Gulf War/Operation Desert Shield/Storm
3700 SPS King Fahad Air Base Taif City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 1990 Photo donated by Michael Marushia
Desert Storm - 1990-91 UAE Photo donated by Scott Cluck
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Operation Desert ShieldOperation Desert Shield began in August 1990. The objective was to defend Saudi Arabia in the wake of the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.
In January 1991, Desert Shield turned into Operation Desert Storm and the objective became the liberating of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, security police personnel were tasked with securing air bases, providing dignitary support, securing classified information and resources, and counterterrorism. Operation Desert Storm On January 16, 1991, the day after the U.N. deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait went unheeded by Saddam Hussein, US Army GEN H. Norman Schwarzkopf, CENTCOM and coalition commander, ordered the attack and informed his command: "Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of the United States Central Command, this morning at 0300, we launched Operation Desert Storm, an offensive campaign that will enforce the United Nation's resolutions that Iraq must cease its rape and pillage of its weaker neighbor and withdraw its forces from Kuwait. My confidence in you is total. Our cause is just! Now you must be the thunder and lightning of Desert Storm. May God be with you, your loved ones at home, and our Country." For the next 38 days, Air Force, Navy, Marine, British Royal Air Force, and other coalition aircraft pounded Iraqi positions in Kuwait and their supply lines into Iraq along with other high value targets. Flying an average of 2,555 sorties a day the Airmen targeted Soviet-built SS-1 “Scud” air-to-ground missile launchers, Iraqi airfields, air defenses, electrical power facilities, suspected biological and chemical weapons sites, military headquarters, intelligence assets, communications facilities, and oil refining facilities, often using precision guided weapons including Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf. So effective were these precision munitions that civilian casualties were minimized and maximum damage was inflicted upon the Iraqi military even though the tonnage of munitions expended was far less than used in past wars to achieve a similar level of destruction. “Scud hunting” took on high priority after Saddam lobbed seven of the missiles into Israel on January 17 to provoke Israeli involvement in the war in hopes of causing Arab members of the coalition against him to withdraw rather than to be seen siding with the Jewish state. To dissuade Israel from retaliating, President Bush promised the Israelis that Scud launchers would be a high priority target and quickly rushed Patriot antiaircraft missiles modified to shoot down Scuds to Israel. The Scuds were not only a threat to Israeli civilians; on February 25 one blasted into a barracks at Dhahran killing 28 American soldiers. Hunting Scuds was not limited to air attacks and some Air Force Security Police directly participated in special operations missions to, among other things, seek out and destroy the highly mobile Iraqi missiles. From January 22 to January 31, Capt Clifford E. Day led the security element for “a team deployed behind enemy lines” with the mission of verifying “intelligence data concerning enemy troop movements and topography, and to destroy, if found, Iraqi mobile Scud missile launchers.” On January 25, the team was spotted and engaged by Iraqi forces, but Day was able to disengage and elude further contact. On the 27th, Captain Day’s team spotted an Iraqi armored column and Day painted it with a laser designator and called in fighter bombers armed with laser guided munitions that destroyed the Iraqi column. As soon as friendly aircraft located and struck the target, Day evaded enemy contact as he moved the team to a secure location. As recounted in the citation for his Bronze Star with “V” for Valor, “Captain Day’s courageous, immediate actions, under the intense stress of combat, resulted in the gathering of valuable intelligence…thus aiding coalition ground commanders with their development of the ground campaign.” At 0400 on February 24, coalition ground forces crossed the border into Kuwait, crushing Iraqi opposition and flanking the enemy in sweeping left hook through the desert. Asked for the offensive plan at a press conference, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman GEN Colin Powell said the objective was the Iraqi army in Kuwait and the plan was simply, “first we're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it." After having ignited hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells and dumping millions of gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Persian Gulf, the outgunned, outfought, and outmaneuvered Iraqis fled toward Iraq with tens of thousands of conscripts surrendering along the way to any coalition soldiers they could find. Air Force Security Police were in the advance as Kuwait was liberated. TSgt Chris Batta and his Belgian Malinois MWD Carlos from Sembach AB, Germany’s, 601st SPS were attached to the Army Special Forces during the advance. As the only MWD team with the Special Forces, Batta and Carlos “were continually in demand” to find unexploded ordnance.32 All told, the two detected over 167 pieces of ordnance and returned to Sembach as celebrities with their story recounted on Paul Harvey’s radio show, in the European Stars and Stripes, and