PERRYVILLE SOLDIER OBSERVES SINAI PENINSULA

PERRYVILLE -- The classic spaghetti westerns of the 1950s and 1960s gave a whole generation of TV viewers a taste of what it's like to live and die in the desert. Scenes of stranded gold miners and desperadoes, parched with thirst, their skin seared by the sun, were typical of those old TV westerns.

The son of a Perryville couple won't have to refer to old cowboy movies to describe what it's like to live out in the middle of nowhere. Army Spec. Jimmy D. Allen, son of Thomas and Roxann Allen of Perryville, is deployed for six months to the historical and Biblically significant Sinai Peninsula, a desert region that puts the "d" in "desolate."

Part of an 11-nation force of peacekeepers and observers, Allen is serving in the buffer zone between Egypt and Israel to help maintain peace between the two nations. The Multinational Force and Observers, commonly called the MFO, monitors and reports all activity in the Sinai region to confirm that both Egypt and Israel are honoring terms of the 1979 peace treating.

The MFO operates from two base camps -- North Camp and South Camp. Allen, a member of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky., is deployed to South Camp for a six-month tour of duty. He is an infantryman maintaining the vigil at one of the observation posts.

"My main job in the Sinai is to observe and report," said Allen, a 1995 graduate of Perryville High School. "I spend most of my time working in the tower as an observer, watching for vehicles and aircraft that enter our sector. We report any incidents that may be in violation of the peace treaty. I'm also the field sanitation person. I check the water for proper chlorination to make sure it's safe to drink."

The smaller South Camp, situated on a bluff overlooking the Red Sea, serves as a support base for the 30 observation posts, sector control centers and check points scattered throughout the eastern Sinai region.

Along with eight to 14 other soldiers, Allen lives on a small, isolated encampment for weeks at a time. From high atop a watchtower, the soldier take turns keeping constant watch of the surrounding areas. A few of the observation posts and sector control centers are on small islands, or are situated along the Red Sea. The land itself, however, is empty and still, except for the occasional Bedouin Arabs driving goat and camel herds in search of vegetation.

Service in the Sinai is uncommon duty for Allen and his comrades in the 101st, one of the Army's premier airborne combat units. When these infantrymen arrive in the Sinai, they become peacekeepers not warriors. Making the transition brings whole new challenges.

"Being in the 101st, I train for combat," Allen said. "We spend many days training out in the field. Sometimes we're wet and cold and living in the worst conditions imaginable. I challenge my body every day. But out here in the Sinai, I don't really have that kind of challenge."

The Sinai holds historical, economic and political significance, being the land bridge between Africa and southwest Asia. In Biblical times, Moses is said to have led his people out of Egypt and into freedom in Israel, roaming the swirling sands and barren landscapes of the Sinai for 40 years. On Mount Sinai, he was presented the Ten Commandments. At the Gulf of Aquba, he saw the Red Sea parted by the hand of God, clearing the way for his people to make the final trek into Israel.

The desolate Sinai, along with the boredom that isolation brings, are just some of the challenges Allen and his fellow soldiers face.

"Being out in the desert, away from everyone and everything, is both fun and lonely at the same time," he said. "I do a lot of physical training and write lots of letters, which makes the time pass. It also helps me to cope when I thing about all the good times I had at home before I left. It's the smallest things that make the biggest different though, like getting letters from my wife.

"I miss a lot of things about home, but I miss my wife, Jennifer, most of all. She makes the world go 'round. We have our good times and bad times, but I can't wait to get back, take her out and dance the night away."

The ending for Allen and his fellow soldiers in the Sinai will be a lot different from the fate of the desperadoes of the TV westerns past. After six months, Allen will return to Fort Campbell and the "real" world he left behind.