Desert Storm ULs
Sean Smith
Someone in the small Michigan town my wife is from is stationed in Saudi
as part of Desert Storm. Her letters get published in the local newspaper.
My wife told me the following story told her by her mother who read it in
one of these letters:
"Apparently two US soldiers were walking down the street during one of the
Islam prayer times. They pass a mosque. Remembering the warnings the US
command had given them about how these holy sites are absolutely off-limits,
one soldier dares the other to go inside. He does, and defecates on a
prayer rug. Suddenly he's grabbed by some people inside the mosque. No one
has seen or heard of him since."
My first reaction was "geez, that's awful, but he had it coming." But then
I was wondering: why haven't we heard about it in the news? And suppose
the US command wanted to keep the half-million soldiers respectful of the
local religious customs---what better way than to circulate stories like
this. UL, anyone?
--Sean
Sean W. Smith sean....@theory.cs.cmu.edu
School of Computer Science KA3EEX
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 3890 on-on!
Jack Campin
> "Apparently two US soldiers were walking down the street during one of the
> Islam prayer times. They pass a mosque. Remembering the warnings the US
> command had given them about how these holy sites are absolutely off-limits,
> one soldier dares the other to go inside. He does, and defecates on a
> prayer rug. Suddenly he's grabbed by some people inside the mosque. No one
> has seen or heard of him since."
Mosques aren't off-limits according to Islam. I'm not a Muslim and I've
been in lots of them. Elementary politeness (take your shoes off; don't
walk in front of someone praying; don't barge into areas reserved for the
opposite sex; keep quiet) is enough to get you welcomed or at least accepted.
The only religion I know of that *definitely* forbids unbelievers to enter
its places of worship is the Mormons. I grew up near their main temple for
the Southern Hemisphere in Hamilton, New Zealand; they opened it to the
public for a few months after its construction and then restricted it once
it started functioning as a temple.
There must be lots of legends about what The Other Lot do in their places
of worship; this sort of fear goes back to the mediaeval Blood Libels
against the Jews. Modern versions, anyone?
--
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Mike Sullivan
Apparently a reservist was activated and was serving as an MP in
Saudi Arabia, processing EPW. In civilian life he was among other
things a security guard at U Illinois at Urbana.
All at once, one of the EPW's says, in perfect english, "Don't I know
you?" The EPW had returned to Iraq from being a student at U Illinois Urbana
and they had met on campus at some point.
coincidence?? or UL ??
--
________________________
/ __ \ | Michael J. Sullivan |ec.lec.tic adj Choosing
| \ \ / /\ |\ | / ` | | Wang Laboratories Inc. |or consisting of what
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mor...@ramblr.enet.dec.com
>I heard one at a party the other night:
>
>Apparently a reservist was activated and was serving as an MP in
>Saudi Arabia, processing EPW. In civilian life he was among other
>things a security guard at U Illinois at Urbana.
>
>All at once, one of the EPW's says, in perfect english, "Don't I know
>you?" The EPW had returned to Iraq from being a student at U Illinois Urbana
>and they had met on campus at some point.
>
>coincidence?? or UL ??
I heard a story on the news a week or two ago that one of the Iraqi POW's that
came across the line and surrendered was a Chicago resident who was visiting
his parents in Iraq when he was forced to joined the army. I believed it.
But then I heard *another* news report that one of the thousands and thousands
of Iraqi soldiers that gave themselves up was a Chicago resident who was
visiting his parents in Iraq when, etc. I now smell an urban legend.
The posting I replied to seems to be an extention of the legend.
Somewhat related: Any truth about the Iraqi soldier who, when he was captured
was wearing dance tap shoes? Seems he was taking dance lessions or something
in Iraq, when he was captured by Iraqi military and forced to join the army.
Seems they didn't have enough boots for him...
-Mike
John W. Keating
mi...@wang.com (Mike Sullivan) writes...
> Apparently a reservist was activated and was serving as an MP in
> Saudi Arabia, processing EPW. In civilian life he was among other
> things a security guard at U Illinois at Urbana.
> All at once, one of the EPW's says, in perfect english, "Don't I know
> you?" The EPW had returned to Iraq from being a student at U Illinois
> Urbana
mor...@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
> I heard a story on the news a week or two ago that one of the Iraqi POW's
> that came across the line and surrendered was a Chicago resident who was
> visiting his parents in Iraq when he was forced to joined the army. I
> believed it.
> But then I heard *another* news report that one of the thousands and
> thousands of Iraqi soldiers that gave themselves up was a Chicago resident
> who was visiting his parents in Iraq when, etc. I now smell an urban legend.
I don't know about this... Chicage and Desert Storm have been very close
friends in the rumor department, lately... What's up? The Times Picayune
recently reported of a soldier with a Chicago accent surrendering to US
troops asking, "Where were you guys yesterday? We were waiting for you!"
He was supposed to have gone to school in Chicago. Hmmm... Might have
been the same soldier as above...
Something that came out today that I thought was amusing (and hard to believe)
was that 40 Iraqi soldiers have surrendered to an unmanned marine recon drone.
Chuckle..
