A LOOK INTO THE STORM:

VOICES FROM THE GULF

SCOTT AUGUSTINE

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Scott was located in Saudi Arabia and Iraq during

Desert Storm. He served in the 37th Infantry Regiment
and 24th Infantry Division which was part of the Echo
company. The time period of his active service in the
Desert Storm was eight months.

What branch of military were you in?

U.S. Army.

When did you first join the service?

October of 1987.

What type of training did you have after you joined?

I was in the infantry. I got training in using the heavy anti-tank missile system.
Were you part of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, or OIF?
Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

What unit did you serve with?

I was in the 24th Infantry and the actual battalion, I was in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry, and the Echo
Company, 3rd Platoon.

So that means you were in the Reserves?

Yes.

How many years had you been in the service before you were activated?
Three years, going on my fourth year.

When did you receive your pre-deployment training? What kind of training did you receive?
Back then, we didnt have pre-deployment training. We did our training in the same place that the troops
that are going to Iraq. We had annual training and we actually did a rotation, so we were all ready.

Where was your staging area?

We got ready at Fort Stewart, Georgia and then we went to Hunter Army Airfield, which is in Savannah.
Thats where we flew out of.

When did you go to your staging area and what were your duties while there?
Basically we had all our equipment all ready rail-headed to the ships, so we just grabbed our personal
gear and waited to fly out.

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So it wasnt that long?

No, it wasone day.

A LOOK INTO THE STORM:

You went overseas then?

Right.

Did you experience any combat during Desert Storm?

I got there, our unit got there, I think on the 25th or 26th of
August. We landed on the 26th of August. We were
basically in a bunch of staging areas up until the air war
started which was in January, mid January. And then
,February is when the ground war started and thats when
we went across the Iraqi border. So, as far as seeing any
combat up until then, no.

When you were waiting to go over the Iraqi border, what

were your responsibilities?
We did training. We did a bunch of training exercises in
Saudi Arabia.

VOICES FROM THE GULF

THE SAUDI ARABIAN

GOVERNMENT THOUGHT IT

WOULD BE NICE TO FEED US

SOME FOOD, THEN

I THINK

HALF THE BATTALION CAME

DOWN WITH SOME TYPE OF
FOOD POSIONING.

How long were you waiting to go over?

We landed in Saudi Arabia on August 26th and we didnt cross the border until February 24th. So up until that
time, it was all staging in different areas and doing training.

What was it like being staged in Saudi Arabia?

It was definitely different. You had to get used to the climate first. It got as hot as 128 degrees when we were
there and it got as cold as 30 degrees. And we saw rain. We didnt see any snow, but we saw rain. So it took
two or three weeks just to get climatized.

Are there any memories you would like to share about what it was like?
I can remember when we first landed and a bunch of us got sick. The Saudi Arabian government thought it
would be nice to feed us some food, then I think half the battalion came down with some type of food poisoning.
We were not used to the food they provided for us, so that was a shock. Some of us even got sick with flu-like
symptoms. I think it was just getting use to the different environmen. It was kind of a shock in the beginning.
We spent most of our time in the Saudi desert at different staging areas. There was one staging area we spent
most of our time at, well actually we just stayed there and did some training but basically we stayed there three
or four months. We didnt actually move up to the Iraqi border, until the first week in January. Then, I think a
week or so after that, is when the air war started. So we were staged next to the Iraqi border for the first week
of January. It was January 8th that we moved up to the border. We didnt cross until February 24th. We tried
to get use to having scorpions crawling across the ground. A couple of our soldiers got bit by them and got taken
to the medics and got fixed up. The desert isnt what you think it is, its more rocky out on the Saudi desert, its
more rock than sand. That used to be an ocean millions of years ago, there are lots of fossils there in the rocks.
There were a couple times when camel herds came right through where we were staying.
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Was it really stressful waiting for anything to happen?

