A Note to a Friend

--> I found this while cleaning out for an upcoming move and figured it might seem funny to some who were involved in these events.  It comes from a letter written just after Desert Storm and deals with what was then the 39^th Special Operations Wing (now 352^nd SOW).

“Dear Mike,

I hope this letter finds all the XXXX’s in the very best of health.  I know it has been quite a while since I’ve written but the past nine months have been a very busy time for the Townsends.

As you are aware, in January I got to go to Incirlik to take part in the CNN special “Desert Storm the Renovation of a City.”  Well right after we came home George called and asked if we could head back to resupply the Kurds.  It seems they took us at our word and attempted to overthrow Saddam.

Operation Provide Comfort evolved into a three-phase program.

Phase I: “FIND A KURD.”  During this stage aircraft loaded with MREs, bottled water, and toilet paper (for dysentery), flew into northern Iraq looking for population centers (i.e. refugee camps), and dropping supplies to them.  After a few Kurds tried to catch the 16,000-pound bundles we moved into phase II.

Phase II: “ADOPT A KURD.”  In this stage, the aircrews were assigned specific areas to fly.  The theory being the aircrews and Kurds would get used to each other’s quirks (like an aircrew who always drops into the center of the camp).  Just about this time the Kurds threatened to report us to the UN as inhuman for providing so many MREs.  So, we moved into phase III.

Phase III: “HERD A KURD.”  Here American ingenuity really came into play.  The diplomats figured out it would be nice to establish large refugee camps in major Iraqi cities like Zakho.  To get the Kurds out of the mountains we staged a two-part campaign.  First, we dropped large quantities of MREs to the camps (ensuring an end to all dysentery in our lifetime, and at the same time chasing the refugees out of the shelters) … as an aside I don’t think the pork patty was a favorite!  After we had moved the refugees from the tops of the mountains, we started dropping real food just a little beit in front of them as they began their migration towards the cities.

After 45-days of this fun, I redeployed home to continue planning for the wing’s move from Frankfurt to England.    Well enough about me… how have you been?"