CAX 2001

Frank Kancir Scout Observer and Robert Batchelor Radio Operator

On the hill at CAX 2001

 155mm HE rounds land in the distance

Here we are waiting for a chopper to give us a ride. We spent the heat of the summer from late July to September training in the desert. As a forward observer I was a part of a small team of artillery Marines attached to an infantry unit. We "called for fire" and sweated our butts of in the desert heat. 

The day we were to leave California, we were lined up outside of a plane getting ready to board but that day was Sept 11, 2001. Everyone was ordered to gather back in the hanger that we had staged in. Then, we sat and listened to our battalion commander as he explained the morning's events.  We shacked up in an abandoned barracks at the airfield for the next few days. We did what Marines do all the time "hurry up and wait". I believe that we were probably one of the first planes back in the sky, when finally went back to Camp Lejeune.