March 1991
"Six days after the liberation of Kuwait the Kuwaitis were still celebrating outside the U.S. Embassy, firing every available weapon in the air, including the .50-caliber dual-mount machineguns on the Saudi and Qatari personnel carriers. It's one thing to get plinked on the head by a falling pistol bullet, but a .50-caliber slug plummeting from the sky at terminal velocity could go right through you to the soles of your feet. One American marine told me that sixteen people had been killed by 'happy fire' so far, but a U.S. Army officer said it was more like a hundred and fifty. All the press corps' telephone and television satellite up-links were on the roof of the Hilton and rounds were beginning to land up there. One bullet came down between the feet of ABC executive Neil Patterson, who started handing out helmets and battle gear to everybody on the ABC payroll. The most dangerous thing I did during the entire war was cook spaghetti sauce on a camp stove on the Hilton roof without wearing my flak jacket."
~ P.J. O'Rourke, Give War a Chance
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