My Army Blog Continues
By Warrant Officer 1 Donjuan Williams

     On September 15th 2007, I received orders to go Kuwait to work with the US Air Force at an air base in Kuwait.   I left to go to Kuwait on October 9, 2007 and it was hot.   I remembered being in Kuwait back in 2003, when the war first started and how hot it was.   The temperature got up to 150 degrees in the daytime.   I was to be an air load planner.   It was a skill that I was trained in while I was at Fort Eustis, VA, back in 2006 at Mobility Officer School.   I liked the idea of being able of doing a job that I was actually trained for.   Well let me explain that being an air load planner is an important occupation.   All planes need or have had an air load planner plan the load of their flights. All planes need to have all cargo and personnel center-balanced.   Without the plane being center-balanced the plane will crash.   Also some materials are not compatible with other cargo and if put on the same plane it can blow up.

     My tour in Kuwait was short and boring.   I worked the night shift from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.   It was not bad because we worked 3 days and then had a day off.   It was not so bad either because I worked at night.   The hottest part of the day was in the daytime and most of the VIP’s came in the daytime, so the day shift had to be more and sharp, while the night was more relaxed.

     We shipped mostly cargo to Iraq and Afghanistan.    We shipped the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPs) that were saving soldiers and marines lives.   However we could not shipped them fast enough.   The most that would fit on the planes we had was 2 at a time.   So the max a day that was shipped was 16 MRAPs. I like shipping those vehicles because they were easy to plan the load.

      Let me discuss what I did not like shipping.   I cannot remember a day that I worked that at least one body was not flown home back to the United States.   We had a 747, DC- 10, or a C-5 come in to Kuwait daily just to ship bodies back to the United States.   The most bodies I remember being shipped back in one day was 9.   It was traumatic to me because when I read the paperwork that went along with the bodies, it gave instructions on icing procedures (the amount of time ice was to place in the coffin).   It also stated how individual died and if the only thing in the coffin were disassociated parts! (Meaning parts of an individual after being blown up) what parts were in the casket. I had issues with whole procedures because the public was not being told the truth about was going on over in Iraq and in Afghanistan.   People were dying every day and it was not being reported in the news.

     President Bush came over to Kuwait while was there and we were all dress right dress for his visit.   Let me discuss what happens before he arrived in Kuwait.   2 C-17 planes come in advance to bring his helicopter and the presidential fleet of vehicles.   I will not discuss how many of them were on board, however there are a lot of vehicles that travel with the president and our tax dollar expense!

     I just had to get out of Kuwait, the reason why because observe so many human rights violations and I was sicken because of it.   The Kuwait government allows for the abuse and mistreatment of 3rd country nationals.   If you are a Kuwait citizen you do not have to work for the most part.   The Kuwaiti citizens are given money from the government to live on.   I heard it was around $100,000 US dollars a year.   So that being the case, the government of Kuwait encourages individuals from poor countries to come over and work. (They are called: 3rd country nationals).   When they get there the sponsors treat like slaves.   They are endured servants for the most part.   Their sponsor holds there passport and pay a salary they the individual can live on.   The sponsors routinely rape and abuse the woman there (especially the Philippines women).   We in the US can do nothing because we are guess of the Kuwaiti government.   Remember the people of Kuwait really don’t want us there; however they tolerate us because we provide security for the country.    Our government turns a blind eye to what is really going on in Kuwait in my opinion because of the strategic location of the country and the US don’t want to upset the government of Kuwait.

     On November 18, 2007, I received my orders for promotion to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2.   I was happen because it was more money and more respect among my colleagues.   I say that because Warrant Officers are subject matter experts (SME’s) and colleagues feel that when you come out of school that you are green and don’t much in your field. It takes two years to get from and Warrant Officer1 to a Chief Warrant Officer 2.

     I spent Thanksgiving working and Christmas working.   It was just like another day!   I worked New Years Eve but had New Years Day off.   Again, the holiday was just another day.   We could not drink alcohol or beers first because it was against General order # 1, but mostly because of the Kuwaiti government outlaws alcohol in their country.

     As I stated, I couldn’t wait to get out of Kuwait.   I found a tour at FT Leavenworth, Kansas (outside of Kansas City, MO) with the Human Terrain System; it is a new army proof of concept program that is a open source intelligence gathering unit with a hybrid of military and civilians.   I left Kuwait on Feb 4 2008 and reported to FT. Leavenworth, KS, on Feb 15 2008.