For The Intelligencer
In this 2014
photo, Mary Rhoads takes a break during a walk in her hometown of
California, Pa., where she worked as a parking meter
attendant before being deployed to the Persian Gulf War.
Photo by Scott
Beveridge
As evening fell on Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 25, 1991, U.S. and British troops were inside a corrugated metal barracks eating dinner, working out or sleeping.
They were deployed to the region as part of the effort by the United States and its allies to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait. In the month since the war started, Iraq had lobbed Soviet-made Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia and Israel, but most went off course and caused few casualties.