On January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm. Desert Storm was the operational phase of evicting Saddam Hussein's Iraqi military from the country of Kuwait.

It began with coalition air forces making a first to deep strike into Iraqi territory using F-117 stealth fighters. They proved to be utterly devastating to Saddam's integrated air defense system (IADS). Within just a few days the Iraqi Air Force was no more. Uncontested air dominance made the war short as the coalition was able to use air assets to do most of the killing.

In all the coalition casualties were:
147 killed by enemy action
145 non-hostile deaths
467 wounded in action
776 wounded total

There is no reliable number for Iraqi casualties but I'm willing to say that a safe floor would be 25,000 military and ten thousand civilians.

And the stupid Iraqi sons of b****** didn't learn their lesson.

To all who fought, to all who supported the effort logistically, and to all of us who cheered from the sidelines, thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
thank you.

I'll echo that.

I think my dad was at KKMC when that started. A different world for my entire family on that day. I remember tons of relatives showing up as we watched the news together. At some point, a Scud was intercepted by a Patriot right over them blasting pieces everywhere. I remember a piece being like grey rubber.

Vf-2 on board the USS Ranger.

I had joined up in August 1990, and was sent to Basic early due to the beginning of Desert Storm. I spent my whole time in Basic/OSUT during operations, with the understanding that we would deploy immediately after graduation. However, the whole thing was over a few weeks before graduation.

Looking back, I often reflect at how nonchalant I was about serving. In many ways, very eager to go. I was young, single, no children or obligations, and felt invincible. Now that I am older, I think this is perhaps why war is best fought by our youth. Only the young, with so much life left to live, seem so unconcerned for its loss.

To all those who did go, thank you. I am even more grateful for those, like my younger brother, and cousin who lost his life there, for their later, much longer and more difficult service in Afghanistan and Iraq. God bless you all.

I was active duty Army at this time. Going through initial Infantry Officer Basic Course and then Ranger School.

So I was in IOBC at the time of the build-up-- summer of 1990 into winter... We were unofficially told -- whatever your 'current' duty station assignment is - it doesn't matter as the vast majority of new LTs in training would be re-assigned as 'replacement LTs' for all the casualties which were sure to happen once the ground war kicked off. The fear of chemical warfare was a real factor.

Was in Ranger school for the ENTIRETY of the ground war. It happened quickly -- the RIs would give us a 15 minute update each morning as to what was happening on the ground. It was pretty surreal. In Ranger School you are basically cut-off from outside info for days / weeks. No phones / magazines / news / TV etc. Just letters and what the RIs would share.

Of course it was all done relatively quickly. No one got re-assigned. Guys were coming back pretty soon thereafter. In some ways we felt cheated.

Phenomenal victory. Hats off to the DS / DS vets !

--------------------------------------------

I was a medevac pilot then. Lots of thoughts here.
I remember flying out the first wounded, how proud they were wearing big bowie knives and Purple Hearts WALKING out to the aircraft to go to the back.
I remember the running landings you made to avoid the sand dust cloud.
I remember flying in front of and stopping a fuel truck destined for Abrams tanks and talking them out of some fuel in the middle of the Iraqi desert.
I remember how wild the French were flying with women in their laps, yep I saw it. Where in the hell they got those women is one of life's mysterys for me.
I remember coming together with my fellow pilots and buying out of our pocket a new technology called GPS and hooking then up like CB radios in the cockpit. No approval from anybody we just did it.
I remember shooting a GPS radar altimeter approach to a field hospital during a sand storm and how the airspeed indicator was varying 50 kts.
I remember utilizing NVG's to break into a supply area to get some needed supplies that were refused during the day.
I remember the injured kids I flew, and how beautiful the children were, I remember looking back and thinking this will never make it to CNN.
I remember sliding the wedding ring off a fellow aviators hand after he had been killed on a mission and putting it with his personal effects. We had ate lunch together the day before.
I remember standing in front of a formation and telling the personnel that this was a beginning not the end of desert warfare.
Yep lots of thoughts. I walked away from that life and while I am proud of what I did, I don't miss it.

My pleasure.

I actually forgot about this day here at home working around the house.

Serving with A-1/4 Cav under 1st ID after a stop loss extended my enlistment. BRO

Near a patriot when it launched to down a scud. Interesting.

Off to the desert after that with various recon and harassment activity up to, including, and after the ground war.

Was at Safwan before during and after the peace talks. Person to person with Republican guard members.

As noted above there were things that went on that weren’t very military. But also some things you just keep to yourself. I have various memories of something every day.

