I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Saddam had a private wild-game reserve — and I really shouldn’t be surprised that Marines would hunt gazelle there. From Marines Feast on Saddam’s Wild Gazelles:
The Tikrit South airfield, where Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 set up base in this week’s campaign to take the city, is on the edge of a preserve where Saddam and favored guests once hunted gazelle.Now, Marines are venturing into the woods to hunt the animals, which stand about waist-high. They haul back the carcasses as a welcome substitute for the prepackaged Meals Ready to Eat that have been their staple.
I suspect they’re having fun:
Each of the squadron’s platoons has been limited to killing one gazelle a day to make sure the herd isn’t depleted.The marines are using 9mm pistols to hunt after initially being forbidden to use firearms for fear that gunshots in the woods might be mistaken for enemy fire.
“We hunted them with rocks, as Stone Age as that sounds,” Wicksell said. “We gutted them and skinned them and pretty much carried them over our shoulders barbarian-style.”
The preparation is almost as primitive: a fire pit dug in the ground, covered by a radiator grill from one of the Marines’ trucks.