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D. C. Everest Social Studies |
Scott Augustine
What
branch of military were you in?
U.S. Army
When
did you first join the service?
October of 1987
What
type of training did you have after you joined?
I was in the
infantry. Heavy anti-tank missile
system
Were
you part of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, or OIF?
Desert Shield
and Desert Storm
What
unit (or ship, dependent on earlier response) did you serve with?
I was in the
24th infantry and the actual battalion I was in was the 3rd
battalion 7th infantry, Eco Company 3rd platoon.
So
that means you were in the Reserves?
Yes.
How
many years had you been in the service before you were activated?
Three years
going on my Fourth year.
When
did you receive your pre-deployment training?
What kind of training did you receive?
Back then we
didn’t have pre-deployment training. We
did our training in the same place that the troops that are going into Iraq. We
had annual training and we actually did a rotation so we were all ready.
Where
was your staging area?
We got ready at Fort
Stewart, Georgia and then we went to Hunter Alme Airfield, which is in Savannah.
That’s where we flew out of.
When
did you go to your staging area and what were your duties while there?
Basically we
had all our equipment all ready rail-headed to the ships.
So then we just grabbed our personal gear and waited to fly out.
So
it wasn’t that long?
No, it was one
day.
You
went over seas then?
Right
Did
you experience any combat during Desert Storm?
I got there,
our unit got there, I think on the 25th or 26th of August.
We landed on the 26th of August.
And we were basically in a bunch of staging areas up until the air war
started which was in January, mid January.
And then February is when the ground war started and that’s when we
went across the Iraqi boarder. So,
as far as seeing any combat up until then no.
When you were waiting to go over the Iraqi boarder what were your responsibilities?
We did
training. We did a bunch of
training exercises in the desert, in Saudi Arabia.
How
long were you waiting to go over?
Well we landed
in Saudi Arabia on August 26th and we didn’t cross the boarder
until February 24th. So
up until that time it was all staging in different areas and doing training.
What
was it like being staged in Saudi Arabia?
It was definitely
different. You had to get use
to the climate first, it got as hot as 128 degrees when we were there and it got
as cold as down into the 30’s. And
we saw rain but we didn’t see any snow but we saw rain.
So it took two or three weeks just to get acclimatized.
Well, I can
remember when we first landed a bunch of us got sick.
The Saudi Arabia government thought it would be nice to feed us some food
when I think half the battalion came down with whatever, food poisoning. We
weren’t use to the food they provided for us.
So that was a shock. A bunch
of us, some of us even got sick with like flue like symptoms.
I think it was just getting use to the different environment, so it was
kind of a shock in the beginning. We
spent most of our time in the Saudi desert at different staging areas.
There was one staging area we spent most of our time at, well actually we
just stayed there and did some training but basically we stayed there three or
four months. We didn’t actually
move until, up to the Iraqi boarder, until the first week in January is when we
got close. Then I think a week or
so after that is when the air war started.
So we were staged next to the Iraqi boarder for the first week of
January. It was January 8th
that we moved up to the boarder. We
didn’t cross until February 24th.
Trying to get use to that having scorpions crawling across the ground.
Couple of us got bit by one and taken to the medics and got fixed up.
The desert isn’t what you think it is, its more rocky out on the Saudi
desert, its more rock then sand. That
use to be an ocean millions of years ago, there’s lots of fossils there in the
rocks. Seeing camels come through
your...you know. They call them
nomads they live off the desert. There
were a couple times when camel herds came right through where we were staying.
Was
it really stressful waiting for anything to happen?
I think the
worst part was not knowing. When we
first got there in August and then around October so we didn’t know if we were
jus staying there as a show of force or if we were coming home.
And we didn’t actually get word that there was going to be a war until
right around thanksgiving. Then we
knew for sure that we weren’t coming back home yet until we went over to Iraq.
So it was kind of a waiting game and a lot of us had families. At that
time I had three young kids, ages I think, they were, 3 to 7, I think, at that
time, my kids so. So it was kind of stressful.
