Buddy Johnson Interview
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Buddy Johnson Misty Fletcher Misty: ... and the Persian Gulf War Buddy: Oh, you want me to say something? (laughs) I’m Buddy Johnson I’m staff sargeant in the United States Army Reserve .... stationed in a small community called Hopper ??? I think that’s the right pronunciation and we had a ??? for about two or three miles outside of town and our main job was transporting prisoners from uh, second core holding area which was brought down from Iraq ??? around down into Pow camps where we ... told what It was called now. (laughs) ??? Misty: Um, what happened to Rocky Desert? Buddy: I hated it. (light laughter) If you can imagine looking out over the ocean, I’m sure you went to the beach. When I got there that’s what I seen, nothing but ocean and sand. Miles and miles and miles nothing but flat sandy area and I really hated it. Misty: It was really hot and uncomfortable? Buddy: No, We got there and it was actually cold. Uh, we had to get heaters because the tents were ice cold at night; frosted in the morning. It started getting hot bout the time we left it was about 100 degrees, but the summertime temperature run about 120 or 130. Misty How were you treated by the Saudi’s? Buddy We were treated uh, I consider pretty well by the Saudi’s, but uh, their customs were so much different that ours that there was a big conflict. Uh, the amer- the Western culture that we have versus the Eastern culture that they have is so much different uh, the religious values and uh, the way they dress, the way they act, they way they hadle themselves in public is totally different than what we as Americans are used to. Misty How were the ??? treated? Buddy They uh, they were really treated good. Uh, ??? that we got, the prisoners that we hadled, uh, they, they thought at first they were gonna be killed or be whatever unless they found out they had a place to live, three square meals a day, all the water they could drink, they could take a bath, and they were real happy. Misty What types of food did they eat? Buddy Well, (clears throat) they had two hot meals a day and then they had MRE’s which is something we ate a lot of. We probably ate more than they did. They probably ate better than we did (laughs) Course they were used to not having anything and maybe some peta bread and scraps of uh, cheese and stuff. That’s what we would find on them so when they came down they was eating the same type of food that we were eating and uh, they were great. Misty How many stories that stand out in your mind about being ??? Buddy Any particular person? Uh, yeah, they had a call of mission down one day they needed three escorts, MP escorts to take some prisoners down to KKMC which was a military city in ??? miilitary city was the name of it. We had a medical hospital down there and all... the guys that were under me were busy so I took the mission myself and I was riding down in the back of an ambulance with three prisoners and probably the one of them he was a school teacher and course he spoke fluent English which uh, probably better than I do as you can tell (light laughter) but uh, he was talking he had no choice but to fight. He did not want to fight. He did not want to be in the Iraqi Army. But he told me that if he didnt’ fight that they would kill his family, his parents, and on up the ladder so uh, he was kinda glad in a way that he was captured and was given the chance to serve his time out and uh??? Misty Did the defectors act any different than the actual people who were captured? Buddy Uh, yeah. I could say that. The ones that had uh, given up, just threw up their hands and given up completely were corrupted in every way. Anything that you asked them to do, they did they didn’t hesitate and they’re always people within a group that could speak fluent English, so we had no trouble communicating with them Uh, the ones that were captured were more uh, reluctant to do what you wanted them to do. We had one case when we were called on a mission after the 7th core and I had moved on up into Iraq and they had a holding area bout 20 miles from where we was at. Down at the Iraqi border. And we went up there to take up some prisoners and they had some four helicopters come in and about 100 prionsers on there and they were all the elite which were the fighting force equal to our Navy Seals or our Special forces and they were a whole lot harder to handle. They were still unarmed and we were armed, so we had no trouble with them but uh, you could tell the looks on their face, the way they handled theirselve, they were reluctant to do anything unwillingly. Misty Do you think all the United States goals were accomplished? Buddy Personally, no. I can only speak for myself. I think that the problem is still there corse our goal at the time we were sent over there was strictly to get uh, Husein in Iraq out of Kuwait which that was accomplished and once they got out of Kuwait, they uh, our mission at that time was over. But personally, no, I don’t think that we should’ve quit. I’m not one that likes to take lives or anything like that ,but I think that Husein should have been ???. Misty If you were called to back to Saudi Arabia, would you want to go? Buddy (Laughter) Personally, no. I would not want to go, but I’m still in the miitary, I’m still in the reserve so, it would be my duty in the military service to fulfill my misson. (indistict conversations) Well, that’s a picture of ??? Towers which is uh, we were stationed when we first got in county and it was nothing but a city built for the Nomads nothing but high rise buiildings 7-8 story towers at that time ??? Nomads to come out of the desert to live in but uh, they refused to come in and live in city life so uh, we kinda took them over and made a military base out of it just to get us out to camps or whatever we were stationed. (silence) and this particular picture is uh, once we got into where we were um, EPW (?) camp was we set up our camp we had to dig what they call a airraid shelter which was a 4X4 four foot deep four foot wide shaped like a hourseshoe about 8 foot long in case we got hit with a airraid we could dive into. (silence) and this picture is just some of the housing that was in the town that we were near ???? just showing some of their how they lived ???. (silence) this is favorite time of any military person it’s lunchtime. Uh, we had two hot meals a day and then for lunch if we went out for a mission and they’d feed us like lunchables or a sandwich or whatever they had. We ate pretty good. (silence) Uh, this is a picture of some of the uh, female the Saudi - Arabians showing how they had to keep their face covered and uh, skin covered when out in public. In this particular picture they seen me getting ready to take a picture and they covered up their faces and kinda walked away. (silence) Ok, this picture right here was taken right outside of Kuwait city after every- after the war was over before we came home (door creaks) ??? through military ?? (door closes) uh, slang name of the what did I say? (laughs) Oh, I forgot what I called it, that’s terrible. ??? Anyway, this particular place it’s uh, the Iraqis were tempted to leave Kuwait but they wouldn’t lay down their arms so, uh, for not laying down their arms, we uh, the airforce commanded bomb killed about 40,000 in that one spot. (silence) Okay, this picture right here is the border going in from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait you can see how the- how we see most of the distruction but uh, all the buildings were a ??? craters all along ??? bombed and stuff ??? on that point and into Kuwait city, they were cutting big trenches across the road forcing any military or any vehicle to got out in the desert and go around them which at that time they would uh, put out land mines and big trenches and fill them full to keep vehicles from getting around them. (silence) And that’s just a road sign about entering into Kuwait city therefore we got into it showing you how far it was it- it said in English and then in uh, Arabic. (short silence) This is another picture of an ambush outing some of the destruction after the airforce got through with them and uh the army airforce ???They’re what they call smart bombs. They just take them out wherever they want them to. (short silence) and this particular picture is uh, don’t know if you can see it or not, but is a- head of a Iraqi solier and is uh land next to where we were at curious people went to go take a picture of it. It’s not a pretty sight. |
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