Dog World, Airman, and Air Force magazines. Saddam’s forces fleeing from Kuwait were caught along the Abdali highway leading from Kuwait to Iraq and trapped by the destruction of vehicles at the front and rear of the long column. They were then mercilessly bombed, strafed, and shelled on February 26 and 27, losing over a thousand military vehicles and hundreds of soldiers. Dubbed the “Highway of Death” by the media, the scenes of destruction along the road caused President Bush some discomfort and when informed by GEN Powell that he would be making a recommendation in 24 hours to cease hostilities, Bush decided to go ahead and end the ground war 12 hours early at the 100-hour point. The ceasefire took effect at 0800, February 28, 1991, although two days later the Hammurabi Division of the Iraqi Republican guard attempted to fight its way through the 24thMechanized Infantry Division and was decimated. Iraqi losses were estimated at some 22,000 killed, while 148 Americans were killed in combat. Under the terms of the cease fire Saddam was forced to admit United Nation’s weapons inspectors to ensure the dismantling of his nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs. Iraq’s oil exports were strictly regulated under a U.N. “Oil for Food” program which sought to ensure that oil revenues were not diverted to military purposes. Iraqi fixed wing aircraft, but not helicopters in an oversight that would later prove fatal to many Shia Muslims and Kurds, were prohibited and these “no fly” zones were to be enforced by coalition aircraft. All of these efforts were directed at keeping Saddam “in his box.” The first American troops began to return home from Desert Shield/Desert Storm on March 17, 1991, to accolades including a ticker tape parade in New York City on June 10. The Air Force along with naval aviators flying from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, however, stayed on to counter Saddam Hussein’s latest outrages—the repression of the rebellious Kurds of Northern Iraq. Longtime victims of Saddam’s brutality--the Kurds had been the target of Iraqi chemical weapons attacks in 1988--by April, 1991, Saddam’s attacks on the Kurds and the resulting flood of refugees into the rugged mountains of Turkey and Iran led to the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 688 which condemned “the repression of the Iraqi civilian population in many parts of Iraq,” demanded that the Iraqi government “immediately end this repression,” and called on the U.N. Secretary General to “use all the resources at his disposal, including those of the relevant United Nations agencies, to address urgently the critical needs of the refugees and displaced Iraqi population.” Based on this resolution, coalition forces led by the United States launched Operation Provide Comfort to supply the Kurdish refugees with food, shelter and clothing. Ground troops from the United States and 12 other countries also established a security zone to protect the Kurds from the Iraqi army. By mid-July, Air Force transports had delivered over 7,000 tons in relief supplies while Air Force fighters provided air support for the ground forces involved. In concert with Provide Comfort, the US, the United Kingdom, and France established a northern no-fly zone from the Turkish border south to the 36th parallel in which Iraqi military aircraft were forbidden to operate. Stymied in the north, Saddam now turned south to punish the rebellious Shiite Muslims and in August 1992, a southern no-fly zone was created relying on the authority of Security Council Resolution 688. As part of what was called Operation Southern Watch, coalition aircraft, led primarily by the US and U.K., patrolled the skies from the Kuwaiti border north to the 33rd parallel to prevent Iraqi military aircraft operations. With the northern no-fly zone (re-designated Operation Northern Watch after Provide Comfort ended at the end of 1996) and Operation Southern Watch, the coalition was essentially conducting “the air occupation of a country…” While providing air support for Provide Comfort and Northern Watch was turned over to USAFE, Southern Watch was under the command of CENTCOM’s Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) and required the continuing use of air bases in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Of course these bases needed defense and security and since CENTAF owned no forces of its own, Security Police, along with thousands of others in various Air Force specialties from units worldwide, rotated in and out of Southwest Asia for their turn to “play” in the “sandbox.” Even though their mission was partly to protect predominately Muslim Persian Gulf states from any new threat from Saddam Hussein by keeping him contained, the continuing American and European presence in Saudi Arabia, home of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, fuelled the hatred of an as yet unrecognized enemy. |
Personal memories
I have never shared this before, but with the 25th Anniversary of Desert Storm I now find it appropriate. My tent mate wrote this--- It's well worth the read.
Operation Desert Storm- Thoughts of a Soldier:
My partner and I are patrolling an outside sector. Looking, hoping to see the enemy before we are seen. The potential for death, although not as high as some, is still exhilarating. The adrenaline flow pushes you on. Stress and tension take their toll. By the end of the day, every muscle is spent. I’ve been over the same ground so many times, looking for something out of place. Knowing the land is the only hope for survival. The best advantage.
