The weather was perfect, the food plentiful and delicious, and the athletic events well organized. On August 8, during a lull in the training, one of my platoon sergeants turned on his portable FM radio to catch the news, and learned that the president had directed the 82nd Airborne Division, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to deploy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to deter further Iraqi aggression and, should deterrence fail, to defend the kingdom against an Iraqi ground attack. One of the strangest things about a military professional is the emotional roller coaster that he rides regarding his chosen profession. The true military professional despises war, for war is an obscenity, a degradation of human life and values that he must endure, both mentally and physically. However, if there must be a war, there is no other place that a military professional would rather be than involved in that war, making a tangible contribution to its successful prosecution.
Military professionals bring to their jobs a great deal of pride and a profound sense of duty.
I was no exception to this rule. Eight months earlier, when Operation Just Cause, our invasion of Panama, was ongoing, I watched the campaign on television with a great deal of guilt. Even though it was a relatively small - scale operation, I could not help but feel left out, like a second stringer. When notified of the deployments of the 82nd and the 24th, these feelings came back in earnest. Once again, I thought, there is a crisis, and I am just standing on the sidelines, not making a contribution.