- Reaction score
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Since this is military history, I thought I'd place it here. Mods, please move if required.
I can remember the night of the 29th, it was a cold wet Baghdad winter's evening, with the temp hovering about 2-4C. In our concrete semi-safe, Rm 13, 'home awway from home", dubbed 'The Lucky Room', CNNI was reporting that Saddam's execution was TBC at any moment. Yes we had a satellite TV in our common area, and the room housed 5 of us, each in a 2.4m x 2.4m wooden cubical, yes with door. Our quarters were an old Republican Guard barracks, not far from the fromer Baath Party HQ, and next to Saddam's Court House, just on the north side of the Tigris River, which made us a happy target for IAF indirect fire from Ole Lady Katyusha and her various calibres of mortar siblings.
Anyways, as we commented and joked around on when he would hang, we began something called the Saddam Lotto. You had to be as close to, without going over the time of his hanging.
So, all bets were in, and we went to bed. I had the night off from CP duty, so it was a good opportunity to get some solid sleep, providing we did not get any incoming fire.
We lucked out. Our heaters keeping the place warm, I crawled into my IKEA lower bunk, and fell asleep. I woke up just before 0700h, and turned on the radio next to my bed. At 0700h, the BBC news began to announce that Saddam was hung at 0604h. I woke the rest of the lads up to tell them, and I was greeted by a symphony of farts, and complaints of 'so phucking what Sarge, let us sleep', ha! I was pleased as I had won the Saddam lotto, as I was the one nearest to the mark to the time he swung.
Anyways, I had predicted a violent day, with what I thought would be some decent truck bombs, ongoing random shootings and some IDF heading our way, but as the morning progressed, aside from the odd angry shot and distant burst from a PKM, and the odd crump, it was a quiet day. As the citizens of Baghdad awoke to the news, they did not seem to react as I thought. The anger from his supporters would come later, and it did.
So one year later, as I sit here in the Duty Room, I am thinking of where I was just 365 sleeps ago.
Regards,
Wes
I can remember the night of the 29th, it was a cold wet Baghdad winter's evening, with the temp hovering about 2-4C. In our concrete semi-safe, Rm 13, 'home awway from home", dubbed 'The Lucky Room', CNNI was reporting that Saddam's execution was TBC at any moment. Yes we had a satellite TV in our common area, and the room housed 5 of us, each in a 2.4m x 2.4m wooden cubical, yes with door. Our quarters were an old Republican Guard barracks, not far from the fromer Baath Party HQ, and next to Saddam's Court House, just on the north side of the Tigris River, which made us a happy target for IAF indirect fire from Ole Lady Katyusha and her various calibres of mortar siblings.
Anyways, as we commented and joked around on when he would hang, we began something called the Saddam Lotto. You had to be as close to, without going over the time of his hanging.
So, all bets were in, and we went to bed. I had the night off from CP duty, so it was a good opportunity to get some solid sleep, providing we did not get any incoming fire.
We lucked out. Our heaters keeping the place warm, I crawled into my IKEA lower bunk, and fell asleep. I woke up just before 0700h, and turned on the radio next to my bed. At 0700h, the BBC news began to announce that Saddam was hung at 0604h. I woke the rest of the lads up to tell them, and I was greeted by a symphony of farts, and complaints of 'so phucking what Sarge, let us sleep', ha! I was pleased as I had won the Saddam lotto, as I was the one nearest to the mark to the time he swung.
Anyways, I had predicted a violent day, with what I thought would be some decent truck bombs, ongoing random shootings and some IDF heading our way, but as the morning progressed, aside from the odd angry shot and distant burst from a PKM, and the odd crump, it was a quiet day. As the citizens of Baghdad awoke to the news, they did not seem to react as I thought. The anger from his supporters would come later, and it did.
So one year later, as I sit here in the Duty Room, I am thinking of where I was just 365 sleeps ago.
Regards,
Wes