I think the worst part was not knowing. When we first got there in August and then around October, we didnt
know if we were just staying there as a show of force or if we were coming home. And we didnt actually get
word that there was going to be a war until right around Thanksgiving. Then we knew for sure that we werent
coming back home until we went over to Iraq. So, it was kind of a waiting game and a lot of us had families.
At that time, I had three young kids, they were, 3 to 7, so it was kind of stressful. I was a sergeant and one of
my guys just got married and his wife was pregnant and he was over in Saudi Arabia and it was just kind of hard
on him. We had to deal with all that stuff.

Besides the stress, what was the hardest part of it? Like
the waiting or
No, the waiting wasnt the hardest part. I guess the
hardest part was actually combat. Obviously you can train
as much as you can, but when someone starts shooting at
you, its a whole different ball game. I was in the infantry,
so I saw some combat. You dont train with live rounds
shooting at you, its a little bit different when that happens.

IM ACTUALLY SICK. I CAME

DOWN WITH WHAT IS CALLED

THE

GULF WAR ILLNESS. IM

ACTUALLY DISABLED RIGHT NOW

BECAUSE OF MY ILLNESS.

How often do you think about what happened?

Every day. Im actually sick. I came down with what is called the Gulf War illness. At first they called it a
syndrome and then they called it Gulf War illness and now they call it undiagnosed. I live with what happened
over there everyday. Im actually disabled right now because of my illness. I havent worked since August of
2000.

Could you describe what an average day was like waiting for the war?
We had a regular routine. We would get up before 6 oclock and we would have to do a security watch.
Everybody was ready, just kind of a little routine we went through, kind of training. Everybody had to get up
and watch just to get used to that. We did that every day out in the desert. Another part of our routine was we
always cleaned, not everybody did this, but I did. Everybody made sure their weapons were clean, because out
there with the sand blowing there was a lot of moisture. We woke up some days with a thick fog, and that
corrodes your weapons, so we had to make sure our weapons were clean everyday. And I did that just because
you dont want to wait to shoot to find out it doesnt work,. And for us, our missile system has to be calibrated
every time you move, every time the temperature changes otherwise your weapon doesnt shoot where youre
aiming. So you have to go through that every day and make sure thats aimed up right. So there was a regular
routine we went through. It wasnt like getting up and making your breakfast, you had to go and get your
breakfast. We had some daily things that we had to do and some reports we had. I was a NCO
(Noncommissioned officer). We had, a weapons report, and I was on a track combat armored vehicle. You had
to give a report if there were any changes in your vehicle that needed to be fixed. So you had those daily things
to do. I think the main thing is that we tried to stay in a routine so if nothing else, your life was structured to
take some of the stress off. We had some big training that we did too, and some smaller training that just our
company did and we did some big battalion training and we had some brigade training also. A battalion has about
1000 people, brigade has about 3000 soldiers and the company we had was a little over 100. So we had some
different training we did while we were there too, not just the daily routines. One other thing is that once a month
a few got to go, well you see we were spread out in the desert, we werent all grouped together, our battalion
headquarters. Thats where we had all our maintenance and our medics and our logistics and stuff like that. So
every month we got to go there, we got to get out of the desert where we were staged and go to our battalion,
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where we could actually take a hot shower and things like that. We didnt take hot showers when we were out
in the desert; you just washed up with whatever you had, cold water, whatever. We got to actually go to the
battalion where we could take showers with water actually coming out of a showerhead and we could wash our
clothes. They had a big washing area. So we got to do things like that once a month. They had a tent there
where they usually showed a movie. Usually you spent about 24 hours there, then youd go back to your regular
staging area; kind of a break from the regular routine.

What did serving your country mean to you while on

active duty and now as a veteran?
SO THAT KIND OF GETS ME,
For me, I always knew I was going to join the military. I
knew that while I was in high school. I actually didnt join WHY THEY NEVER LET US FINISH
until I was 25 or 26. I was kind of a late guy. At that time, THE JOB. ITS ALMOST LIKE WE
the cut off date was when you were 25 or 26 as a first time
WENT OVER THERE THE FIRST
listing. So I had to do it then or I was never going to do
it, so I finally did it. Like I said, I knew I was always
TIME AND THEY NEVER LET US
going to do it, that was just something that was in me I
guess. I always knew I was going to serve in the military. FINISH THE JOB. THEY STOPPED
As far as being a veteran now, Im proud that Im a veteran US BEFORE WE COULD DO WHAT
and that I served my country. Im kind of disappointed in
WE WERE TRAINED TO DO...
the way some people act in this country. Im not going to
get political about it, but the way some people act, like
some people take things for granted. That kind of disappoints me. It kind of makes me think what did I actually
do over there. I mean what was the purpose of being over there when youve got people acting the way they do
in the United States now. Im a little disappointed, Im proud that I served, but Im disappointed in some people.