Any how, a salute out to all my fellow DS vets.

A guy I used to work with who served during Desert Storm tells the story of taking a Soviet Draganov sniper rifle off a dead Iraqi and carrying it in his vehicle for about a week. Says he thought it might come in handy, but he never had occasion to use it. Of course he had to turn it in at the end of hostilities.

It was certainly a very interesting and exciting time. Lots of memories. And after the war, there was an incredible amount of Soviet made ordinance of all kinds abandoned in the desert. Hard to believe it has been 30 years.

I was on USS Princeton CG-59, we ended up being the Northern Gulf Anti-Air warfare commander. We fired TLAMs into Bagdad, saw some interesting things.
30 years goes quick

I was there with 8th Tank Bn. I was a Warrant Officer 1 (W1) and was assigned as Radio Officer. I wore 2 hats. Had overall responsibility for maintenance for all comm equipment as was the Asst Comm Officer. Crazy times for sure. At start of Op Desert Storm we were in the Saudi Arabia desert boonies gearing up and training rapid movement. It is a huge logistical effort to pickup and move Tank Bn, We crossed the border into Kuwait on Feb 24, 1991 at 0530. That was the single most scary day of my life. As a side note - war and combat sucks.

There's a series of fantastic graphic videos showing Desert Shield/Desert Storm from this channel, entertaining and interesting...and more to come. It was a wake-up to the world of what WWIII in Europe could've possibly looked like, early network-centric warfare, and the primacy that digital communications established sobered up anybody wanting to size-up to the US. One of my friends was working out of Arar then, since getting out in '93-94, he's had a tough time with life, he still deals with the difficulties that war wages on the individual. Thank you to those who served, I was a senior in HS at the time.





I"m sure I read about it in a number of books but, did not know there was so many Sea Skua missiles used

"I"m sure I read about it in a number of books but, did not know there was so many Sea Skua missiles used"

The Helo Detachment I was on would work with the Brits flying Lynx. We would find Iraqi boats with our APS-124 Radar and the Brits would kill them with their Sea Skua missiles. We'd get half credit for the kill.

quote:

Originally posted by navyshooter:
"I"m sure I read about it in a number of books but, did not know there was so many Sea Skua missiles used"

The Helo Detachment I was on would work with the Brits flying Lynx. We would find Iraqi boats with our APS-124 Radar and the Brits would kill them with their Sea Skua missiles. We'd get half credit for the kill.

Interesting that our LAMPS III helos had the better sensor suite but, was the Penguin not as effective as the Sea Skuas?

Was with an ALCE (Airlift Control Element) team who set up the runway at Safwan, then went to Rafah. Ended up the radio operator was fresh out of class and couldn't load the crypto gear, I was avionics so was no problem for me. A half hour later, I found myself as an air traffic controller and satcom operator for the next several weeks. If you were a pilot who landed at Rafah, you talked to me.

We did a lot of the refuge flights. On one of them, a C-130 had it's APU die and couldn't get it started, and it was stuck in the middle of the runway. We watched as a second C-130 pulled in front of it, set its brakes, and spun up the engines as fast as it could, sending a vortex backwards to kickstart the broken C-130's engines. Now that was cool to watch.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Vf-2 on board the USS Ranger.

Damn Shipmate We may have run into each other during the one real General Quarters we had when a plane from another carrier had its identifier screwed up.

I was VA-145 on the USS Ranger. Our squadron dropped over two million tons of ordnance in Desert Storm.

AMH-AN fixing the A6-E and being a bomb mule carting ordnance to the birds to be loaded.

Ahhh Ramadan in the UAE (Abu Dhabi)

Damn brother, look me up sometime

I was in 8th grade and was just glued to the tv watching war happen live on CNN. I’ll never forget the green screen of the artillery ops.

My uncle was USAF SP and spent the whole time there.

Later, I joined the ARMY as MI and spent my tour working operation northern and southern watch. When I got out I spent all of 2001 in Kuwait and we became a jumping off point for early ops in Afghanistan.

They can keep that part of the world.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by navyshooter:
"I"m sure I read about it in a number of books but, did not know there was so many Sea Skua missiles used"

The Helo Detachment I was on would work with the Brits flying Lynx. We would find Iraqi boats with our APS-124 Radar and the Brits would kill them with their Sea Skua missiles. We'd get half credit for the kill.

Interesting that our LAMPS III helos had the better sensor suite but, was the Penguin not as effective as the Sea Skuas?

Penquin sucked, it was a bitch to load, took up tons of space, besides I never even saw one until many years after DS