April 15-16, 1991: Khobar and Bahrain

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Waiting for Kurdistan

Mon 15 Apr

We spent the morning loading trucks, sorting things to go home from things to take to Turkey. It is sunny and hot every day, in the 90's, and there is often a horizon pall of smoke from Kuwait. In the afternoon we went to the port at Dammam to load our container. The customs inspector was pretty pleased with our preparation and only had us open a few bags.

Tue 16 Apr

I called home this morning. Shawn has really been having a difficult and stressful time with her mother, who is going into a nursing home. I really had no idea that things were so busy for her.

Then I hiked into town with SSG Gene Jakubenas. Today is still Eid (it lasts for three days), so only a few non-Moslem places were open. On the way back several people gave us rides. One man in particular had his son, about two years old, on his lap, dressed in a pure white formal Arab robe. The child had enormous dark eyes and was simply beautiful.

In the afternoon about 40 of us went on another of LTC Bukowski's trips to Bahrain. He was getting us through on his rank rather than a pass. The MP's eventually stopped that, but not before he got most of us there at one time or another. I saw cormorants and flamingos from the causeway. Bahrain itself looks much lika Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. The border crossing, on an artificial island, is one of the most striking sights: each border station is a big round glass building with a tall tower, looking something like a medieval castle.

Most of the group stayed at the Navy club making up for a long dry spell, but CPT Mark Haney and I went into Manama, the capital. We explored the Souk (mostly closed except for the Indian shops) and ate at a Filipino restaurant. Most of the Bahrainis were out promenading in the evening to celebrate Eid. We got back to Khobar about 2330.

Khobar, April 16, 1991

	This exquisite mosque is on the shore at Khobar.

Khobar, April 16, 1991



	Today was the start of Eid-al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, which is observed something like Christmas, with family get-togethers and gift-giving. These kids were out in their Eid finery.
A sobering reminder of what could have been.