Gulf War: Bombs at night, oil wells on fire

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- A retired U.S. Army Reservist Food Service Mess Steward remembers well the time he spent in the Middle East during the decade-old Gulf War.

Leon Treml, of Sleepy Eye, who spent 25 years in the regular Army and Army Reserve, spent most of Operation Desert Storm time cooking food, filling sandbags and building bunkers.

He was part of the 452nd General Supply Company, stationed in Winthrop, that was recalled for active duty in the Gulf War in January 1991.

The members of the 452nd included soldiers from New Ulm, Sleepy Eye and several other area communities.

Treml's overseas flights began at Volk Field, near Fort McCoy, in Wisconsin.

He rode a commercial airliner to Gander, New Foundland. He stayed there for only 30 minutes before flying to Zaragoza, Spain.

That stop lasted about 16 hours, in order to land in Saudi Arabia during daytime.

Treml shopped and walked around Zaragoza before departing for the desert.

He lived in Log Base Echo, just below the neutral zone of Saudi Arabia.

With the air and ground war under way, Treml said he could hear bombing at night and feel the ground shake during the day.

One of his excursions was on the highway from Kuwait to Iraq that included a 10-mile stretch in which many Iraqi soldiers and their vehicles were destroyed by Allied air power.

Treml said he cooked eggs, sausage, hamburger, chicken, roast beef, potatoes and vegetables.

Once in a while, he was able to fix steak, hamburger and hot dogs.

Your own warm, personal shower was a luxury.

Good old-fashioned American ingenuity made it happen.

Treml and his fellow food specialists built their own makeshift shower from discarded war supply packages and crates.

They used two-by-fours from a wooden pallet and scrap wood, wrapped MREs (Meals Ready-to-East) on three sides, dug a hole, let the water evaporate and used a five-gallon (Jerry) can for water.

"We stood underneath the Jerry can, opened the cover and let the water drip on us," Treml said. "We had to heat the water before showering at first. Once it was April, the sun was warm enough to heat it."

After the ground war, burning oil wells were also part of life.

Treml said he saw as many as 50 of them at once.

"Day became night," Treml said. "We had to turn our vehicle headlights on to see. We blew soot and sand out of our noses and picked it out of the corners of our eyes."

Treml was far away from the world he was used to.

He watched the 1991 Super Bowl game between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills long after it was played, on a VCR.

His reading material was limited but valued.

"Somebody in our unit subscribed to The Journal of New Ulm. We also read the National Geographic," Treml said.