Photo By Staff Sgt. Peter Berardi | Capt. Lori Volden, a native of Cashton, Wis., poses for a photo in the Camp Arifjan,...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — Capt. Lori Volden has served as a citizen soldier in the Army for 23 years. Her current overseas deployment to Kuwait with the 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) is her second. Her first was in support of Desert Shield and Desert Storm as a private first class supply clerk with the Alpha Company, 24th Forward Support Battalion, 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) of Fort Stewart, Ga.
Volden, a native of Cashton, Wis., joined the army in 1989 at age 18. She was right out of high school.
Her story to support Operation Desert Shield & Desert Storm started on the plane ride back from the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif.
“We were on the plane on July 31. I remember because it was my birthday,” Volden explained. We hadn’t gotten off the plane yet when someone came over the loudspeaker and said don’t unpack because we were probably going to Saudi Arabia. At the time, I had no idea where Saudi Arabia was. ”
Thirty days later, Volden and her unit were on a plane headed east.
When the 24th arrived in Saudi Arabia, they got there at the same time as many other units and space was tight. After a week, her unit was pushed out to their piece of the desert with a 5,000 gallon fuel truck, a deuce-and-a-half truck, the first sergeant’s Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle, a water buffalo, the maintenance truck and sleeping bags. Volden said they didn’t have amenities such as bottled water, latrines, hot chow or regular showers. In fact from August to the ground invasion at the end of February 1991, Volden only remembers having two showers. But, on Thanksgiving, the soldiers were given the day off and didn’t have to be in full battle rattle. Most people would call those conditions less than austere.
In February, she knew the ground invasion was imminent when she walked into the A co. tent.
“I saw the big map with all these arrows going north kinda like a ‘you are here’ and a ‘you will be here.’ I asked my first sergeant ‘is this really us?...are we really going into Iraq?’ He said yea, so I packed my stuff.”
“We got up to the border and we just sat there en masse, the whole division, for about 16 hours. Then en masse we just went forward it was quite a site.” Volden continued, I remember looking out, you could see 20 lines of vehicles and tanks. Just vehicles as far as you could see in every direction.
“Then about 18-hours after we started heading south on highway 8 the armor came up from behind and since we had all the fuel tankers with us they pulled up for fuel, which I thought was odd since I thought and assumed they’d be ahead of us,” said Volden. “As we’re sitting there I remember sitting on the hood of my deuce-and-a-half. I remember hearing a pop-pop-pop to the left of us and all the armor was to the right of us. I look and then all the tanks start shifting their guns over to where the sound is and they fire a couple of lobs over there, I hear a couple more shots, and I’m like ‘what is that, what are they shooting at.’
Currently a logistics officer in her 23rd year in the Army, ten as enlisted in the quartermaster branch, she feels she brings a good amount of experience to army logistics.
Now stationed at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with the 316th ESC Volden said, “This deployment is so much more different then 20 years ago, as there was absolutely no life support when we arrived and the whole mindset was different and "Safety" was only a concern for a garrison environment.” Adding, “There has been a realization that "Safety" is actually a Combat Multiplier and leaders have a responsibility to ensure no soldiers are lost to a Preventable Accident.”
Putting her experience into perspective Volden added, “When you can see what your cog [in the machine] does it helps it make more sense. It’s hard to relate what you do at such a high level to the war fighter. When you’ve been on the ground and been in the dirt you always wonder where all these boxes of stuff come from or these supplies or how do they know we need this stuff, it puts two and two together.”
“I’ve done many jobs with the Army. I’ve been a brigade safety officer, headquarters company commander, and an S-4 supply officer. I used to sit in the S-3 planning meetings and wonder why their plans were so complicated. Now that I’m in planning, my experience from being a supply clerk to a brigade safety officer helps me make better plans for the 316th.”
| Date Taken: | 07.20.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2012 13:50 |
| Story ID: | 91898 |
| Location: | ARIFJAN, KW |
| Hometown: | SPARTA, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, My First Deployment: Operation Desert Storm, by CSM Adam Stone, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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