Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Martin Howard wrote, in response to Ted . . . > Remember CNN TV coverage during the Gulf War? Heck the first night of > raids, who wasn't mesmerized by the images of the return fire from > anti-aircraft weapons? It was so surrealistic and very "Hollywood > looking." How could anyone take it seriously? I have a rather chilling memory of this. I was an undergrad living in a dorm at the time. A bunch of us had been out at the pub and stumbled home in the wee hours of the Swedish morning with a serious case of the munchies. We flicked on CNN to get an update only to be greeted with the first images of the war. It was so much like a movie . . . It's interesting the different perspectives, but this was chilling? My experience was slightly less remote. I was at Fort Benning completing infantry training as a private in the US Army. The drill sergeants allowed us to watch a little of it on CNN the night of the beginning of hostilities and we were told to expect to be shipped there in a couple of weeks or so to fight. Remember, this was when the informed opinion was still predicting a long drawn out vietnam-style slug-fest with thousands of allied casualties (mostly low-ranking grunts like me). Fortunately, things turned out differently. I was sent to the 5th Infantry Division at Ft. Polk and shortly therefter our deployment was cancelled because the Iraqis were defeated so quickly - thanks largely to those made-for-TV precision Air Force bombing raids, God bless 'em! Simon Stevens