packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) (01/19/91)
From: packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) In the NY Times of Tuesday (Jan. 15) there is a photo of three U.S. soldiers in the Saudi desert building a square enclosure about twenty feet on a side. It is made of what appear to be sections of telephone poles laid down as if building a log cabin. One wall is 5 logs or about four feet high, for example. But the corner that is visible is not constructed in the expected way with notches, etc. In fact one log sticks out longer than the rest and has what appear to be a couple of sandbags stuffed under it. The adjacent wall has what seems to be a crate of some kind included as a structural element. Then there is a row of sandbags sitting atop another of the walls. And that's it. The caption says "Marines constructed a radio control post in the Saudi desert." There is something vaguely unsettling about this, but I can't put my finger on it. Can somebody put this into a rational, modern warfare context?
hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo) (01/24/91)
From: hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo) > In the NY Times of Tuesday (Jan. 15) there is a photo of three > U.S. soldiers in the Saudi desert building a square enclosure > about twenty feet on a side. It is made of what appear to be > sections of telephone poles laid down as if building a log > expected way with notches, etc. In fact one log sticks out > longer than the rest and has what appear to be a couple of > sandbags stuffed under it. The adjacent wall has what seems > I can't put my finger on it. Can somebody put this into > a rational, modern warfare context? One possibility may be that it is a "Quaker Gun". Maybe it was necessary to fool the Iraqis in order to make them think that we had more weapons than we really did in the early deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia. Larry Mayo