Did you make any lasting friendships during the war?

Well, no because when I got out of the military, I never kept in contact with anyone from my unit. I can still
remember their names, but I dont know where they live. I never did that; once I cut my ties with the military;
I never renewed them.

Is there a message you have for people today about the war?
One thing that I know being in the Gulf War, the first war in Iraq and Im guessing if you get a chance to talk to
some other Gulf War veterans, they might have the same sentiment as me. This is my opinion; if we would have
stayed over there for another three weeks of fighting, we wouldnt be over there today doing what we are doing
now. When the Iraq war started and they had troops over there, most of the Iraqi troops that we fought in the
second war we let go back. They had a cease-fire and we let them go back right in front of us. We couldnt
shoot at them; we had to let them go back. Those are some of the same soldiers that were firing on our troops
during this last war. So if they had let us do what we were trained to do during the first war, all those thousands
of lives that we lost now during this war never would have happened. So that kind of gets me, why they never
let us finish the job. Its almost like we went over there the first time and they never let us finish the job. They
stopped us before we could do what we were trained to do and we had all the problems after that. So I think
thats the biggest regret that I have.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

When I was trying to get disability through the VA(Veterans Association), I would always have to go back to
Madison for physical exams to try and prove that I was sick. I got lucky. I had to go through the appeal process,
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but I actually got rated high enough, 30 or 40%, that I could go to school. They actually paid me to go to school.
They started to pick up some of the medical expenses that I had. I was uncured when I went to the doctor. So
that helped me out because I got a nice education. But as I got sicker, I couldnt work anymore, so finally they
denied me an increase. I have to go through what they call a compensation and pension exam. And theyre done
by a bureaucratic doctor from the VA. In the mean-time they were giving me a bunch of experimental drugs
trying to find something that might work for me. One of the experimental drugs they gave me was actually a
form of anti-depressant. I cant remember what the name was. It was given to me in a low form to help fight
pain.
The time came for me to try and get an increase in my disability. They used that against me by saying that there
was nothing wrong with me and that it was all in my head, and that they were giving me anti-depressants for
that. The doctor, the bureaucratic doctor told me that in his
report that if they sent me down to Tomah and gave me IN THE MEAN TIME THEY WERE
treatment for being crazy and to try to live a normal life. But
GIVING ME A BUNCH OF
the drugs were given to me three years earlier than that as a
low dose form to help my pain. It had nothing to do with me
EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS TRYING
being a psych case. And they used that against me to try and
TO FIND SOMETHING THAT
deny me increased benefits. I had to work through with the
VA. I had to get representative Dave Obey involved. Instead
MIGHT WORK FOR ME.
of sending me down to Madison every year for these
compensation and pension reviews, these examinations, they wanted to send me of all places to Minneapolis.
Now why would they send a veteran from Wisconsin to a VA hospital in Minneapolis, instead of having me go
down to Madison? Not just one day, they had me going back and forth to Minneapolis four times over a sevenday period, for the same thing I was getting in Madison in one day. I told them I couldnt do that. There was
no way I could, at that time I couldnt travel that far. I had what was called Irritable Bowel Syndrome, if I sit
for a long time, my guts expand and I get real gassy. I couldnt even drive down there, not to mention the pain
in my arms and joints just trying to drive. I couldnt do that. So I told them there is no way I could drive down
there. They said that if I didnt drive down there and meet those appointments, it would be grounds to deny me
not only an increase in benefits, but they could take away my benefits completely for not showing up. So what
could I do, I told them I couldnt go down there, but I had to. So someone suggested that I contact Dave Obey.
I did that, he said dont worry about it. Someone in his office called me. I had to fill out a form, they called me
a few days later and said dont worry about it. A week later they called me and said no longer are you going to
Minneapolis, youve got a one day appointment in Madison on this date. Thats the stuff I had to go through, not
just me, but other veterans also. That brings me to whats going on at Walter Reed that has been going on for
years. Veterans from wars even in the Gulf Wars are going through that even in the 90s. They had to go through
that same stuff, and finally now its a little bit different. I think things are more open and people are more critical
about the VA and about the military. Attitudes have changed, but back in the early 90s when I was going through
this, a lot of soldiers gave up, they gave in. Those were the ones that were denied benefits or disability benefits.
They just gave up, theyd had enough. After I had been going down to the VA hospital in Madison for a number
of years, finally the VA decided that this must be postraumatic stress. So every time I went down there, they
started asking me Well, are you sleeping good at night, are you depressed? They asked me all these questions
when I went down there that they never asked me before because they knew if they could turn it into that, that
they could send me down. At that time in Wisconsin it was Tomah, thats were they would send me to get psychologically evaluated. And then they could treat you for that and say that you were okay and magically cured
and all this pain youve got and all these other things you got, these headaches and everything, thats all in your
head. Theyd treat you for that, send you down to Tomah for six or eight weeks, youre cured and they dont
have to pay you benefits anymore. I wouldnt fall for that, Im glad I didnt, but some troops did. They got
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screwed. Thats the stuff we had to go through, coming back and being a veteran, working with the VA. As far
as my symptoms, I guess just for an FYI, Ive got irritable bowel syndrome, which is chronic diarrhea. I had gas
pains so bad that it expanded my intestines and now Ive got diverticulitis. Its developed into that, so now I
have to watch what I eat. There are certain things that I cant have. Ive got chronic headaches, chronic viral
and bacterial infections because of a suppressed immune system, joint and muscle pain, along with joint swelling
and arthritis. Ive had muscle spasms and muscle twitches in my body. I dont heal very well if I get injured, my
body doesnt heal itself. And because my immune system is suppressed, I get a lot of infections on my skin that
I have to treat with antibiotics, things that normal people wouldnt have to worry about.

