Khobar Towers Night Sorties

[tdeane]

Curious to see if any Desert Rats spent time at Khobar Towers, Dharhan after Storm and through Calm. I know a bunch of you guys did, since we ran the TMC and Khobar was the main stopping point before you returned stateside. Anyway, we used to do "KT" Night sorties off the top of our building...Hell, we were Combat Medics with nothing else to do. Our sorties were condoms filled with water (we couldnt find any balloons and we were a Med U so the condoms were easy to come by).
Every other night from a month after the war ended til June, 91 we would hit the roof and drop our payload on unsuspecting walkers down below. Everybody had a good laugh (even the ones who got hit) and it was a great stress breaker. After a month or so we got good...aiming, how to lead, wind effects and so on. One night (in June), which turned out to be our last night on sortie runs, we saw a Saudi walking from the chow hall/parking garage and we sighted him up real good. We watched and waited as he came closer. At this point of waiting we were holding onto some 40 water filled condoms (we were expecting a long night of "missions"). He came right under our drop zone. We had 7 guys, standing by, along the edge of the roof and all at once, we unloaded...not a few, but the whole damn nine yards on this Saudi that we thought was a cook. All 40 condoms fell and damn near everyone hit the mark and that little Saudi was doing the "Mobile Jig" just to try to avoid any further hits.
Happy that we completed our mission, we tossed our boxes over the north side of the roof and laughed about dropping all 40 and calmly proceeded to our area, 3 floors from the roof (aka, The Above Ground). Unknown to us...the Saudi we hit was no cook, but a Saudi "High" Priest. Well, this fella (more on that in a sec.) stormed towards our CQ desk, raising all kinds of hell, wanting anybody and everybody in charge. The MP's heard shouting and yelling and then they were in on it too (the MP's were two buildings away from us, right across from the phone center and across the street from our TMC). This "Saudi High Priest" was furious that he was hit by...none other than...CONDOMS!
We always had a saying...The first step of truth in numbers is to deny...hell it works for the CIA right? We were a tight knit group and we really became like brothers, all of us. We took up for each other. Our CO (Col. Blake) had our entire Unit in Parade Rest until the guilty party fessed. For near 1 hour we were out in that sand area off the sidewalk when one of our brothers broke and stepped out and saw "Top". The jig was up, we were ratted out.
Laughing all the way, the MP's came and got the remainder of us out of formation, one by one and then escorted us to MP HQ for "interrogation", Ha! While we sat in the room, all of us, the MP's and the Officer on duty couldnt stop laughing. They knew us and we knew them. We all watched the gates, entrances, roof tops and fence lines together and we treated them (with the occassional profile) at our TMC.
The MP's informed us that this "Saudi" was rather upset and that he wanted to press charges and was even considering going to the American Consolate...uh-oh, the threat of a International Incident. He wanted the MP's to take action. Ok, they brought us in. Not good enough. We were informed by the MP that the "Priest" wanted to speak with us. So, in comes the soaked priest. He's giving us "a what for" IN PERFECT ENGLISH. We had come to find out, in his yelling and Allah curses on us, that this freak was from NEW YORK CITY and no damn Saudi at all. He was the teacher and Priest at the Saudi Culture Tent at the Khobar Bazaar (remember that dump?) and that he left NY to follow the Islam...blah, blah, blah. We ended up buying him a new prayer garb (new bed sheet), he made us (all of us) write a hand written apology to him (for his personal diary I guess), and we had to sit through 3 weeks worth of Culture classes in his tent at the bazaar. But hell...thinking about it afterwards...it was worth it.
Well, after it was all said and done, the MP's gave us a Stop Action Order and our CO made our NCO remove all condoms from the TMC...from there, we found new ways of keeping ourselves entertained...the Khobar Long Range Recon Patrol Snatch and Grab...but, thats a story for a different day! Don't get a Medic bored.
Anybody here ever get hit by us?

[sn-e3]

I enjoyed your story some things never change. Just different ways to relieve boredom. welcome home

[David]

I stayed there right after we came out of assembly area Killeen. It was such a relief to be out of the dirt and in a room even if it was still sleeping on the floor with 20 others guys to a room. We ate that place up, getting haircuts every few days, double running the chow lines and hanging out on the roofs at night. I remember Harley Davidson and Chevy were there in one of the parking garages offering everyone something like $5000 off of a new vehicle purchase. No one I knew went for it. We also bought up a bunch of souvenirs, smoked tons of beadies, and used to run PT around the buildings at night. I liked that place and think it was probably good we stayed there to defuse a bit before coming home. I was not surprised when they got blown up a bit later as all they had for security was a half fallen down chain link fence and a few MP's around the place when I was there. Never got hit by one of the balloons but if I had I am sure I would have stopped and asked you to throw a few more down. Great story, hope you post more

[Terry Cashatt]

Hey, I remember that guy! I was with the 1st Cav MP's and we stayed there after we came out of the desert. Some of us went to his culture tent and looked around a bit. He was going off on some GI about his religion and how Islam was the only way. He was a real jerk to the guy. I'm glad you guys nailed him Good job!
TC

[catman]

Good story! I stayed at Kobar on the way in, did not get a chance to return after the war. We left out of Al Jubail for the trip home. Had trailer houses that we stay in there.

Trav

[tdeane]

Say catman, did that trailer park happen to be on the ass end of a confined housing complex and have a nasty Hardee's in it? If so, we might have been near each other. We started at a trailer park in Jubail before heading to Khobar Towers...Matter of fact, I have pic's from that area hanging on my wall.

[Shortdawg]

Yeah I stayed there for a few days when we got in country. I thought it kinda strange coming into a war torn area and staying in an apartment tower, seemed a bit like a target. But is was all good except the sirens all the time. What was that meat they served for breakfast anyway?
Later,

[MORTARDUDE]

Doc Deane :

Thanks for the great story !! Would like to hear others when you have time. All the best, and Welcome Home !

Larry

[catman]

Can't say that I remember a Hardee's but hand Baskin Robbins and a few other choke-n-pukes scattered around. Was one hell of a big complex. We spent about two weeks there at the wash rack and very little time in the trailers.

Anyone ever figure out the meat at Kobar mess halls? It had that funny pink color to it. After the first day, we started in on the MRE's. One of the squads found a few cases of C Rations at the port and we ate pretty good after that. All crammed into those rooms cooking on squad stoves out on the balconies.

I think the worst duty I ever pulled at Kobar was CQ. How many of those guys got shot?

Trav

[tdeane]

after our first month at KT we avoided the chow halls! We stuck to MRE's and then when the KT Bazaar opened up we would hit that Mexican joint. When we first got to KT there were dogs all over the place, then they started vanishing. That buffet in the parking garage/chow hall would always have chicken and then one day the meat you are describing showed up. I don't know if this has anything to do with the missing dogs.
From time to time we would go into the chow hall for breakfast items like juice and fruit, but we never again ate the meaty substances in there.