Realities of War Touch Quad Employee

By Erik Cagle

HARTFORD, WI—Talk about a classical case of bad timing.

Pat McDermott was standing in line, waiting to enter the post exchange on a peaceful Sunday at Camp Udairi in the northwest desert in Kuwait on March 30.

McDermott, 45, a finishing handler with Quad/Graphics' Hartford, WI, facility as a civilian—but now stationed in Kuwait as part of the war effort in Iraq—was looking to pick up a Timex watch that featured three time zones on it. Some fellow soldiers had been sporting them, so McDermott decided to get one up for himself and shop for incidentals. Little did McDermott know that he would be getting his first, and only, brush with Mideast violence.