A Storm is coming... 20th Anniversary

[MKopack]

Twenty years ago today, it happened again. Just as we readied to head out to EOR for the Decon check on the returning aircraft, we heard from Ops that we'd lost another one - this time it was Lucky Devils Ops Officer, Jon Ball in F-16C, 87-0224. That same "kicked in the gut" feeling was back from two days ago.

This time, we found out, WAS different though. Jon was attacking a target on the Kuwaiti coast and had just dropped a 2,000 pound Mk.84 bomb when the FMU-139 fuse failed. Not far off the wing, the bomb exploded, shrapnel and the shock wave tearing through he aircraft. He was able to maintain control of whatever was left of the dying aircraft and direct it 'feet wet' out over the Persian Gulf where he ejected - and was quickly rescued by a Navy SH-3 Sea King. We didn't know what his condition was, but we knew that we were getting him back!

And that wasn't the only news we received that day. For a couple of days the fate of Jeff 'Tico' Tice had been hanging over us - once he'd ejected, he just disappeared. Today, looking bruised and beaten, he was shown as a POW in Iraq, and not only Tico, but Mike 'Cujo' Roberts - who we didn't expect to see again after going down directly over the city. Our guys might not be with us, but they were alive.

Those videos had the opposite effect than the Iraqis ever expected. The war was personal now.

Mike

[MKopack]

Twenty years ago today, I stood out next to the runway in Doha, Qatar - as the last of our pilots and F-16's returned from a daylight strike over Baghdad - still staring off to the northwest, but knowing that Tico and Cujo weren't coming home that night. Damn.

We'll all known that we might take losses, but it didn't make it any easier. I didn't know what I "should" feel, but I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. It was a bad night.


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

Tico had taken a proximity hit that just shattered the bird, but it still took him a good portion of the way to the border. He had a good ejection and we were hopefully that the Rescue guys would get him back that night. Cujo was hit directly and after seeing the HUD tape and talking to the other who were with him, we didn't think we'd ever see him again. ET 'dodged' at least six missiles guiding on him, and it wasn't until he made it home that he realized that all the chaff he'd punched while evading never deployed...

Mike

[MKopack]

Here's a "memory" from one of the first days of Desert Storm. Probably funny after it happened, now that I think back...

One afternoon we'd headed out early to End of Runway to our NBC Decontamination position. The weather was nice and it was a good place to kick back and relax for a while. We were in the 'outback' as far as we could still being on base - a good mile or two from the "base" itself, several hundred yards from the perimeter wall in one direction and half a mile or more in the other.

Our Ops Intel guy had been feeding me info on what had been coming across the wire, and at this time no one had reported any contamination, so it should be just a quick check. We'd parked the truck off of the taxiway on the hardpacked sand and scrub, pulled down all of our gear and turned on the radio to wait for the jets.

"Bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!" Within seconds there were multiple weapons firing, full auto, and we all with our old steel helmets and woodland BDU's were trying our very best to become a part of the landscape. We didn't match up all that well. Prior to the war, we'd been told that the chances were pretty good that we'd have 'insurgents' either trying to enter the base, and as we watched the Qatari guard in the distant tower duck down and reappear with a big, .50 cal-like machine gun, it appeared that they might be right.

Between the eight of us we had one "just-in-case" M16A1 - triangular handguard and all (my rifle was made the same year I was born) and sixty-rounds of ammo (plus another sixty that I'd acquired "just-in-case") that we had pointed at the perimeter wall. (Whatever good that might do - hey, we were aircraft mechanics and in my four years in the Air Force I'd probably fired less than 200 rounds total...)

I grabbed the "brick":
"MOC, Decon 1"
"Go Decon"
"We're out at EOR and somebody is shooting out here!"
(probably could have been a little more descriptive in that call...)
"Say again, Decon?"
"We're at the approach end EOR and we've got automatic weapons fire beyond the base perimeter."
"Copy Decon. Keep your heads down, Calvary's on the way."
(no sweat, we were as heads down as we could be...)

