A lifetime ago in the mid-2000s I was on deployment in the Northern Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq and Iran. Our primary mission was establishing and maintaining a security perimeter around the offshore oil platforms KAAOT and ABOT in support of re-establishing the oil capacity output.
After a month or so of chasing away fishing and transport Dhows, warily eyeing Iranian cigar gunboats and generally being on edge, I realized the stupidity of the situation. I joked to our CO that instead of US Navy tags on our uniforms we should get some ExxonMobil badges. My logic being that we should represent who we were actually working for. He didn’t like my humor for some reason.
Dying or being injured in the service of defending the nation is one thing. Risking American lives so a fat cat oil executive can buy another house on the shores of Lake Tahoe wasn’t what I signed up for.
He knew of what he spoke.
A lifetime ago in the mid-2000s I was on deployment in the Northern Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq and Iran. Our primary mission was establishing and maintaining a security perimeter around the offshore oil platforms KAAOT and ABOT in support of re-establishing the oil capacity output.
After a month or so of chasing away fishing and transport Dhows, warily eyeing Iranian cigar gunboats and generally being on edge, I realized the stupidity of the situation. I joked to our CO that instead of US Navy tags on our uniforms we should get some ExxonMobil badges. My logic being that we should represent who we were actually working for. He didn’t like my humor for some reason.
Dying or being injured in the service of defending the nation is one thing. Risking American lives so a fat cat oil executive can buy another house on the shores of Lake Tahoe wasn’t what I signed up for.