It seems that the victory over America in "Operation Storm in the Desert" occurred many centuries ago. The world was, of course, another place, when Saddam Hussein invaded his small but rich neighbor. Take a moment to remember this January day. Where have you been?
I was working for a large aerospace corporation at that time and on January 16th, I was sent across the country to Los Angeles. I was going to make a very important presentation to our client in the Air Force on Monday, January 17th.
I arrived in Los Angeles in the middle of the day. I collected my luggage and boarded a rental car. After a short trip I was knocked out of the car. Knowing that America is very close to war, I turned on the radio to get the latest news.
The planes were in the air. The war has begun.
The following is the story of the discovery of the moments of Operation Desert Storm. He was excused from The War of the Gulf War Chronicles, which is available through all online booksellers, and can also be ordered from a local bookstore.
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Until midnight on January 16, 1991, the wheels were set in motion for the most destructive air attack in history. The ships with Tomahawk missiles were in designated launch positions. The E-3 Sentry, Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft flew four control lanes south of the Saudi / Iraqi border. One hundred and eighty tankers were sent south of AWACS, just outside the Iraqi radar early warning. Fixed winged and rotary aircraft were prepared for the battle.
The overwhelming firepower of the United States Armed Forces was rendered on the northern border of Saudi Arabia in just a few months. Marines were concentrated along the Persian Gulf and thinly scattered along the Kuwaiti border in small, rapidly moving compartments. These marines were installed in highly mobile multi-wheeled vehicles (HMMWV) and light armored vehicles (LAV).
The forward units were deployed to warn them against Iraq’s offensive attacks in Saudi Arabia. Further south, a reminder of American troops was positioned to counterattack to promote Iraq or to massage around forward supplies and air bases. Each airfield at a distance from Iraq and Kuwait was filled with Allied aircraft. Six naval aircraft carriers tied up Iraq in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Hundreds of aircraft from the latest F-117A nightclubs in America, to the Rev. Stratoforam B-52s, were preparing for war. The airfields were so crowded that there was no room for a B-52. They will perform their first missions directly from their bases in Spain, Diego Garcia, and even in Louisiana.
The largest logistics chain in history stretched from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf all the way to both shores of the United States. Supplies and additional heavy armor from the United States and Europe continued to flow into Saudi Arabia. The hammer was cocked, there were rounds in the chamber, and the trigger was compressed.
January 17 was marked by the culmination of years of acquisitions of high-tech systems and the formation of the world's largest volunteer military; months of deployment, planning and "sharpening the sword"; weeks of diplomacy; and days of tension. The United States for the first time planned to fight a four-dimensional "air battle." It should have been organized in a precise time sequence. Iraqis, on the other hand, were preparing to fight a two-dimensional war of attrition. They had no idea of superiority of air, time, or pace. The coalition will fight World War II, while Iraqis will fight World War I.
In 0001, on the 17th, two dozen F-117 Stealth fighters from the 415th tactical fighter squadron began to take off from a secret airbase located deep in the mountains of Saudi Arabia. These ultra high-tech aircraft will lead to the landing of a manned aircraft deep into Iraq. Within an hour, more than three hundred additional attack aircraft began to take off from aircraft carriers and air bases throughout the Persian Gulf. These attack aircraft were fueled and laid south of the border with Saudi Arabia, like planes approaching Hare airport on a snowy Christmas Eve.
In exactly 0140 USS, Wisconsin began launching Tomahawks cruise flights to join other Tomahawks launched from USS San Jacinto in the Red Sea. The Tomahawk missiles would be the first to penetrate Iraq’s airspace, flying under the radar and rushing to their targets at a height of fifty to one hundred feet above the relief.
Meanwhile, at a remote base in Western Saudi Arabia, two teams of Apache and Pave Low helicopters took off by about 0100. The 101st Airborne Apaches were armed. Each team had the 20th Special Operations Squadron Helicopter, which provided GPS navigation, additional electronic protection (ECM) and rescue capabilities. This small but deadly force, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Richard Cody, was codenamed TASK FORCE NORMANDY in honor of "Screaming Eagles". headed operations almost half a century ago behind the French beaches.
At 02:15, two TASK FORCE NORMANDY teams crossed the border. Their task was to install RADAR early warning tools in Western Iraq. The Apaches of the 1st Battalion, the 101st Aviation Regiment, raced across the border, justified their goals, locked themselves with their lasers, and advanced along targets slowly. All lights on both sites were turned on, assuming that the Apaches approach was not detected.