In the distance we could see SP's mounting up in their Humvees and the orbiting Qatari Gazelle helo heading our way. We didn't wait as we all dove in and on the truck and staring through the steering wheel I made better time across that sand and scrub than we ever had.

Apparently my call had caused quite a commotion back on the base proper. It took a little while before we got "the rest of the story". Apparently a fairly well known local citizen, who lived just off base, occasionally had all the friends over to blast through a couple of thousand rounds of AK-47 ammo in the backyard. The friendly local police and military asked him to give the base a heads-up in the future.

[Herk]

Alot of us "grow up" when we get that first event/action that is not longer in the training/exercise arena.  The statement "This is not a drill" is guaranteed to get your attention and make you glad of the hours of training you have been through and finding out yes I can do this job.

Steve.

My "scariest" day in Desert Storm was also twenty years ago today, but it didn't have anything to do with alarms or Scuds - and since I was back at the base, I wasn't dealing with SAM-6's like our pilots and a lot of you guys.

I think almost by default (no one else wanted it and because there were only a handful of us who had been through the one day class) and the choice of our soon to be departing EMS Commander, I was the NCOIC of aircraft Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Decontamination for our entire Wing. Yeah me, "Buck Sergeant Nobody".

On 17 January 1991, we were out at the end of the runway checking the aircraft returning from the very fist missions over Iraq and Kuwait - where we had been told that NBC use was likely, at the very least. We swabbed the first aircraft as the pilot watched from the cockpit, and as I checked the results, looking through my gas mask's visor, I had an indication. It wasn't strong, but there WAS something there - but what? My team looked at me, the pilot in the jet looked at me.

Was it a positive indication, or was it not? If I said positive, we'd have been washing all the aircraft, something we'd never done before. I'll bet no one had in Air Force history. It just wasn't in "the book" - we'd simulated all this stuff in exercises in Aviano - and all those simulations were based on a WWIII scenario in Europe that wasn't nearly applicable for here (just a partial wash to rearm, refuel, and go.) Hell, we didn't even have AIM-9 nose caps to safely shut down the jets.

The one thing I remember from training was the instructor saying, "Don't worry, this stuff is so important that if you ever have to do it for real, there will be somebody there to tell you exactly what to do." On the other hand, if I'd said no - but been wrong - I'd have been sending contaminated aircraft back to their unprotected groundcrews, to my friends on the line.

There was no T.O., no second opinion, just 22-year old Buck Sergeant on his first 'live' Decon seeing a result that looked different than anything in his training or in practice. I stopped, thought through it for probably twenty seconds (although it must have seemed like an hour) laying out what little evidence I had for both cases in my head, and I made the call. "They're clean. Send them home."

With my hands still shaking a bit, my first stop when I got back to the hangar was to swab a jet, using our 'live' chemical detector, that hadn't yet flown. Received the same result, I'd made the right call. I think I, along with a lot of other people, grew up a little bit that day.

Mike

[MKopack]

My "scariest" day in Desert Storm was also twenty years ago today, but it didn't have anything to do with alarms or Scuds - and since I was back at the base, I wasn't dealing with SAM-6's like our pilots and a lot of you guys.

I think almost by default (no one else wanted it and because there were only a handful of us who had been through the one day class) and the choice of our soon to be departing EMS Commander, I was the NCOIC of aircraft Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Decontamination for our entire Wing. Yeah me, "Buck Sergeant Nobody".

On 17 January 1991, we were out at the end of the runway checking the aircraft returning from the very fist missions over Iraq and Kuwait - where we had been told that NBC use was likely, at the very least. We swabbed the first aircraft as the pilot watched from the cockpit, and as I checked the results, looking through my gas mask's visor, I had an indication. It wasn't strong, but there WAS something there - but what? My team looked at me, the pilot in the jet looked at me.

