Timothy Braun, a Fond du Lac, Wisconsin native, discusses his service with the 1st Marine Division in Kuwait during Operation Desert Fox. Braun details why he chose to enlist in the Marines, boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (San Diego), and Marine combat training at Camp Pendelton (California). He addresses being processed, techniques to disorient the new recruits, having his head shaved, the different phases of training, using the rifle range at Camp Pendelton, and missing a couple days of training after a knee injury. Braun evaluates drill instructors and training received, comparing them with what he expected. He talks about having difficulty learning navigation and shares anecdotes about mail call: one about when his instructors ate the twelve dozen cookies his mother had mailed to the platoon, and one about doing push ups every day because his mother was addressing his mail to "Pvt Braun" rather than "Recruit Braun." Braun describes military occupational specialty school and duty on work details. Assigned to amphibious armored vehicle school, he touches on training with armored vehicles and describes driving an Amtrak assault amphibian vehicle. Braun describes Joint Task Force duty at Yuma (Arizona), assisting the border patrol along the Mexican border, using a CB radio to report activity from a Listening Post Observation, and getting heatstroke. Just after arriving at Okinawa with the Marine Expeditionary Unit, Braun tells of being deployed to Kuwait. He details being transported by ship: the daily routine, boredom, taking a history class, practicing the drill for general quarters, and getting frequent immunization shots. Stationed at Kuwait City near the Iraqi border, he speaks of two weeks of exercises, cleaning off the vehicles in preparation of leaving, and then being called back again to a defensive position at the border. He tells of volunteering to go out with a rifle company for exercises in the desert where he almost got injured by an underthrown grenade. Braun recalls a night exercise when his whole unit was firing tracers. He portrays an incident where a Marine lost an ammunition clip and the platoon had to comb the desert for it. Braun highlights the amount of live ammunition he used in the desert. He touches on the troops' mixed reception by the Kuwaiti civilians. Braun discusses his return to the United States, arranging to be discharged early so he could attend school, getting married, and using the GI Bill. He recalls some Camp Pendleton stories: running across some Dutch Marines who had killed an endangered desert tortoise for dinner, an incident when a sheep wandered onto the firing range, and the valley getting accidentally set on fire during nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare training.