I was a sergeant and one of my guys just got married and his wife was
pregnant and he was over in Saudi and it was just kind of hard on him.
We had to deal with all that stuff.
Besides
being stressful what was the hardest part of it?
Like the waiting or…
No the waiting
wasn’t the hardest part. I guess
the hardest part was the actually combat. Obviously you can train as hard and as much as you can but
until some one starts shooting at you it’s a whole different ball game.
I was in the infantry so I saw some combat.
You don’t train with live rounds and you don’t train with live rounds
shooting at you, it’s a little bit different when that happens.
How
often do you think about what happened?
Every day.
I’m actually sick. I came
down with what is called the Golf war illness.
At first they called it a syndrome and then they called it Golf War
illness and now they called it undiagnosed.
I live with what happened over there everyday.
I’m actually disable right now because of my illness.
I haven’t worked since August of 2000.
Could
you describe what an average day was like during the war?
We had a
regular routine. We would get up
before 6:00 and we would have to do a security watch. Every body was ready, just kind of a little routine we went
through, kind of training. Every
body had to get up and watch just to get use to that. We did that every day out in the desert.
Another part of our routine was we always cleaned, I always made sure,
not every body did this but I did. Every
body made sure there weapons were clean. Because
out there with the sand blowing and there was a lot of moisture out there. We woke up some days with a thick fog, and that corrodes your
weapons so we had to make sure our weapons were clean every day.
And I did that just because you don’t want to wait to shoot to find out
it doesn’t work, so we did that every day.
And for us our missile system has to be calibrated every time you move,
every time the temperature changes otherwise your weapon doesn‘t shoot were
your aiming. So you have to go
through that every day and make sure that’s aimed up right.
So there was a regular routine we went through.
It wasn’t like getting up and making your breakfast, you had to go and
get your breakfast. We had some
daily things that we had to do and some reports we had.
Like I was NCO so we had to report a weapons report and I was on a track
combat armored vehicle you had to give a report if there were any changes in you
vehicle that needed to be fixed or whatever.
So you had those daily things to do.
I think the main thing is that we tried to stay in a routine so if
nothing else your life was structured, take some of the stress off. We had some big training that we did too and some smaller
trainings that just our company did and we did some big battalion trainings and
we had some brigade training also. Battalion
there’s about 1000 people, brigade there is about 3,000soldiers, the company
we had was a little over 100. So we
had some different trainings we did while we were there too, not just the daily
routines. One other thing is that once a month a few got to go, well
you see we were spread out in the desert, we weren’t all grouped together.
Our battalion headquarters, that’s were we had all our maintenance and
our medics and our logistics and stuff like that.
So every month we got to go there, we got to get out of the desert where
we were staged and go to our battalion, where we could actually take a hot
shower and things like that. We
didn’t take hot showers when we were out in the desert; you just washed up
with whatever you got, cold water, whatever.
We got to actually go to the battalion where we could take showers with
water actually coming out of a showerhead and we could wash our cloths.
They had a big washing area. So
we got to things like that once a month. They
had a tent there where they usually showed a movie.
Usually you spent about 24 hours there then you go back to your regular
staging area; kind of a break from the regular routine.
What
did serving your country or patriotism, meant to you while on active duty and
now as a veteran?
For
me I always knew I was going to join the military. I knew that while I was in high school. I actually didn’t join till I was 25 or 26.
I was called a late guy. At
that time the cut off date was when you were 25 or 26 as a first time listing.
So I had to do it then or I was never going to do it, so I finally did
it. Like I said I knew I was always
going to do it, that was just something that was in me I guess.
I always knew I was going to serve in the military.
So I just did it. As far as
being a veteran now, I’m proud that I’m a veteran and that I served my
country. I’m kind of disappointed in the way some people act in this
country. I’m not going to get
political about it but the way some people act, like some people take things for
granted. That kind of disappoints
me. It kind of makes me think what
did I actually do over there. I
mean what was the purpose of being over there when you got people acting the way
the do over in the country now. I’m
a little disappointed, I’m proud that I served but I’m disappointed in some
people.
