Basrah Highway.
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
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- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
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Re: Basrah Highway.
We had one squad stove to share that ran off mogas. The rest of the time I dipped a sock down in my fuel tank and stuffed it in a can I had. I would set that on fire and put my canteen cup on top of that till it was hot. A lot the time we just dipped coffee.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
Any body remember a mini- spaghetti junction. I think it was the turn to go to Nasiriyah coming from the direction of Kuwait going almost into Basra.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
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Re: Basrah Highway.
Is this it?redfish wrote:Any body remember a mini- spaghetti junction. I think it was the turn to go to Nasiriyah coming from the direction of Kuwait going almost into Basra.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=k&z=16
or this?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=k&z=16
Dagger X-Ray - ARMY
(12/91 - present) - miss the service
(9/90 - 12/91) 2nd Bde 1st Infantry Division - Desert Shield / Desert Storm Combat VET
(9/88 - 9/90) C-17th Signal Battalion of 22nd Signal Brigade - Sachsenhausen Bar Scene VET
(4/88 - 9/88) AIT Fort Gordon, Ga
(12/87 - 3/88) Basic Training Fort Jackson, SC

(12/91 - present) - miss the service
(9/90 - 12/91) 2nd Bde 1st Infantry Division - Desert Shield / Desert Storm Combat VET
(9/88 - 9/90) C-17th Signal Battalion of 22nd Signal Brigade - Sachsenhausen Bar Scene VET
(4/88 - 9/88) AIT Fort Gordon, Ga
(12/87 - 3/88) Basic Training Fort Jackson, SC
"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
-George Orwell
-George Orwell
"I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight."
- General George Patton
- General George Patton

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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
Thanks Dagger. The Nasiriyah photo is possible. Definitely not Safwan. My memory seems to recall a portion that curved up into the air and went over another portion of the highway. Like an overpass. It does look familiar.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
I googled Basra and looked for highways that might be the one heading toward Kuwait but it is difficult. I believe to have found my bearings direction wise But trying to move down the photos has been lengthy but interesting.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
Re: Basrah Highway.
After the cease fire our unit kept going north and made it all the way up near An Nasiriyah. There was a large, like you said, spaghetti mix of highways. That must be it.redfish wrote:Thanks Dagger. The Nasiriyah photo is possible. Definitely not Safwan. My memory seems to recall a portion that curved up into the air and went over another portion of the highway. Like an overpass. It does look familiar.
2nd Armored Division (FWD), 1-41 Infantry
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
I have looked at google a lot. Very neat. Yes it was a bigger junction. We pushed destroyed vehicles off the top of it. Lot of dead along through there. Some civilians, a little girl and some RGF in uniform all mixed in. I remember lot of body parts ground up in the dozer tracks. Some bodies getting crushed up against the concrete dividers.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
Have you guys seen those things at fairs and parks and beaches that have a whole cut out for you to stick your head in and take a picture that is funny and looks like your face is on a funny body or big muscular body? There was a tomato truck (yes a tomato truck) whose driver had been killed. Whoever shot him cleaned his head right off really neat. He had one arm on the steering wheel and the other out the window propped like we all do going down the road. Several of us got in the back of the truck and stuck our head up where his should have been and took pictures.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
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- Contact:
Re: Basrah Highway.
While I cannot help but smile and laugh at that, you have to admit that its pretty grisly to think about now.
Dagger X-Ray - ARMY
(12/91 - present) - miss the service
(9/90 - 12/91) 2nd Bde 1st Infantry Division - Desert Shield / Desert Storm Combat VET
(9/88 - 9/90) C-17th Signal Battalion of 22nd Signal Brigade - Sachsenhausen Bar Scene VET
(4/88 - 9/88) AIT Fort Gordon, Ga
(12/87 - 3/88) Basic Training Fort Jackson, SC

(12/91 - present) - miss the service
(9/90 - 12/91) 2nd Bde 1st Infantry Division - Desert Shield / Desert Storm Combat VET
(9/88 - 9/90) C-17th Signal Battalion of 22nd Signal Brigade - Sachsenhausen Bar Scene VET
(4/88 - 9/88) AIT Fort Gordon, Ga
(12/87 - 3/88) Basic Training Fort Jackson, SC
"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
-George Orwell
-George Orwell
"I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight."
- General George Patton
- General George Patton

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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
It's a special humor geared to maintain as you know. I threw all my pictures away back in '93 or so. Wish I had kept some. Most that I had were of things like that. Too much time livin' on the highway. The tomato truck does make me smile but I think it would horrify a "normal" person.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Senior Vet
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- Location: ky,
Re: Basrah Highway.
dude.... i"m smiling now.... i remember that feller , did he have a smoke in his hand?? i lit one for him, stuck it between his fingers. lol, looked like he"d had a bad day on the highway...., figured that he needed one. i got some pictures of me an him also.that an bunch more from the highway.
72nd. ENGR. CO.
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
He looked casual. Relaxed arm out the window. Only problem was the huge hole in the winshield and no head. In a tamater truck.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Senior Vet
- Posts: 418
- Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:53 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 72nd. ENGR. CO. 197TH INF. BDE. 24TH INF
- Location: ky,
Re: Basrah Highway.
the hole looked like maybe a 105 round maybe....remember that , like it was yesterday........
72nd. ENGR. CO.
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!
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- Good Soldiers Never Die
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:36 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 197th Infantry Brigage, 72 Engr Co.
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Basrah Highway.
yeah big hole. Vivid memory. I remember being on another part of the highway. The highway had become a 4 lane interstate. For whatever reason we were dismounted. All the vehicles were off. I was out among some bodies. The wind was blowing it was surreal.
Shield/Storm
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
18th Airborne Corps
24th Infantry Division
197th Infantry 72 ENGR CO
Assault and Barrier Pltn
"Sledgehammer"
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- Senior Vet
- Posts: 418
- Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:53 pm
- Your Gulf War Unit: 72nd. ENGR. CO. 197TH INF. BDE. 24TH INF
- Location: ky,
Re: Basrah Highway.
remember that fence that ran along the highway? a mixture of trash, bodies, some blown against it, some hanging from it.....
72nd. ENGR. CO.
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!
197th. INF. BDE(m)(s)
24th. INF.DIV
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
SAPPERS FORWARD!