I just wanted to share my perspective as a teenage college student at NLU when the First Gulf War broke out. Watching the coverage this past weekend of the strike on Iran and social media reels filled up with Gen Z kids terrified the draft was about to be reinstated brought all those memories and feelings back and I thought I should record those tidbits for history. Goodness! that was over thirty-four years ago!
I remember being a fresh-faced kid going to the big college in Monroe for my first experience away from home. It was tough leaving behind my boyfriend for the week and only talking to and seeing him and my friends on the weekend visits! We had no cell phones with unlimited minutes or internet. It was expensive to call long distance from a land line. You could write letters back and forth, but that took days.
Tensions in Iraq and Kuwait exploded in November, 1990 and by January America and several other countries decided to intervene. I will never forget the day war was declared with Iraq. That same feeling of dread and “Am I going to war?” swept the NLU campus and, I’m sure, all over the country. It was all my guy friends could talk about for weeks. They were terrified the draft was about to be reinstated. I remember walking around campus to visit friends and seeing groups of people huddled around their dorm room tvs, glued to CNN watching every tidbit of information that came through. Remember Gen Z, this was before Internet. We had to rely (and trust!) what we were watching and hearing on the networks! It didn’t calm down until Iraq finally fell.
I just wanted to record that little moment in local history for the future and also to reassure Gen Z that older generations had that same feeling of dread you are having. It all worked out. The draft never happened. We survived! You will too.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 