Then -- just before the land invasion
of Iraq and Kuwait -- came a rumor that Saddam Hussein had a supply of
Anthrax virus and missiles or shells to fire it -- one of the worst forms
of biological warfare. And this was (we know now) just at the moment
when the anti-Iraq army in Arabia was secretly moving the main body of
the army from the East end of the border to the West end. Major Roc
Ordman and his twelve-man unit were in some tents in the middle of the
desert (near King Khalid Military City, if anyone wants to find it on a
map) when the Colonel called him in.
Colonel: "I want you to
take any men you can find, go north out in the desert, and vaccinate any
troops you find there against anthrax."
Roc: "Certainly. I'm glad
to finally have something to do. Where are they and how many?
Colonel: "That's a
secret. I can't tell you. Just go out in the desert, look for people, I
promise you'll find some. Vacccinate them against anthrax."
Roc: "But that's crazy.
You have to tell me where they are and how much medicine to bring. It's
a big desert."
Colonel: "You've been complaining
of nothing to do. Looking for them will keep you busy. Go away and do it
and don't bother me."
So Major Roc Ordman drove
out into the desert -- where he found incredible numbers of troops going
by in convoys, East to West. We know, but they didn't know then, that this
was the two hundred thousand or more troops being secretly moved from East
to West for the surprise attack, and that it was really essential that
where they were, and when, and how many, did
have to be secret! Anyway, Roc took his twelve men, drove south and
found a bunch of other support units with people who were also bored, taught
them to give anthrax shots, borrowed a whole lot more jeeps, and
set out into the desert --. He finally established a whole line of jeeps
across the desert, listening for moving troops, and when they found them
flagged them down and vaccinated them against anthrax as they went by.
His men vaccinated
some 70,000 soldiers in about three days -- it turns out the commanders
higher up had hoped he could find and vaccinate maybe 5,000 or 10,000 but
hadn't wanted to admit there were even that many nearby!
But then -- given
his great success -- he ran out of vaccine! And he was still very mad at
the Colonel and wasn't about to talk to that unreasonable man again.
He finally had something to do and was going to go on doing it. So he called
some drug companies in Switzerland, called the U.S. army medical people
in Western Germany to collect the drugs and supplies he needed, and took
a jeep to Riyadh and got on a plane to Frankfurt to get the medicine he
needed and bring it back to Arabia. He figured it would take a few days
to collect the medicine, so before leaving Riyadh he telephoned his wife
in Wisconsin to fly to Frankfurt to come visit him!
Unfortunately, in the Riyadh
airport, he met -- the Colonel. "Where are you going?", asked the Colonel.
Ordman replied, "It's a secret. You have your secrets; I have mine." and
flew off to
Frankfurt.
Roc Ordman got to Frankfurt late at
night. He got one beer and one hamburger, the first in months, one shower,
and one night's sleep on a mattress. The next morning when he went to the
army medical offices, he was immediately arrested. The Colonel had found
out. To make matters
worse, the commanding General Schwartzkopf himself had ordered battle
was imminent: that no one was to leave Arabia without specific orders and
that ESPECIALLY no one aware of the big East-to-West move was to leave
Arabia under any circumstances.. (Roc, of course, had been out in the desert
when the orders came around, and hadn't asked anyone who knew the rules
before he
had left for Germany). So Roc was threatened with being charged
with either espionage or desertion from the battlefield, and told "it doesn't
really matter which; both of them are capital offenses." They put
him on the first plane back to Arabia. Luckily they let him phone his wife
-- he reached her two hours before she was to get on the plane to fly
to Germany!
In Arabia they removed Roc
from command of his unit, kept him "under arrest" and confined. Confined
to a luxury hotel in Riyadh with air conditioning, an exercise room, and
a swimming pool. And there he sat while they fought the four days of the
land war.
Luckily, Saddam Hussein never used his anthrax
virus and more vaccine wasn't needed. The big troop movement from East
to West remained a secret and Iraq had no defenses in the West, so
we won the war quickly, with few casualties. So by the time a court-martial
could be organized, every one was a good deal more sympathetic.
After a lot of talking, they decided
what Roc had done wasn't as serious as they might have decided had everyone
not been so happy about winning the war. They reprimanded him for
insubordination (which means they just wrote him a nasty letter) for going
to Germany without
permission and for not telling the Colonel where he was going, and
they gave him a medal for initiative for doing such an exceptionally good
job in vaccinating so many people so quickly!
So, in terms of what the family
expected, Roc's war in Arabia was successful. If needed he was ready to
help, when they asked him to do something, he did it very well, and --
thank God! -- he really wasn't needed! We think -- except for his
temper with the Colonel, maybe -- he should be proud of his service, and
we find the simultaneous medal and reprimand typical of many old jokes
about the army. But our impression is that Roc never did really understand
why they made him go to Arabia.
I need hardly add that Roc's wife,
and his mother, had a few sleepless nights while he was under arrest.
The rumor around here is that when he got home, his wife wouldn't let him
back in the house until he had written his letter of resignation from the
army.
A few years later, incidentally, the U.S. Military
adopted the policy Roc had been advocating much earlier -- routinely vaccinating
troops in Arabia against anthrax.
Edward Ordman 1993, edited 2001