John Keating
--
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| Support the Coalition troops! | | kea...@rex.cs.tulane.edu |
+---+-------------------------------+------| John William Keating, III |
| "My heart is stone and still it trembles +---------------------------+-+
| The world I have known is lost in shadow." | | "If you were right, |
+---------------------------------------------+ | I'd agree with you!" |
+-----------------------+
Gary Allen
>I heard one at a party the other night:
>
>Apparently a reservist was activated and was serving as an MP in
>Saudi Arabia, processing EPW. In civilian life he was among other
>things a security guard at U Illinois at Urbana.
>
>All at once, one of the EPW's says, in perfect english, "Don't I know
>you?" The EPW had returned to Iraq from being a student at U Illinois Urbana
>and they had met on campus at some point.
>
>coincidence?? or UL ??
ABC reported something similar a couple of days ago (which should also
be taken with a grain of salt). Some US soldiers came upon yet another
group of Iraquis just dying to surrender when up pops a dude dressed
in Bermuda shorts and a "Chicago T-Shirt" (wasn't entirely clear, but
they seemed to indicate a U-of) who yelled - "hey, where have you guys
been" (or "what took you so long" - or some such).
Seems that the guy was a student at UofC and had gone to Iraq to visit
his grandmother during the summer and had gotten drafted into the Iraqui
army.
Gary Allen
Apollo Computer
Chelmsford, MA
gal...@apollo.HP.COM
Sean Malloy
>was that 40 Iraqi soldiers have surrendered to an unmanned marine recon drone.
>Chuckle..
One thing that came out about a week ago was that a small group of Iraqi
soldiers (<5) surrendered to an unarmed NEWS CREW. The crew went into
some detail about how they shared rations/water with the Iraqis, and decided
to drive them back to a base camp where one of the Journalists knew one of the
officers in charge. According to what I heard, the news crew was so taken
aback by this surrender, that they forgot to take pictures... they made the
Iraqis get out of the truck, and re-surrender so that they could film
it. Also, the crew didn't think to disarm the soldiers before taking them
to the interrment camp...
Myth? Maybe. Distorted at the very least...
-Sean
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*\
| Sean C. Malloy | x04...@tamuts.tamu.edu | No one ever expects the |
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DOS: Tastes like chicken when properly prepared.
scm...@tamsun.tamu.edu (Sean Malloy) writes:
Of course, Sean is not only Irish, he's an Irish Aggie... Hm...
>One thing that came out about a week ago was that a small group of Iraqi
>soldiers (<5) surrendered to an unarmed NEWS CREW. The crew went into
>some detail about how they shared rations/water with the Iraqis, and decided
>to drive them back to a base camp where one of the Journalists knew one of the
>officers in charge. According to what I heard, the news crew was so taken
>aback by this surrender, that they forgot to take pictures... they made the
>Iraqis get out of the truck, and re-surrender so that they could film
>it. Also, the crew didn't think to disarm the soldiers before taking them
>to the interrment camp...
>Myth? Maybe. Distorted at the very least...
Nightline, uh, three weeks ago. Yes, before the allies attacked by ground.
Four Iraqi soldiers and the rest of it is dead true according to the
journalists it happened to.
--
Andrew Scott Beals
abe...@autodesk.com
Marboro: War Ich Rindveh bin.
Matt Hucke
>
>Apparently a reservist was activated and was serving as an MP in
>Saudi Arabia, processing EPW. In civilian life he was among other
>things a security guard at U Illinois at Urbana.
>
>All at once, one of the EPW's says, in perfect english, "Don't I know
>you?" The EPW had returned to Iraq from being a student at U Illinois Urbana
>and they had met on campus at some point.
>
>coincidence?? or UL ??
I am at the University of Illinois now, and I saw this happen about two
years ago. It was on M*A*S*H. Colonel Henry Blake, a UIUC graduate,
(yes, he always wore his orange and blue 'I' sweater) went behind
enemy lines to do some surgical-type stuff, and was impressed by
the Chinese commander's English ability. When asked where he learned the
language, the Chinese said "University of Illinois" Naturally, they were
good friends the rest of the episode...
<As Col. Blake died about halfway through the series, (the character, not
the actor), that means this happened in the early seventies>
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<damn proud to be at Henry Blake's school!>
Subject: Re: Desert Storm ULs
Summary:
Expires:
References: <12...@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <78...@vanuata.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <b1ie7...@wang.com>
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Keywords:
Sean Malloy
>Doesn't ANYONE here watch "Nightline"?
Nope, Network News makes me violently ill. A one hour dose of CNN
usually gets me through the day, though.
>scm...@tamsun.tamu.edu (Sean Malloy) writes:
>Of course, Sean is not only Irish, he's an Irish Aggie... Hm...
Hmmm... you're making assumptions about my heritage... FYI I'm
3/4 German. My small amount of Irish blood only shows itself
on weekends... My parents decided that 'Sean Malloy' sounded
better than 'Hans Malloy' or 'Rudolph Malloy' (I happen to agree).
>>One thing that came out about a week ago was that a small group of Iraqi
>>soldiers (<5) surrendered to an unarmed NEWS CREW.
>
>Nightline, uh, three weeks ago. Yes, before the allies attacked by ground.
>Four Iraqi soldiers and the rest of it is dead true according to the
>journalists it happened to.
Well, I heard this story from my girlfriend's mother (who couldn't
remember where she heard it) so I figured that it sounded like an UL
to me, so I thought I'd post to see if it could be confirmed or denied.
Another UL killed in infancy by an ugly collaboration of facts...