30 years from the ceasefire ending the First Gulf War we talk to Colin Shieff, AJEX Welfare manager.
On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein of Iraq launched an unprovoked invasion into his neighbouring country of Kuwait. What may have seemed like a tiny action in the often-volatile region sparked a huge international response and a united coalition force of 39 nations (the agreement of which had not seen since the Second World War).
For the western nations this was the first time they had any real physical military engagement in the Middle East since the Suez Crisis or the Second World War. Britain committed the largest force of the European counties, but the largest force ready to push the Iraqis out of Kuwait were US Forces.
Of course, when we think of war it is the fighting forces most people will immediately think of but as all veterans and serving personnel know a military is composed of many different men and women, carrying out any number of professional and fighting roles. It was one of those professional roles that brings the AJEX of today and the Gulf 30 years ago into direct contact.
Many of you know Colin Shieff as the AJEX Welfare Manager, but his route to us takes in quite a few sites, countries and encounters including some with the desert of the Gulf war.
While growing up Colin had listened to his father’s stories of being a Doctor in the British Forces during the Second World War. It seemed hard work but fun, and Colin considered a career in the RAF. However, an eye condition meant that instead he changed his mind and headed straight into medicine qualifying as a Neurosurgeon at The Royal Free Hospital.
Nonetheless, friends’ tales of weekend adventures in the TA (Territorial Army – now the Army Reserve) kept coming back to him, and he was finally persuaded to join the forces in a part-time capacity. It was while he was doing his basic training at the Medical Depot that the news broke of the Iraqi invasion.
Only days after returning to London he received a telephone call at work – would he be prepared to accompany the coalition forces out to the Gulf to remove Saddam Hussein’s army from Iraq? Colin said yes – after all he had no wife or children, and it sounded like something new!
After additional training, especially with fulltime military medical teams Colin was despatched to the Gulf in early 1991 and was quickly promoted from a Captain to a Lieutenant Colonel on the way.
“It was a bit like MASH (the US television series set in the Korean War), with the tents and uniforms” he reflects. “It was also all very new”. Colin recalls hearing the beginning of the coalitions' air invasion starting on 16 January, “it was like a day and night of noise”. But most of all he remembers the people. The people that he had to treat, the ones who became friends, and the ones who he would never see again.
The First Gulf War was an intense few months and once the International Forces began their offensive the fighting was soon over. On 28 February 1991, a ceasefire was called, and the fighting ended. For thousands of British servicemen, it was a campaign that was the forerunner to the conditions and partnership that would arise again in ten years with the Iraq war. For Colin Shieff it was the start of a military career that would exist alongside his civilian one for the next few decades.
