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Fahed Boodai was just another carefree 17-year-old in Spain, enjoying his first holiday with friends, when he heard the news that Saddam Hussein had invaded his homeland.
It was a moment that Mr Boodai looks back on as one of several turning points, or “wake-up calls”, to have punctuated his life.
The Gulf War that ensued and the part he would play in it shaped his psyche and career path in a fundamental way, not least because he had only $400 left in his wallet that August morning in 1990.
Lacking the financial means to go back to the Gulf, to be closer to Kuwait, had a profound effect on him in the uncertain weeks that followed.