Was it a positive indication, or was it not? If I said positive, we'd have been washing all the aircraft, something we'd never done before. I'll bet no one had in Air Force history. It just wasn't in "the book" - we'd simulated all this stuff in exercises in Aviano - and all those simulations were based on a WWIII scenario in Europe that wasn't nearly applicable for here (just a partial wash to rearm, refuel, and go.) Hell, we didn't even have AIM-9 nose caps to safely shut down the jets.

The one thing I remember from training was the instructor saying, "Don't worry, this stuff is so important that if you ever have to do it for real, there will be somebody there to tell you exactly what to do." On the other hand, if I'd said no - but been wrong - I'd have been sending contaminated aircraft back to their unprotected groundcrews, to my friends on the line.

There was no T.O., no second opinion, just 22-year old Buck Sergeant on his first 'live' Decon seeing a result that looked different than anything in his training or in practice. I stopped, thought through it for probably twenty seconds (although it must have seemed like an hour) laying out what little evidence I had for both cases in my head, and I made the call. "They're clean. Send them home."

With my hands still shaking a bit, my first stop when I got back to the hangar was to swab a jet, using our 'live' chemical detector, that hadn't yet flown. Received the same result, I'd made the right call. I think I, along with a lot of other people, grew up a little bit that day.

Mike

[MKopack]

Twenty years ago this morning, I woke up in the tent in Doha, Qatar at 4AM to sirens. It took but a second to realize what was going on as someone snapped on the lights. My hand almost automatically reached down under the cot and pulled my gas mask out and on, and the same with my chemical exposure suit...

Our "Base Ninja" who'd never been quite 'stable' at the best of times had lost it. he was running up and down int he tent yelling "we're all going to die" and "I don't know how to put on my my mask". A couple of the AGE guys tackled him and got him into as much of his gear as them could. From there it was a quick run out of the tent, a quick left turn and into our shelter...

Over the minutes that followed, the sirens died away, leaving us in silence inside our masks. I pulled my shortwave radio out of my pocket, slipped the earpiece inside the seal of my mask and extended the antenna. It was already tuned to the BBC, and they were reporting a SCUD missile launch, the first of the war, headed for Saudi Arabia.

Hours earlier, the White House had made a release to the Press Corps stating: "In conjunction with the forces of our coalition partners, the United States has moved under the code name Operation Desert Storm to enforce the mandates of the United Nations Security Council. As of 7 o'clock P. M., Operation Desert Storm forces were engaging targets in Iraq and Kuwait."

Desert Shield was over, Desert Storm had begun. As President Bush has promised, the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait would not stand. The Liberation of Kuwait had begun.

Mike

[MKopack]

Beyond the time I spent "at the war" on the flightline and in the hangar each day (and the odd Scud alert at MOPP 4 in the shelter) I watched the war the same way. Here we are watching CNN in the tent early during the war:

[Shane]

I was sitting in the training section at Offutt AFB Omaha NE.  All the RC 135s were in Saudi Arabia and the flight line was bare.  No training was being accomplished so I volunteered to go over an work in the squadrons intelligence shop (having just arrived from the DIA I had the security clearance and background).  I was told in no uncertain terms by the training flight commander "No one in the training section can volunteer to go."  So I and 6 other trainees sat out the war with an empty flight ramp.

I volunteered to work in Wing Scheduling during the war, scheduling EC-135 flights and air refuelings.

Later that LtCol would volunteer to throw an EW off the aircraft so he could take his place on the first flight of the war.  His evaluation read "Flew the on the first mission of Desert Storm".  I think he made General.

I watched the war on CNN.

Shane

[BenB]

I got to know a bunch of the SJAFB guys through our ATP flight training program who went on to fly in the war. A huge THANK YOU to all you guys who served!

