May 1-2, 1991: Camp I Rises

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

Wed 1 May

We began erecting tents but rain cut the work short after my crew got one up. It rained from 1000 to 1300. In the afternoon the Dutch Marines took over (they were fascinated by my name!). I went down to inprocessing and helped escort new arrivals. One group drove a scoop loader, which towed a tractor, which in turn towed a car! I was surprised by the number of tractors I've seen, but after reflection, it made sense. To these farmers, their tractor is their great piece of capital equipment. They are not about to leave it behind for the Iraqis, and besides, tractors can go places a car can't.

It was very windy in the evening, but despite the rain, my laundry dried. There were high winds and heavy rains all night, with a thunderstorm toward morning.

Thu 2 May

Low clouds at dawn broke about 0800 to a nice sunny day. The fog on the hills to our south looks so much like California I can hardly believe it. The soil here becomes thick pasty goo that sticks fiercely to boots when it gets wet. The Dutch Marines cope by waxing the soles of their boots. A mouse invaded our tent this morning. He also invaded the women's tent next door, with fatal results. Later on, someone posted a small cross behind their tent reading "RIP Fred Field Mouse -- Died on a pleasure quest!

The rest of the day was gorgeous: sunny, breezy, with spectacular clouds over the mountains. I spent the morning fixing tents that blew down in the night. Just about every tent had one or more poles out, though only a few were entirely down. In the afternoon we hauled tents out to new work areas. We moved about 40, weighing 200 pounds apiece.

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