Three Children in the Desert
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- Three young people stood alone in the Iraqi desert. There were no parents nearby, no adults, and no one else the soldiers could see for miles. One was an older teenager, 17 years old, while the other two children were only 8 and 5. They were barefoot, hungry, and asking the American soldiers for food and water. For U.S. Army soldier Anthony Petros Cruz, it was a sight he would carry with him long after the Gulf War ended.Cruz and the other soldiers were in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm when they encountered them. They had been trained for war and understood that they had a mission to accomplish and orders to follow, but nothing in that training could make the sight of an older teen and two children alone in the desert easy to accept. The soldiers did what they could. They gave them a box of Meals Ready to Eat, commonly known as MREs, and some bottled water. They had no footwear they could give them, even though all three were walking barefoot in the desert.
- At first, the three were frightened and shy around the soldiers. The Americans were strangers to them, and even the food they were being given was unfamiliar. Eventually, however, hunger took over and they began eating. Then they discovered the candy inside the MRE packages. Cruz remembers how their faces lit up when they found it. For a brief moment, in the middle of a war they probably did not understand, the older teen and two children could forget what was happening around them.
- But the soldiers could not stay. Cruz's NCO told him they were unable to transport them, and the unit had to continue its mission. As they left, Cruz could not stop thinking about what might happen to them. He wondered whether another family member would return, where their parents might be, or whether there were any adults nearby who would eventually find them. There was nothing he could do except hope and pray.
- That moment also caused Cruz to make a promise to himself. If he ever became a father, he would try his hardest to make sure his children were taken care of, protected, sheltered, and fed. Decades later, the memory of those three remains with him. Today, Cruz is 58 years old, the father of two daughters and a grandfather to Emileah Grace. Becoming a father and grandfather has made the memory even more powerful. When he thinks about them today, he thinks about his own girls and prays they will never have to experience the fear and suffering those three endured during the Gulf War.
- Long before that day in the Iraqi desert, Cruz was a young man from Guam trying to determine where his life was going. Originally from the villages of Piti and Dededo, he remembers his life becoming a routine. He would sleep, go to work at the warehouse at Ben Franklin department store, DJ at parties on the weekends, and spend time hanging out. Eventually, he decided to do something different with his life and joined the United States Army.
- Leaving Guam introduced Cruz to a much larger world, but it also showed him how little some people knew about the island he called home. Some of the people he encountered did not even know Guam existed. Others assumed he was from Guatemala or somewhere in South America. He even remembers being asked whether people on Guam were civilized or whether they still ran around naked or wore grass skirts as though they lived on some newly discovered Pacific island.
- Those experiences gave Cruz something to prove. Coming from Guam, he felt he had to demonstrate that he could be just as capable a soldier as anyone from the mainland United States. Rather than allowing the misconceptions about his home to discourage him, he used them as motivation. His previous experience in Civil Air Patrol and Army JROTC in high school helped prepare him for military life, and he wanted to make his parents proud while representing Guam with honor.
- That determination paid off during basic training when Cruz became an honor cycle graduate. He remembers competing with soldiers from throughout the battalion and then hearing his name announced: “PFC Cruz, Anthony Petros from Guam.” For Cruz, those last two words mattered. He was not only Anthony Cruz standing there in uniform. He was Anthony Cruz from Guam.
- His mother, sisters, and other family members were there to witness the moment. Cruz admits that he had been homesick throughout basic training and had even questioned whether joining the active-duty Army had been the right decision. There were times when he wondered whether he should have joined the National Guard or Reserve instead, knowing he could have returned home after completing Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training. Becoming an honor graduate helped change that. The accomplishment gave him confidence and helped erase some of the doubts he had carried with him.
- Cruz went on to serve as a 63 Bravo H8 Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanic Recovery Specialist with Echo Company, 3rd Engineer Battalion, stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia, under the 24th Infantry Division. His first deployment came in 1989, when his company went to South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo devastated parts of the East Coast. It was Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, however, that would become one of the defining periods of his military service. Cruz never imagined that he would actually experience combat, but suddenly war was no longer something distant. It was happening around him.
- The Army also introduced Cruz to people from backgrounds very different from his own. One person who had a lasting influence on him was Sgt. Donnie Harris, his first squad leader. Harris took Cruz under his leadership and taught him not only how to become a better soldier but also lessons about living in the States. Cruz credits Harris with helping him recognize and understand racism, something he said he had never really experienced while growing up on Guam.
- His squad itself was diverse, made up of people from different states, cultures, and walks of life. They brought their own experiences with them, just as Cruz brought Guam with him. Over time, they learned from one another while working together as soldiers. Some of the friendships Cruz formed during his service became lifelong bonds. The people who had once been strangers from different parts of the country eventually became what Cruz describes as brothers for life.
- Military service made Cruz stronger and taught him that barriers could be overcome, but leaving the Army brought another set of challenges. His transition into civilian life was difficult. Cruz struggled with the stigma surrounding PTSD and worried about being labeled or treated as though something was wrong with him because of service-connected disabilities. He also faced the challenge of finding good employment while trying to build what he considered a normal life after military service.
- Years after leaving the Army, Cruz faced another difficult chapter: homelessness. He became a homeless veteran on Guam. Yet that chapter of his life did not become the end of his story. Instead, it became part of the reason he continues serving veterans today.
Cruz now works for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a Community Employment Coordinator with the VA Homeless Program. The veteran who once experienced homelessness himself now works with veterans who are facing some of the same struggles. His life after the military has included other chapters as well. He spent 14 years as a funeral director with Guam Memorial Funeral Home and owns Strike A Pose Entertainment, a mobile DJ and photobooth business. - Through all those experiences, Cruz has never forgotten where he came from. He remains proud that someone from a small island in the Pacific could join the Army, climb the ranks, go to war, overcome hardship, and continue serving others after returning home. The misconceptions he encountered when he first left Guam did not make him ashamed of being an islander. If anything, they made him more determined to show others what someone from Guam could accomplish.
- “The part of my story I want readers to remember most is this, never let anyone put you down for where you come from or make you feel less because you're not a product of the mainland United States,” Cruz said.
- For Cruz, Guam was never something that held him back. It was part of what carried him forward. His roots, culture, village, and family became part of the foundation he relied upon through military service, combat, civilian life, homelessness, fatherhood, and everything that came afterward. His journey taught him that a person's worth is not determined by geography, but by character, resilience, and the ability to continue standing when others underestimate them.
- Yet among all those memories, those three young people remain.
- Cruz does not know what happened to them after his unit moved on that day in Iraq. He does not know whether their parents returned, whether another family member found them, or where their lives eventually took them. What he knows is that he never forgot them. Their faces remained with him when he became a father and stayed with him when he became a grandfather.
- He remembers their hunger. He remembers their bare feet. He remembers wondering what would happen to them after the soldiers left.
- He remembers the candy. For a brief moment in the middle of the Iraqi desert, an older teen and two frightened children opened an unfamiliar package of food and discovered something sweet inside. Their faces lit up, and they smiled.
The soldiers eventually had to continue their mission. But Anthony Petros Cruz carried the memory of those three young people home with him.
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