Ben

[MKopack]

Our Wing Commander in the Gulf, a Phantom driver in Vietnam, said much the same thing - even when we were still there. It had to be SO much easier when you knew that you had the suooprt from most of those at home and around the world.

Twenty years ago today was the deadline for the Iraqi military to have withdrawn from Kuwait, as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 678. Saddam had promised the "Mother of all Battles", Desert Shield was over - what would come next?

From Resolution 678: "Authorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the above-mentioned resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (the demand for the Iraqi withdrawal) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area;"

[Herk]

I saw the interview with "Chainsaw" last night - very well done.  It will be interesting to see the other reports.

For one of the "really old guys" (those of us with both Vietnam & Gulf War service), the receptions and recognition given when units returned Stateside, helped to close a loop for me that had been open for 20 years.  It was nice to finally " be home".

[Ryan K]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8944010/

[MKopack]

having to wear MOPP (sp?) flight gear (NOT FUN!), and quite a few medivacs (mostly of Iraqis). A whole bunch of excitement following five months of boredom and putting on a few pound eating MRE's while waiting for the C-5 flight home. Wow, has it really been 20 years!?

Mopp level 4 in the desert is a great weight loss program.  Course eating MRE's for an extended time period is not good for one's health.

No doubt - I think we were all lucky that the war came in January and February rather than July and August. We put on enough pounds from the MRE's to be thankful that there weren't any weigh-ins in the Gulf.

Twenty years ago when we meet on Sunday the B-52G's from Barksdale will have been well into their 35 hour nonstop mission to kick off the war.

We didn't have AFRTS radio or TV in Qatar. I can remember walking into the Rec Center in the morning, probably an hour after the Super Bowl ended, as a runner came in carrying the VHS over from the Embassy. Just as the game started on the TV, someone walked in and said, "What, didn't you hear? Giants won on a missed field goal." I've still never seen the game.

Kind of an "aside" from the game itself, Whitney Houston sang a very popular rendition of the National Anthem before the game. Within days it had been picked up by radio stations - including the Qatar Broadcasting Service. Seemed a little strange to be maintaining our aircraft during the war, in a far off foreign land - where even then the US was not always looked on favorably - and hearing the National Anthem on the radio.

If you guys have any souvenirs, bring them on Sunday. I'll see what I can dig up as well.

Mike

[Ryan K]

having to wear MOPP (sp?) flight gear (NOT FUN!), and quite a few medivacs (mostly of Iraqis). A whole bunch of excitement following five months of boredom and putting on a few pound eating MRE's while waiting for the C-5 flight home. Wow, has it really been 20 years!?

Mopp level 4 in the desert is a great weight loss program.  Course eating MRE's for an extended time period is not good for one's health.

[Joe M]

I remember having to listen - on the radio - in a tent - at Al Jabayl Airfield - to the Bills lose to the Giants after Scott Norwood kicked a field goal wide right in the closest Superbowl in history! I remember waking up to find my canteen frozen next to my cot - in the desert! I remember being happy when we got a concrete slab to put our tent on while the Air Force guys got heated (and later air conditioned) tents. I remember the sonic booms of the zippies flying over to soften them up for us... Once we moved up to the front, the whole eastern horizon was a glow. I remember flying into Kuwait International the day it was liberated - through oil well fires - to find doors blown off of hangers and melted aircraft pooled on the tarmac with spent 23mm casings all over the place. I remember some dip-s--t trying to bring an RPG on my helicopter - to only be turned away. Getting back to base was fun - our dash 2 had to set down in a minefield to check on a chip light; good thing the wind had blown all of the sand from the tops of them so we could see them. Flying over Thunderdome (the road to Basra) on an after action fight was cool (in a way)! In between all that was a troop insertion, having to wear MOPP (sp?) flight gear (NOT FUN!), and quite a few medivacs (mostly of Iraqis). A whole bunch of excitement following five months of boredom and putting on a few pound eating MRE's while waiting for the C-5 flight home. Wow, has it really been 20 years!?