The Road to Safwan: The 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1991 ...

216 The Road to Safwan
of home began to appear, especially television sets and video
cassette players. In the evening you could find soldiers under
camouflage nets sitting in makeshift chairs, watching movies or
family tapes from home.
One aspect of boredom was the constant thinking of home.
Mail began arriving with some frequency, including large
amounts of “Any Soldier Mail” that tended to clog the distribution
system. Much of this mail was from school children and
was designed to cheer up the soldiers. Some was a little more
interesting and questioned the need for the army to be in Southwest
Asia at all. Everyone was encouraged to spend time replying
to these usually thoughtful letters, as a way to keep them
occupied as well as maintain some contact with America. In
general, it was a great morale booster. 4
One day scouts from A Troop managed to find a Mobile
Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in the area and conned them
into inviting troopers over to play basketball with the guys on
their makeshift court and volleyball with the nurses. After 1800
hours that day, many of the troops put on their gray army physical
training uniforms, climbed on the back of one of the supply
trucks and headed over. The medical soldiers were not especially
busy, and they enjoyed the company. Of course, a big attraction
for the cavalrymen was the nurses. Even in an era that
found many women in the army, it was the first time most of
these young combat-arms soldiers had seen ladies in a social
setting for almost three months. It was a bright spot in a rather
dreary existence. 5
The division was now in place long enough to set up a “Wolf
Burger” stand. Named after CW4 Wesley Wolf, the CENT-
COM’s chief of food service, these stands, run by the units themselves,
dispensed hamburgers, chips, and cokes to soldiers worn
out by MREs and other army rations. Near the hamburger stand
in the middle of the desert, American telephone companies set
up a bank of telephones for the soldiers to call home. There was
always a line of soldiers from many units but in most cases, little
complaining as each waited his turn for a few moments of
private conversation with loved ones back in the States.
Religious services now began to occur on a more regular basis.
On Palm Sunday, March 23, A Troop’s 2LT David Palmieri