The afternoon sky was awash with pillars of rolling black clouds, the results of several hundred oil fires the retreating Iraqi Army ignited. For days we watched as there seemed to be no end to the dirty haze that covered the land. Everything was covered in an oily, smoke like, soot that reminded me of my bunker gear I wore as a fireman in civilian life. Nothing was left untouched, no crevasse it did not seep into. I fought a war for oil only to see it burn into the atmosphere and cover the noon sky in thick clouds that covered the sun.

Infantryman can find the good in any bad situation. One benefit, probably the only benefit, was the temperature was under 100 degrees for the first time in weeks. So what if were poising our lungs, at least is was cooler and the sun wasn't boiling the water in our canteens.

Our unit had been in theater since August. As America's Strategic Reaction Force, the 82nd Airborne was the only Division level unit that could deploy rapidly and secure the Saudi oil fields... or as the media and government claimed to ensure a free Kuwait. But we new better. Modern society runs on oil. Like it or not. The irony was the oil was literally going up in smoke.

Funny how in combat the most abnormal things can seem commonplace. I watched as a dog walked across the front of our perimeter with a hand in its mouth. They were eating the Iraqi dead forward of our position. We could not retrieve the bodies because the fools had run way into their own minefields. At least the wind was blowing away from us and we did not have to smell them. At first we shot the dogs. Carry human remains around in your mouth tends to lead toward the spreading of disease. Even though they were the enemy, no man deserves that fate. But there were just too many of them. At least they stayed outside our perimeter. The dead Iraqis were littered in front of us. The land mines worked as intended. But I never saw a dog step on one. Note to self. Keep a dog close by in case I am ever stuck in a minefield.

Funny how the mind wanders on guard duty. I still could not believe my beloved Cincinnati Reds went wire to wire, and won the World Series that previous year. Never even knew until I opened a package from my mom and there was a World Series Champion t-shirt in it. I was too busy training and being deployed to even listen to one game that summer. Damn there went another dog. Trotting off into the black horizon. This time with a foot.