Kane Farabaugh's Kanestergram

NORTH ARABIAN GULF - It’s been referred to as “the most dangerous work-space in the world.” Below the surface of this steel beast are 5,700 people living in a virtual city at sea. It holds about 80 aircraft ranging from planes to helicopters, 500,000 pounds of jet fuel, receives 3,000 pounds of mail daily, and travels the seas of the world at speeds more than 30 knots. Welcome on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. We’re underway on this U.S. Navy Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier during a Western Pacific Deployment, which the crew calls a “WestPac.” The Lincoln heads up an eight-ship battle group that’s deployed to the region for about six months. They’re in the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, the coalition effort to patrol Iraq’s southern no-fly zone. Any fighter pilot on board will tell you it’s not the safest job in the world. “You never get used to being fired at,” says Lieutenant Junior Grade Steve Dean, who flies the Navy and Marine Corps’ new F/A 18...

KUWAIT CITY - Less than 50 miles from the border with Iraq, in a desert filled with choking dust, the U.S. military has dug in, ready for war. Dotted throughout the northwest part of Kuwait are several remote camps filled with thousands of U.S. troops. The soldiers here call these camps “kabals,” an Arabic word that means fortress. Most of the troops in these kabals are in the Army, deployed from the United States for six months at a time as part of a 1991 defense agreement with the Emirate of Kuwait. Even though American forces have been in this tiny Middle Eastern country for more than a decade, the threat of war in Iraq is shedding new light on their mission here. Our two-week news gathering effort to the Persian Gulf starts here in Kuwait. We’re talking with and documenting the lives of these deployed soldiers on what could become the front line in a war with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. We’re also trying to get a feel for what it’s like to live under these conditions thousands of miles ...