My husband's unit at one time, the First Infantry Division, was called to go over for the Gulf War back in 1991. I was pregnant with my second. This was the band...but the whole division went. My husband was literally at the Doctor and me in the lab for tests the day Pres. Bush SR came on the news while I sat there in the waiting area and said the division was going and I just started crying. Then John walked in the lab and said he needed surgery. That kept him from going since it was such a short war (although he was trained on how to tell wives their husbands had been killed - lots of casualties were expected). No one died, but some of the guys that came back did have Gulf War Syndrome. It turned out this officer bucking for promotion made some of them go into areas they weren't supposed to. And just cleaning the equipment caused problems. The shots were the suspect at first. Then chemicals. Now I wonder if it could've been this?? (DU). He got the shots, though, and did seem affected but recovered. I've been very grateful we haven't had to deal with that although he did go over to Kuwait a couple of times this war to play for the troops like a USO tour. It was a meaningful assignment helping them feel braver, patriotic and to hear music from home. It was traumatic cause he saw how hard it is on these kids and his heart went out to him. One of these kids actually called him from over there. He can't even tell me everything he did see. It is heart breaking...

I went to school in Southern UT where people I knew of from there were dying of cancer due to the bomb testing that had been done in Nevada. Of course now it turns out we're all being poisoned. It is really starting to hit me how wide scale it really is. I went to Korea for our two week annual trainings and worked in the petroleum lab there in Pyaong-taek. The first trip over I remember how weird it was to think that the North Koreans would just as soon kill us as look at us. We took a trip to the DMZ. I literally stood on the line that separated the North and South Korea. We had to sign a waiver that we wouldn't hold the US responsible if the NK's did anything to us. One girl (I think there were 3 or 4 of us) was in the back of the room shaking like a leaf. I don't know why but I just glared back at them watching them watch me through binoculars. My dad had fought in war there. He came back a broken man....