Sunday, March 25, 2018

Welcome to the AOK!


Nobody wants to deploy to Kuwait, but you did anyway. Unless you were part of Desert Storm in ‘91, you didn’t get any bragging rights by going there. You might even have had an important job – loading ordinance, evacuating casualties, coordinating emergency resupply, or planning combat operations against ISIS. It doesn’t matter. You were just in Kuwait.

Maybe you had never deployed before and felt left out. So you volunteered for a Kuwait deployment… and you still feel left out.

Sure Kuwait wasn’t always boring. You could have been part of the invasion force in ’03 staging out in the middle of the desert, facing SCUD missiles and the threat of NBC attacks. You could have been posted at Camp Navistar and ran convoys through southern Iraq dodging IEDs. Even today, Soldiers occasional cross paths with amateur terrorists in incidents that never make the news. It doesn’t matter. There’s a pool in Kuwait so it doesn’t count.

Whether your job was big or small, exciting or mind numbingly boring, terrifying or safe – Kuwait still sucked. And no one will tell you what you did there mattered, except here. You do deserve credit for deploying to Kuwait and serving your country in an operational capacity.

Of course, that doesn't mean you’re going to get a free pass here. If Kuwait vets are good at anything, it’s taking one on the chin and laughing at ourselves from time to time.

For now, this is an unofficial veteran organization. That doesn’t mean it’s not serious about connecting and informing the member of the Kuwait veterans community. If that’s you, then welcome to the Army of Kuwait. As far as we’re concerned, you’re A-OK!