Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:41 | Paul Berry worked hard to get into college. He made it but, once he was there, it wasn't working out for him. He didn't want to go home so he joined the Army. At basic training he learned responsibility and camaraderie and he was the fastest runner in the group.
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Education is something that Paul Berry eagerly embraced in the Army. It got him cushy jobs and kept him out of dirty ones. Especially valuable was the esoteric science known as typing. He also absorbed all the medical knowledge and skills that he could.
Paul Berry was at Fort Polk opening his clinic at 0600. It was just a normal day until someone yelled to put the TV on CNN. As people gathered, the second plane struck the Twin Towers. Then the alarms began to sound around the base. He heard the Sgt. Major yell to get your gear on. Our gear? What are we going to do?
When Paul Berry was driving an ambulance in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, he had an accident and flipped it over. He was not injured, he thought, and it would be three years before a problem with his neck was discovered. This would eventually cause him to leave the Army.
Paul Berry reflects on what it was like to be gay in the Army. It was not easy, with the witch hunts and the gossip. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was supposed to stop some of that but, in his experience, it didn't help much. He did get a measure of revenge against two NCO's who assaulted him. (Caution: strong language)
The 514th Ambulance Company got orders for Desert Storm. Medic and driver Paul Berry was ready to go. His experience there would be very different from his experiences in his Army career after he returned.
Everybody had been through EMT training, thanks to the foresight of the commander of the 36th Medical Battalion. Paul Berry was a medic and ambulance driver who made a little investment before the Desert Storm deployment. He stocked up on something that he could sell for a tidy profit.
The C-130 had a bad engine so there was a long delay waiting to take off for Saudi Arabia. This made Paul Berry very uneasy. It was going to be a long flight and you tell me there's engine trouble? The 36th Medical Battalion made it just fine, though, and got right down to business with immunizations and pills.
Paul Berry was looking for the French Foreign Legion. It was pitch dark and his destination was a post on the Saudi side of the border with Iraq. He was leading a convoy of ambulances when, suddenly, they were confronted by a lot of men waving AK-47's. (Caution: strong language)
Paul Berry's squad from the 514th Ambulance Company was attached to a POW camp for Iraqis. It was just across the border in Saudi Arabia and they were there to provide medical care and triage the incoming prisoners. He always asked anyone he examined if they spoke English. One soldier said in perfect English, "No, I don't speak English." This started quite a scene.
While treating Iraqi prisoners during Desert Storm, medic Paul Berry had a couple of experiences that really disturbed him. One was having to peel the skin from a badly burned soldier. The other was when a group of children were brought in. They had been hit by a cluster bomb. (Caution: strong language)
They were supposed to be getting eight bodies but twelve body bags came in. Paul Berry was in the Saudi desert next to the Iraqi border and he was fortunate he didn't have to deal with those extra four bags.
It was a bad sandstorm. It blew away all the tents and injured one soldier's cornea. For Paul Berry it was just another fact of life in the desert, like scorpions. His ambulance company was the designated "dirty" company that kept going in case of a chemical or nuclear attack and, as the youngest private, he had a special duty that no one would want. (Caution: strong language)
As his unit's role in Desert Storm was winding down, Paul Berry received a mountain of mail and gifts in a long overdue mail call. It was so much that he came up with something nice he could do for everybody. (Caution: strong language)
Not long before he left Saudi Arabia after Desert Storm, Paul Berry created a lot of trouble for himself when he did something he thought was no big deal. He called his mama.
Paul Berry saved a few t-shirts from his time in the Army but there is one that is special. From the Desert Storm deployment with the 514th Ambulance Company, a shirt that only a select few have.
Of all the wars we've been in, Desert Storm was the one in which we did everything right. Paul Berry explains why he believes this is so.
