In familiar territory

Sgt. Charles “Cass” A. Spence

The photo is of my platoon commander and machine gun section/squad

leaders.

We were walking our furthest post. It’s about 200 meters from

Highway 80 (also known as the Highway of Death). The tower behind us

is what’s left over from the old base here in Kuwait. This was where

Iraq began its invasion of Kuwait.

The base, now called Camp Commando, resides here. The history on

Camp Commando is a disturbing one. In the early 1990s, it housed Kuwait’s elite commando forces, but once overrun, it became a prison

and a place of torture.

Today, artifacts from those troubled times continue to turn up --

a torture bed was found a few weeks ago. A torture bed is basically

the remains of a bed spring box with tractor or car batteries

attached to them. Douse your victim with water and you can only

imagine what would happen next.

In what now is one of many storage rooms aboard Camp Commando was

a temporary holding cell for many unfortunate Kuwaiti teachers,

doctors, civil authorities, military personnel and their families.

I had managed to put these old memories away for years, but at 2

a.m., as I walk the many different posts where my Marines stand

guard, I can’t help but remember what atrocities the Iraqi Army and

Saddam Hussein were and still are responsible for.

Once again, a fire deep inside is beginning to emerge, and this

time it will stay until the man responsible is officially dealt with.