Did
you make any lasting friendships during the war?
Well, No
because when I got out of the military I never kept in contact with any one from
my unit. I can still remember there
names but I don’t know where they live. So
I never did that once I cut my ties with the military I never renewed them.
Is
there a message you have for people today about the war?
One thing that
I know being in the Golf War the first war in Iraq and I’m guessing if you
talk, if you get a chance to talk to some other Golf War veterans they might
have the same sentiment as me but this is my opinion.
If we would have stayed over there for another three weeks of fighting we
wouldn’t be over there today doing what we are doing now.
Simply as we let, when the Iraq war started and they had them troops over
there, most of them Iraqi troops that we fought in the second war we let go
back. They had a cease-fire and we
let them go back right in front of us. We
couldn’t shoot at them; we had to let them go back.
Those are some of the same soldiers that were firing on our troops during
this last war. So if they had let
us do what we were trained to do during the first war all those lives that were
lost now during this war never would have happened.
So that kind of gets me why they never let us finish the job.
Its almost like we went over there they first time and they never let us
finish the job. They stopped us before we could do what we were trained to do
and we had all the problems after that. So
I think that’s the biggest regret though or whatever that I have.
Is
there anything else that you would like to add?
When I was trying to
get disability through the VA. I
would always have to go back to Madison for physical exams to try and prove that
I was sick. I got lucky, I had to
go through the appeal process but I actually got rated high enough, 30 or 40%
that I could actually go to school. They
actually paid me to go to school. They
started to pick up some of the medical expenses that I had.
Uncured when I go to the doctor up here.
So that helped me out because I actually got a nice education.
But as I got sicker, I couldn’t work anymore, so finally they denied me
an increase. I have to go through
what they call a compensation and pension exams.
And they’re done by a bureaucratic doctor from the VA.
In the mean time they were giving me a bunch of experimental drugs,
trying to find something that might work for me.
One of the experimental drugs they gave me was actually a form of
anti-depressant. I can’t remember
what the name was. It was given to
me in a low form to help fight pain. So
time came for me to try and get an increase in my disability.
They used that against me by saying that there was nothing wrong with me
and that it was all in my head, and that they were giving me anti-depressants
for that. The doctor, the
bureaucratic doctor told me that in his report that if they sent me down to
Tomah and gave me treatment for being crazy that I could be treated and live a
normal life. But the drugs were
given to me three years earlier then that as a low dose form to help my pain. It had nothing to do with me being a psych case.
And they used that against me to try and deny me increased benefits.
That’s what I had to work through with the VA.
One thing, I had to get representative Dave Obey involved.
Instead of sending me down to Madison every year for these compensation
and pension reviews, these examinations. They
wanted to send me to all places to Minneapolis.
Now why would the send a veteran from Wisconsin to a VA hospital in
Minneapolis, instead of having me go to Madison?
Not just one day, over a seven-day period they had me going back and
forth to Minneapolis four times over a seven-day period.
For the same thing I was getting in Madison in one day.
I told them I couldn’t do that. There
was no way I could, at that time I couldn’t travel that far.
I had what was called irritable bowel syndrome, if I sit for a long time
my guts expand and I get real gassy. I
couldn’t even drive down there, not to mention the pain in my arms and joints
just trying to drive. I couldn’t
do that. So I told them there is no
way I could drive down there. They
said that if you didn’t drive down there and meet those appointments it would
be grounds to deny me not only an increase in benefits, but they could take away
my benefits completely for not showing up.
So what could I do, I told them I couldn’t go down there but I had to.
So someone suggested that I contact Dave Obey.
I did that, he said don’t worry about it.
Someone in his office called me, I had to fill out a form, but someone in
the office called me a few days later and said don’t worry about it.
