University Daily Kansan / Friday, October 4, 1991
5
Married Lawrence couple stick together while stationed at POW camp in gulf war
By Melissa Rodgers
Kennon staff writer
Jim Miller and Cindy Alliss avoided having war interrupt their marriage.
Kansan staff writer
Cindy Alliss and Jim Miller are more than husband and wife.
Alliss, a KU police officer who also is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve's 403rd Military Police Camp based in Omaha, Neb., was notified last November that her unit would be deployed to the Persian Gulf.
Both are police officers in Lawrence and both spent five months in Saudi Arabia earlier this year as officers at a war-to-war camp for Iraqi soldiers.
But it was not by chance that the two found themselves together in the Persian Gulf.
Before he requested the transfer, Miller served as an aide-de-camp to general in the Kansas National Guard.
Immediately after Alliss received her orders, Miller, a Lawrence police officer who at the time was in the Kansas National Guard, immediately began working on a transfer to Alliss' unit
Alliss also worked on the transfer.
"I made calls everyday and begged people to get through the red tape," she said.
Within 96 hours, Miller had been transferred to the 403rd Military Police Camp of the Army Reserves.
On Jan. 15, 1990, Alliss and Miller left Fort Riley for Saudi Arabia on separate flights.
The two met again in the Saudi Arabian town of Khabar, where they stayed briefly before beginning a four-hour trip to the POW camp in the desert.
Shortly after arriving at the POW camp, both were promoted to 1st lieutenants and made commanders of the camp.
Miller was in charge of an Iraqi POW compound, a27-square-acre section that at one time held about 3,800 POWs
Alliss was responsible for feeding and supplying the 300 troops who guarded the camp.
Alliss said she began to feel like a house mother for 300 people. She not only found fresh eggs and vegetables, but also a confident and psychologist to her troops.
Alliss said people did not realize the logistical challenges of feeding and providing for 300 people in the desert.
Miller said he considered his wife a hero.
"Her job was so difficult and so important," he said.
Miller commanded one of three compounds in the POW camp. He said the camp was unprepared for the first attack, and he described as only shadows of soldiers.
The first group of POWS to arrive
on the line, about 1000 meters from
Woolly Mountain, was from the
The first day the Iraqis arrived, there was ariot for food, Millers said.
"They almost killed themselves to get to the food," he said. "We had to throw the food over the compound fence."
He said some of the POWs had not eaten in five days or showered in three months. Many had no shoes and most were unclothed with lice when they arrived, he said.
The prisoners were fed not meals twice a day and were able to take showers. The Army also provided prayer rugs, Korans and cigarettes, he said.
A few of the prisoners said they were Christians and asked for Bibles written by them.
"The army inspection unit considered (Miller's) POW compound the following:
Alliss and Miller said being in Saudi Arabia put stress on their marriage. Often they would see each other only at dinner and at staff meetings, although they tried to spend a couple of hours together each day.
Saudi Arabia, the only night the two spent together was Easter, they said.
Except for a two-day trip to Riyadh,
Although another married enlisted couple in a nearby Army unit shared a private tent, Alliss and Miller did not have that luxury. Their camp colonel thought it would be inappropriate to together because they were officers.
Alliss had her own tent.
"Like Houlihan on the M*A*S*H" she said. Milton also compared his living quarters to that of characters on the show, and he did not have a martini still, he said.
The couple read letters to each other to help ease the stress of the war, Alliss said.
"You can't have a marriage over there, but we did the best we could," Miller said.
He said in retrospect that he might have let his wife go alone.
The two returned from the Persian Gulf on May 17.
For Alliss and Miller, returning home was anti-climactic.
*In Saudi Arabia, the adrenaline was going all the time.* Allison said.
Going back to work turned out to be difficult and depressing for both of them.
Miller and Alliss said that in Saudi Arabia, they had tremendous responsibilities and were problem solvers
"We were in leadership positions there," Miller said. "We went from commanders to workers."
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