22 Years ago today Desert Shield becomes Desert Storm

[cwartyman]

There are certain dates in everyones life that they remember for various reasons, good or bad. Today is one of those days for me. We had been at Sheik Isa AB on the Island of Bahrain since August 21,1990. In November of 1990, I was TDY'd from my unit VMFA-314 to the MWSS-373 MP detachment. January 15,1990 the deadline for Saddam to get out of Kuwait had passed and nothing happened. When I reported for roll call on the night of January 16 at 2200 hours we were addressed by Capt. Little who informed us that tonight was the night and for those that were in Squadrons some of the pilots in those Squadrons might not be coming back after tonight.

My post that night was the M60 position over watching the front gate. I watched as every aircraft on the base took off, it seemed to last forever. At 0200 the alarm went off and for the very first time I heard the words "This is not a drill, this is not a drill,Scud alarm Scud alarm don masks gloves and take cover". To say being scared was an understatement, but what scared me the most was the prospect of the Scuds carrying Chemical or Biological agents. High explosives while scary would only do damage to what they hit. The night passed with other alerts and in the morning we listened to President Bush on the radio. Though scared we were proud and we were happy. We were proud because all of the hard work we had put in up to that point was paying off. We were happy because the end of us being deployed was in sight even if we did not know when that would be or what would lay ahead for us.

All of the A/C the base launched that night safely returned and then the guys on the ground found out that our planes had been in the second wave right behind the stealth fighters and had been over Bagdad that night killing radar sites with Harm missiles.

There are more dates that stand clearly in my mind, but January 17,1991 and September 11, 2001 will never fade.
Mack

[m1ashooter]

Thanks for the reminder. I was busy today with my birthday and totally forgot where I was on this day in 1991. On Jan 16th 1991 I was part of the team that launched the BUFFS from Barksdale and Wurtsmith down range to Iraq. Today the 17th I was also on duty watching and reporting on the airwar.