The jets breaking the calm. The glow of the engines disappear into the blackness. Once they are gone an eerie feeling penetrates the silence. The mind wanders to things done and things to be done, but never long enough to forget the task at hand-SECURITY. The pilots must have a place to return. Taking cover in bunkers, setting up in fighting positions. Incoming rockets, outgoing missiles trying to intercept before impact. Concerns of chemicals destroying life, causing misery, pain and suffering.
Praying God will see you through. Wondering if your number has come up. Not wanting to die for your country, but willing to do so. Time is spent close to the edge. The challenge of all challenges-LIFE. Radar glitch, no advanced warning. Patriot missiles screaming past. Explosions overhead with concussions shaking the ground, stealing the breath from mouths, unable to speak. Many things flash through the mind, panic grips the face. Training kicks in, scrambling for cover and protective gear. The adrenaline rush passes, draining the body of precious energy.
Tonight I know fear. Rockets streaking through the air, raining shrapnel everywhere. Terror subsides, numb with acceptance of conditions. Every noise sounds like an air-raid siren. Hyper sensitive with the strong desire of self-preservation. Psychological games creating mental anguish make a young man old beyond the years. Worried about your fellow soldiers- your brothers, and for one’s self. Days pass, attacks continue. After the attacks, soldiers gather- laughing, joking and cursing, for we have SURVIVED.
Once again, the sky comes alive. Patriots and scuds collide. All that metal has to come down and you are well aware that you and your brothers are underneath it all. Every nerve and muscle is tense, alert and ready to react. Movement keys reaction, pulse races, breath becomes labored. Watching the crests of the sand dunes, scanning the shadows. Hoping the enemy makes the fatal mistake. Stress takes its toll. Many soldiers have no expression, no energy, their eyes dull until adrenaline surges through the body once again. Walking point, sentry duty, clearing an alley or patrolling a sector. Every fiber at the ready.
How will the end come? Chemical poisoning? Weapons fire or shrapnel wounds?
submitted by Michael Mullaly
Operation Desert Storm- Thoughts of a Soldier:
My partner and I are patrolling an outside sector. Looking, hoping to see the enemy before we are seen. The potential for death, although not as high as some, is still exhilarating. The adrenaline flow pushes you on. Stress and tension take their toll. By the end of the day, every muscle is spent. I’ve been over the same ground so many times, looking for something out of place. Knowing the land is the only hope for survival. The best advantage.
The jets breaking the calm. The glow of the engines disappear into the blackness. Once they are gone an eerie feeling penetrates the silence. The mind wanders to things done and things to be done, but never long enough to forget the task at hand-SECURITY. The pilots must have a place to return. Taking cover in bunkers, setting up in fighting positions. Incoming rockets, outgoing missiles trying to intercept before impact. Concerns of chemicals destroying life, causing misery, pain and suffering.
Praying God will see you through. Wondering if your number has come up. Not wanting to die for your country, but willing to do so. Time is spent close to the edge. The challenge of all challenges-LIFE. Radar glitch, no advanced warning. Patriot missiles screaming past. Explosions overhead with concussions shaking the ground, stealing the breath from mouths, unable to speak. Many things flash through the mind, panic grips the face. Training kicks in, scrambling for cover and protective gear. The adrenaline rush passes, draining the body of precious energy.
Tonight I know fear. Rockets streaking through the air, raining shrapnel everywhere. Terror subsides, numb with acceptance of conditions. Every noise sounds like an air-raid siren. Hyper sensitive with the strong desire of self-preservation. Psychological games creating mental anguish make a young man old beyond the years. Worried about your fellow soldiers- your brothers, and for one’s self. Days pass, attacks continue. After the attacks, soldiers gather- laughing, joking and cursing, for we have SURVIVED.
Once again, the sky comes alive. Patriots and scuds collide. All that metal has to come down and you are well aware that you and your brothers are underneath it all. Every nerve and muscle is tense, alert and ready to react. Movement keys reaction, pulse races, breath becomes labored. Watching the crests of the sand dunes, scanning the shadows. Hoping the enemy makes the fatal mistake. Stress takes its toll. Many soldiers have no expression, no energy, their eyes dull until adrenaline surges through the body once again. Walking point, sentry duty, clearing an alley or patrolling a sector. Every fiber at the ready.
How will the end come? Chemical poisoning? Weapons fire or shrapnel wounds?
submitted by Michael Mullaly
