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A lot of discussions in this forum are by people who enlist/comission/are drafted into a military, go fight in a war or otherwise see action abroad, or maybe even just support these activities, then come back to a relatively safe home. This thread is not for that. The Gulf War in 1991 for me, in Israel, was like this: I was a kid, living in a very remote town. In the news we were told that Iraq has chemical weapons, and we needed to worry about SCUDs coming down and hitting us with them. So every single person got a bug-out NBC bag, with a gas mask, atropine syringe, and some other crap, to protect ourselves personally. We were (poorly) instructed in using the masks and when to use the atropine (by far the cause of most Israeli casualties during the war), and how to make one room in the house a "safe room" - few or no outside windows, every crack either taped shut or filled with towels soaked in soda water. In case we started to hear rising and falling sirens (to this day I get a bit jittery whenever I hear the volunteer fire brigade horn here in the US, it sounds just like it), or heard the codewords "Viper" ("נחש צפע"), we were supposed to take our NBC kits and assemble in the safe room, preferably with a radio or television, and await further instructions. We'd hear where the missile had actually fallen, and eventually hear the calming sirens (stationary tone) and the code words "Heavy Heatwave" ("שרב כבד"), which meant we were out of danger. Nothing ever fell near us, but SCUDs (or possibly the less than successful Patriot missiles the US was kind enough to provide us with to intercept them) did fall close enough to my grandparents that they moved in with us for a while until the war was over. Since the government was trying to encourage people to remain indoors and close to a possible safe room during the weekends, public TV finally had shows Saturday morning - until then there was nothing before the afternoon Arabic-language content, after which there would be the evening news and entertainment. I remember being concerned about the missiles, although my parents stressed that we personally weren't in danger; confused about the change in routine; and also frustrated that our government wasn't allowed to do anything. Anyway, this is probably the mildest discussion of actually living through war that anyone can talk about here, but I figured I'd get the ball rolling.
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Nov 24, 2021 01:25
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What up my Tzabar. I grew up in Jerusalem but my experience was largely the same. I remember quite a lot of the jokes and comedy sketches of the time, as a kid the threat of it all didn't really register.
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Nov 24, 2021 17:49
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By popular demand posted:What up my Tzabar. "And don't inject atropine!" "Auggghh!" "The US is developing roaches that will dig from Australia all the way to Iraq..." That was really only funny because we needed the distraction, I think.
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Nov 24, 2021 18:10
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Absurd Alhazred posted:
I think australian roaches just do that already though?
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Nov 25, 2021 16:39
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