It was July of 94 around 6:00 in the morning on a Thursday. Chris one my best friends from school crashed in my place as he always did. Thursday was a holiday in Yemen. Our weekends were Thursday and Friday and Thursday was Youth group. It was pretty much half the students we knew in school. Mr. Dewitt our P.E. coach ran the Youth group and it was one of best experiences in my childhood. The day always started with pickup ball in Ron Dewitt's house while the girls will watch a movie or just enjoy the day off. There were always crates of Pepsi, coke, pouring down in our stomachs. There was Braden and Josie, the Dewitt siblings who were always the center of attraction. In the afternoon it was discussion time where we discussed the Bible. On this day though this was all not meant to be; That July morning two f-15 Jets would bomb the Sana’a International airport. The airport was close to my house so when the bombs crashed the resonance was immensely loud. Though in my mind I would be sleeping through all this; I never heard the bombs go. I only heard the voice of Chris and my dad shouting to get my butt of bed and get to the living room. When I woke up completely I did not realize what was going on. Suddenly we heard gun firing rapidly. We all sat in the living room where there were no windows nearby hoping that there were no windows shattering next to us. After about 45 minutes there was silence. I never heard that kind of silence before. There were no cars honking, no birds chirping, no kids running down the street. Instead it was like a dead town.
Within a few hours, Chris's dad came over to pick him up and while hearing the discussion with my dad, I realized that things did not look good. We started locking up the back doors and shutting some of the windows. My dad made me bring all the beds to the living room and we would put our dining table top the beds. This way we would avoid anything which falls on us if there was bomb shatter. I walked across the street to our grocery store and got water and groceries for the rest of the week. It was declared curfew and by the end of the day, the silence crept and the city would go quiet again.
The power was shut down and the clear skies took over the night. I had never seen a clear sky like that before and Jen and I were sitting in her room looking up and enjoying the view. We could hear the army patrolling as the tanks the troops would pass by. Then the scud missiles started away and at that time my eyes lit up. You see I was always into fire works. It was always something I looked as a triumph of victory or rejoicing for an occasion. And this was awesome. They flew so rapidly one after one and it looked like a flash of light just whizzing through. Then you would hear the bombings. The low thunder would resonate over the land and the ak47s would rapidly beat with rhythm of the skies. I was so excited to look at them, that every time the missiles would go by I would keep admiring them more and more. At the age of fourteen you see all this as surreal. I did not realize how the situation was intense. I saw my mum with a bible in her hand while my dad was smoking his cigarette as usual and pondering in a deep thought. I never realized why these missiles were fired and to who. This was the first day of the war.
By the time I left Yemen due to the fact it become not safe for my family due to my dad’s work, we were evacuated after 2-3 weeks by US B-52, where they evacuated all the Americans and American affiliates. Upon leaving I found why those missiles were fired. Just before all that the hospital close by to us was bombed and in retaliation the north fired back. As a kid you are aware what is right or wrong in a war. You grow up watching movies such as dirty dozen, a bridge too far and you fascinated by guns and bombs. In all reality it was fight between the same people, the same class, and the same ethnicity.
Some of us have bad experiences with war. We see things that we are not supposed to see. It affects us mentally as well as physically. We want to forget and never remember it. But in that midst of all that chaos and bloodshed, for me for that one moment of silence I looked up to the skies with joy and thanked the Lord that I was able to experience all this.