Is anyone attempting to find out what happened?

Well, there are a lot of studies going on, there are a lot of federally funded studies. One doctor in Texas, I cant
remember what university hes working at, worked with some specialized x-ray equipment that can see the inside
of your brain. Its something that you can only do at a research hospital. And he got involved because he had
a cousin or a niece or something that came down with this illness, so he got involved in it. He found out through
his research, he used 30 different veterans that were sick, he found out in every single case there is something
wrong in the lower brain, a rare form of brain damage. The VA was going to do a study conducted by him to
either confirm or deny it. And low and behold, this doctors research money got pulled and he was sent to
California to do research on ALS(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), because it was two and a half, almost three
times more prevalent in Gulf War veterans then it was in other veterans that werent in the Gulf War. So his
funding money got pulled and he was sent to California and they havent done any more studies on that. The
reason why we will never know what the veterans in the Gulf War were exposed to is because every unit in the
Gulf War, even now in the Iraqi War, would have what is called the chemical downwind data report. Its a
weather report and it tells you about humidity, the wind speed and direction, all kinds of atmospheric stuff. Its
called a chemical downwind report because chemical persistence, how long a chemical agent is in the
environment depends on the atmosphere, how humid it is, what the temperature is, and things like that. Some
chemical agents persist for days, others a few hours, depending on what the atmosphere was like that day. Every
day there was a chemical report done by the company, the battalion, brigade, division, and 18th Airborne Corp.
That was like a 200 page report, with back up disks. Out of that 200-page report there were a bunch of pages
missing and all the back up disks disappeared. So there was no way to know what we were actually exposed to.
Those reports were locked up at the Pentagon in a safe area. There is no way they could have disappeared, but
they magically disappeared. Someone knows what happened, but they hid or destroyed those reports and now
well never know what we were exposed to, but we were exposed to something. So there was cover up.

Scott Augustine is currently tutoring and is

a supervisor at North Central Technical
College. He has three children.

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