squeezing together Thursday and Friday to make room for the arrival of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky. “The 101st got moved up. They’re arriving sooner than expected,” said Maj. Scot Bemis, the officer in charge of personnel who is supervising the consolidation for Task Force 11th Aviation units from Europe. “We’re expecting a very large influx of them right now.” Military officials have...