Patrick Radaker

Patrick Radaker
By: Krystal, Class of 2004

	Click to Enlarge	I had the chance to interview my father for this project because he participated in Operation Desert Storm. The following are some of the details he was able to tell me about. The unit my father was in was known as the 298^th Quarter Master. This unit was activated for 8 months, but spent 4 months in Saudi Arabia. They hauled gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Jet fuel was the main type of fuel that they carried. They also used it in the kerosene lamps and heaters they had in their tents. When they needed more fuel for the heaters they simply went and pumped it out of the trucks. They also had to haul all the supplies for the company and laundry. My father was the armor of the company.
	He took care of all the weapons and ammunition. He had to repair any damaged weapons and if they were non-repairable then he was responsible for getting a new one. He was going to move up but then was told that he was the only person certified in armor for that unit. Back in Virginia they trained another person to come over so that if anything ever happened to my father there would be someone to take his place. Their main purpose was to support the marines. This was the main place they had to haul the jet fuel and this was their last order when the ground war broke out. They were stationed in 4 different places while in Saudi Arabia. The first was Duharran, where they slept in metal buildings, on cement floors waiting for all their equipment to arrive. The second was just outside of Dhahran. They were located in the middle of a desert. The place had a name, but he could not recall it. They got to sleep in buildings at this place. The third was a port. They set their tents up on a paved lot and had to sleep there. The fourth was Al Jabber or they were around this area. They were 25 miles south of the Kuwait border. They were the only non-marine group in that location. They were then known as the 402^nd Quarter Master Battalion.	Click to Enlarge
	Click to Enlarge	This was an act of duty army unit. They hauled over 30 million gallons f fuel in my father’s unit alone. Before they left for Saudi, they received brand new fuel trucks and equipment. When the new trucks returned with the army after the war was over they had more miles on them than the old trucks had from every place they had been combined. They had 2 truck that hauled water and motor heater to heat the water for the showers. The shower building was a wooden building. The only other tent that was level with the land was the mess haul. I asked my dad if he had a choice whether or not to go back. His reply was that if he got called back to war he would go. When I asked how this experience affected him he said, "The thing that affected me the most was being away from family. And not being able to talk to me, because after the 2^nd time he called me I would start to cry and couldn’t talk to him on the phone." This was when he was stationed in Virginia. I was only about 5 at the time. He also stated, "It was difficult, you never knew from one minute to the next what was going to happen. You just had to make the best of everything you could while you were over there." "The best support was letters. This was definitely the main type of support and the most helpful. I wrote to many people that I had never even met before in my life because I had gotten letters from them." "After the ground war was over they took a road trip and it was great to see the people walking the streets. The people were saying thank you as you drove past and the one place we stopped the children came up and were hugging us. One kid handed a soldier a Kuwait flag." "This made the whole "trip" worth while."

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