Page 35 - 100 Hours to Destiny

COMPANY FARP – GETTING READY FOR THE UNKNOWN

2/22/1991 @ 8:30 pm / 2030 hours
31 Hours Prior to Invasion of Kuwait

Delta Company had truly mastered the desert. Our LAV variants were the pride of the Unit.
Each day and hour that ticked away drew us closer and closer to the Invasion.

Two and a half hours had passed since my conversation with the
1Sgt and Captain Pollard. The sun was setting soon, and it was time to start
prepping the vehicle for dark. GySgt Steven Dell had already made his way
back on foot, about an hour earlier, from working with the line Platoons in
the Company Coil. The Gunny was sitting in his Commander’s hatch utilizing
a red-lensed light and writing some notes; it was dark inside the vehicle, and
the utilization of red-lensed tactical lights was standard operation. In the
background, the company encrypted radio was a constant chatter of Marines
speaking to one another, radio checks and simply just transmission of
information preparing for the oncoming night.
Suddenly the Company Gunny called out to me, “Witcher come
here.” Sitting atop the vehicle, near the driver’s hatch, I quickly popped
down into my pneumatic-driven chair. He continued, “We have a mission….
Tonight, we are going to conduct a FARP (of which we all knew was a fuel,
ammo and resupply point.) This is not going to be your ordinary fuel, ammo
and resupply point; this one would be different.”
“Gunny, what are we to expect here in this resupply point?”