RESERVISTS EYE EVENTS IN PERSIAN GULF WITH INTEREST

When Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sent troops marching toward the Kuwaiti border recently, he got the attention of American veterans of the 1991 gulf war.

Dr. Mike Brown and Norman Anderson were among 60 members of the Cape Girardeau Naval Reserve medical unit who served in a fleet hospital in Bahrein during the brief conflict.

Brown is a radiologist with Cape Radiology Group. Anderson is a technical supervisor for the Southeast Missouri Hospital lab.

With U.S. troops once again being deployed to the Persian Gulf, it seemed like a flashback for Brown and Anderson.

Both said it is difficult to predict what Hussein will do.

"You don't know whether he is just trying to jerk your chain in order to trigger your response," Brown said Monday. "Surely, he is not stupid enough to try this again."

Anderson said, "It seems like a nightmare coming back."

Anderson said that if the United States again must take military action against Iraq, he doesn't doubt that he and other members of the Naval Reserve Fleet Hospital 22 once more will be sent to the Persian Gulf. At the time of the gulf war, the fleet hospital comprised nearly 1,000 reservists from a five-state region.

But Anderson said he views North Korea as more of an international trouble spot than Iraq.

Hussein doesn't have any air power to protect his ground troops. "Without him having an air force, it is just slaughter," Anderson said.

Anderson is critical of President Clinton's foreign policy, and he thinks defense budget cuts have been too deep.

Brown, who after six years no longer is in the Naval Reserve, also served almost six years in the Air Force, including a tour of duty in Vietnam in 1969.

He believes the United States is in a better position today to thwart an Iraqi attack in the Persian Gulf than it was in 1991.

Brown said the United States left a lot of military equipment in Kuwait, which could be put into service quickly. "I think we are in much better shape."

Brown and his fellow reservists were stationed 100 miles south of Kuwait City during Operation Desert Storm. But with today's missile warfare, Brown said, there are no front lines.

Smoke from burning oil wells in Kuwait reached the fleet hospital. "It was awful. We had days where we couldn't even see or breathe," recalled Brown.

It was reported Monday that Iraqi troops were moving back from the border

But such actions offer little assurance to Brown. "If he doesn't go any farther and we build up all these troops and he just kind of withdraws, we are left to wonder when he is going to do this again."