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Into Iraq

  • Paul Twitchell
  • Interview by: Jess Boydon

Transcript

We were deployed to an area outside of Iraq

and we were there for quite a time preparing

to go into Iraq.

We kind of knew when it was going to happen

and then closer to the time,

we were given details.

So, the night before, going across the border,

everybody knew and we were almost lined up

in a huge convoy to go across the border.

That was pretty scary.

The days leading up to that,

there were scuds going over our head,

the Iraqi Military were targeting Kuwait especially

but because we were so close to the border,

the scuds were actually going over the top of our head.

Because we didn't know fully the warheads

in some of these munitions,

it was deemed they could have NBC related,

so they could have been nuclear, biological

or chemical warfare,

so we had to don our respirators

and our protective clothing every time

that we were aware that there were munitions going

over the top of us.

So, that was pretty intense

and when we went across the border,

it was very surreal, very surreal.

We instantly went into a village called Sagrah

and village life there was obviously massively disrupted.

There were coaliltion forces everywhere

but it was obviously a very war-torn country.

There were children with,

hardly wearing any clothing

in very poor health.

There was a huge lack of fighting age men.

We later realized why that was.

So, they were offered to fight against us

or they would be taken away somewhere else.

So, that was quite, yeah, that was tough,

it was tough to see, especially the children

and so, a few children they were close

to our harbor area which was, a harbor area

is where we would sleep for the night

and just resupply.

So, near there, some of the houses had children

where there was no parents at

and that was tough to see 'cause they were struggling

but they're very resourceful people

and very happy, very, very happy.

I like to give that impression off

that they are confident and happy,

so it was just a surreal environment.

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