A week later they called me and said no longer are you going to
Minneapolis, you got a one day appointment in Madison on this date. So that’s the stuff I had to go through.
Not just me but other veterans also.
So that brings me to what’s going on in Walderi that had been going on
for years. Veterans from wars even
in the Golf Wars were going through that even in the 90’s, early 90’s.
They had to go through that same stuff, and finally now a day it’s a
little bit different I think things are more open and people are more critical
about the VA and about the military. Attitudes
have changed, but back in the early 90’s when I was going through this I had
myself and that was about it. A lot
of soldiers gave up, they gave in and those were the ones that were denied
benefits or disability benefits. They
just gave up, they had enough. After
I had been going down to the VA hospital in Madison for a number of years,
finally the VA decided that this must be posttraumatic stress. So every time I went down there when that came out they
started asking me well are you sleeping good at night, are you depressed.
They asked me all these questions when I went down there that they never
asked me before. Because they knew if they could it into that that they could
send me down, at that time in Wisconsin it was Tomah, that’s were they would
send me to get psychological valued. And
then they could treat you for that and say that you were okay and magically
cured and all this pain you’ve got and all these other things you got, these
headaches and everything, that’s all in your head. They’d treat you for that send you down to Tomah for six or
eight weeks, your cured and they don’t have to pay you benefits anymore.
I wouldn’t fall for that, I’m glad I didn’t, some troops did.
They got screwed. I mean
that’s the stuff we had to go through, coming back and being a veteran,
working with the VA. As far as my
symptoms, I guess just for an FYI, I’ve got irritable bowel syndrome, which is
chronic diarrhea. I got gas pains
so bad that it expanded my intestines and now I got diverticulosis.
Its developed into that so now I got to watch what I eat.
There are certain things that I can’t have.
I’ve got chronic headaches, chronic viral and bacterial infections
because of a suppressed immune system, joint and muscle pain along with joint
swelling and arthritis beginning. I
get muscle spasms and muscle twitches in my body.
I don’t heal very well if I get injured, my body doesn’t heal itself.
And because my immune system is suppressed I get a lot of infections on
my skin that I have to treat with antibiotics, things that normal people
wouldn’t have to worry about.
Is anyone attempting to find out what
happened?
Well, there’s a lot of studies going on, there’s a lot of federally founded studies. One doctor in Texas, I can’t remember what university hospital he’s working at. He worked with some specialized x-ray equipment that can see the inside of your brain. It’s something that you only do at a research hospital. And he got involved because he had a cousin or a niece or something that came down with this illness, so he got involved in it. He found out through his research, he used 30 different veterans that were sick, he found out in every single case there is something wrong in the lower brain. That was like a rare form of brain damage. The VA was going to do a study conducted with him to either confirm or deny it. And low and behold this doctor’s research money got pulled and he was sent to California to do research on ALS. Because it was two and half almost three times higher prevalent in Golf War veterans then it was in other veterans that weren’t in the Golf War. So his funding money got pulled and he was sent to California and they haven’t done any more research on that. The other thing is that the reason why we will never know what the veterans in the Golf War were exposed to is because every unit in the Golf War even now in the Iraqi war the have what is called the chemical downwind data report. What it does is it’s a weather report and it tells you about humidity, the wind speed and direction, all kinds of atmospheric stuff. It’s called a chemical downwind report because chemical persistence, how long a chemical agent is in the environment depends on the atmosphere, how humid it is what the temperature is and things like that. Some chemical agents persist for days others a few hours depending on what the atmosphere was like that day. Every day we were there was a chemical report done by the company, the battalion, brigade, division, and 18th airborne corp. That was like a 200 page report with back up disks. Out of that 200-page report there was a bunch of pages missing and all the back up disks disappeared. So there was no way to know what we were actually exposed to. Those reports mind you, were locked up at the Pentagon in a safe area. So there is no way they could have disappeared but they magically disappeared. Someone knows what happened but the hid or destroyed those reports and now we’ll never know what we were exposed to. So there was cover up.