Desert Storm commemoration, 1991-2011

[p51]

This year, a few of us in a WW2 living history group decided to form a small group devoted to the 20th anniversary of Desert Shield/Storm. We don’t do “re-enacting” as such (although we did get some guys willing to portray the Iraqis, but we decided against it), as we’re devoted to displays and educating the public as there are a great deal of misconceptions about the war out there.
We just had our first public event at Armed Forces Day at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Got several period vehicles to show up as well which provided good backgrounds for photos but sadly all with trees (you just can't simulate Kuwait in Western Washington). The tank was an Iraqi one, captured by a Fort Lewis unit in 1991, we got that shot as we were leaving. It rained off and on but a good time was had by all! A lot of people just didn't know enough about the DS era to know how to react to us (I didn’t even bother trying to explain the timeframe to little kids like I would for WW2 as I knew they just wouldn’t get it), but we got a lot of favorable response and nothing negative. Here are some shots we got that day...
Pete’s 1980s pop-up tent. It took all of maybe 3 minutes to set this up and came in handy for a place to stash stuff:
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Ed, Me and Pete at the display as we got our gear on. We didn't get a shot with the tent, wish I had now:
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Ed and I with an Iraqi Type 59:
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A little more info on the group can be found here:
http://desertstorm20th.webs.com/ (http://desertstorm20th.webs.com/)

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Our next showing will be at Centralia, WA on the 4th of July, where we should have at least four fully-outfitted troops, at least one vehicle and more than one crew-served weapon. We don’t do airsoft, these are all live weapons.

[p51]

More shots from a recent event:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/DesertStorm/2011Centralia4thofJuly062.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/DesertStorm/2011Centralia4thofJuly016.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/DesertStorm/2011Centralia4thofJuly030.jpg

Some of the stuff I put out for my part of the display:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/DesertStorm/the4th007.jpg

[Anthony91]

I didn't know there was a North American theater of the Persian Gulf War. :)

Cool pictures though, I had no idea that there was stuff like this going on down at Fort Lewis.

[agimat2011]

great pictures and gear!

i'm from the philippines and i'm a fan of the choco chip load-out. i've started a collection of gear used during desert storm 1 about a year ago. i've also read general schwarzkopf's book and that of general franks (with tom clancy co-writing).

do you have other pictures of this event and if you do, could you please post them? also, if you could indulge me with a kitlist pls?

and, if you would know, what kind of sling was used for the m16a2 (is it that one in the pictures above)? i would love to find the type commonly used during that conflict...

appreciate the time and feedback!

[p51]

The slings are standard basic black web slings, just like a black web belt with two closed face buckles at each end. Shouldn't be too tough to find one online.
As for the equipment, we haven't done a "new guy's guide to gear" and I know of no such books. All the guys in my group are longtime collectors and all but one were around in the DS era, so we already know what to look for. I would suggest this site as it shows a lot of good stuff: http://www.desertstorm1991.com/files/LBE/LBE.htm
And this, overall: http://www.desertstorm1991.com/

[agimat2011]

hey, much appreciated. thanks a lot, man!