Veterans Voices: First Gulf War

Lori Allert was stationed at the Army hospital at Landstuhl in Germany. There, the nurse helped stabilize US military troops wounded in the First Gulf War before their trip to stateside hospitals.

As an Army nurse in the First Gulf War, Kathy Friedrich ended up spending more time taking care of Iraqi POWs than American wounded. Her patients broke down into two groups: Saddam Hussein’s elite Guard and the ordinary Iraqi citizen forced into the conflict.

John W. Marshall was hit by friendly tank fire, though he didn’t know it at the time. He was on the ground when an Iraqi—the enemy—ran up and offered him a drink of water and a cigarette.

Lisa Erickson, a jet engine mechanic at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, specialized in the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine that went in the Air Force’s F-15 and F-16 planes. Though not directly in the Gulf War, Erickson and her crew worked long hours prepping engines to send to the Gulf and repairing the sand-clogged engines that returned from there. 

Shelby Setnikar, a pharmacist tech with the Army’s Third Infantry Division, came off guard duty to take a nap in the large barracks tent when someone burst in shouting, "Gas! Gas! Gas!"

Larry Liiljenquist, stationed on the USS Blue Ridge, looked forward to mail call. There were letters from family and packages from a Persian Gulf support group back home with, among other things, the latest (now a month old) copy of the local paper.

Kathy Friedrich had trained to be an ICU nurse with the Army. Yet when she first arrived in Saudi Arabia, she and the other nurses and doctors found themselves filling sandbags.

Jeff Hall was an officer assigned to an ambulance company. His drivers had to be ready at a moment’s notice. Still, he found some of the units they were assigned to had put them on KP duty. What if casualties suddenly came in?

Casey Mahon was coming off a 12-hour shift in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when an explosion shook his building. It was a Patriot missile encountering a scud. That’s when he knew he was at war..

Erick Kerska’s plane touched down in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf War was ramping up and this Army officer never forgot what the flight attendant told him when he exited the plane: "Good hunting."