When the Apaches were in range, they barked their Hellfire missiles. At exactly 0238, the first rocket hooked its target "like lightning from heaven." Several rockets knocked out equipment. power generators. The Apache (shooting twenty-seven Hellfire missiles) destroyed the radar antennas, the operational centers, the generators and the barracks. All missiles hit their targets. When the Apaches ran out of Hellfire missiles, they raked the area with rockets and thousands of shots from 30mm cannon fire. Both objects were shut down within thirty seconds and completely destroyed in less than four minutes!
Eight US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles infiltrated Iraq behind TASK FORCE NORMANDY and destroyed the local air defense command and control center. These three attacks created a 20-mile large-scale blackened radar corridor for our attackers, which will enter Iraq.
Within minutes, the F-117 of the 415th Tactical Fighter Squadron bombarded a radar control center one hundred and sixty miles south of Baghdad, a radar station in western Iraq and an air defense sector outside Baghdad, expanding the corridor inland. Rocky waiting attack aircraft then swept through the north through the corridor and turned to their goals. EF-111 Ravens, EA-6B Prowlers and EC-130 Compass Call Aircraft conducted a charge through the night sky. These electronic wonders of the night bombing of Iraq’s observation and communication apparatus with billions of electrons. Airline Compass Call attacked radio, disabling military radio. Ravens and prolovy intended for radar surveillance and air defense. F-14 Tomcats and F-15C Eagles are moving to Iraq to their combat air patrol zones (CAP). Their mission was to fly on the wings of the Allied aircraft and deal with any approaching Iraqi aircraft.
Air Force captain Steve Tate approached Baghdad in his F-15C along with its four wings shortly before 0300. Their designated area of CAP was over Baghdad and extends sixty miles east of the city.
Captain Tate had a bird's eye on the first minutes of the war. “Baghdad that evening was a really beautiful city. When we started flying around popular areas ... the F-117 started dropping bombs, and then we started to get shakes across the country. The sky began to glow AAA (Airborne Artillery) ... It seems that little sparks sparkled around ... I thought that we have some kind of space weapon system, it just sprinkles all over the city ... Then I started a little take a closer look, and I said that the man is a triple A, which they shoot. ” Shortly after 0300, Captain Tate was alerted to the approach of an Iraqi fighter using an AWACS controller. He maneuvered his plane into the attack position. In 0315, he shot down the Iraqi F1 Mirage with one radar-controlled Sparrow missile. This was the first air killing of the war and one of nine Iraqi aircraft that were to be shot down the first night.
Before the Persian Gulf War, Baghdad was considered one of the most formidable air defense systems on Earth. Iraqi air defense over Baghdad was ready to attack the Americans. The AAA weapon with radar control ZSU23-4 was prepared at altitudes below nine thousand feet. Between nine and twenty thousand feet, 57-mm and 85-mm flac could cover the city with deadly fiery orange fireballs. Air-to-air missiles "CAM" were deployed to attack planes at high altitudes. An integrated air defense system, containing an interconnected nationwide network of radar stations and command and control centers, sent all of these weapons. To penetrate this defense, the Allies' air strategy was, firstly, to blind the Iraqis by knocking out their surveillance radars using the “invisible” F-117A Stealth fighters, Apache aeration attacks and Tomahawk low-flying missiles. They then planned to destroy any remaining radars with the high-tech ECM capabilities of Ravens and Prowlers. Finally, they will attack from very high altitudes with the rest of the aircraft. Each shock pack was accompanied by F-4G Wild Weasels to destroy any SAM and AAA radars that would light an attacking aircraft. Many, if not all, American ground attack aircraft carried their ECM containers for added protection. One of the pilots reported that when SAM was launched against his plane, he immediately activated his ECM, and SAM “went stupid”, ruthlessly roaring at night. For extra security, all attacks on the center of Baghdad were limited to the "invisible" F-117 and Tomahawk unmanned aerial vehicles.
Iraqi observation radars, which were not destroyed during the first moments of the assault, were either “repulsed” or selected a lot of phantom targets. The Iraqis knew they were being attacked, but they did not know from which direction. They were forced to activate their AAA and SAM radars. Wild caress immediately locked up and launched high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM). The Iraqis quickly learned that if they activate their SAM radars, they sign their own death sentences. The SAM suppression effort was so successful on the first night that, to remind you of the war, no average or high level SAM was removed under the control of RADAR. The only option left for the Iraqis was to blindly shoot at the night sky, hoping that a huge amount of unoriented fire would hit something.
And we were all confined to CNN for most of the night, when Iraqi artillerymen filled the sky of Baghdad with streams of luminous tracers and the random SAM trail.
The first war with Iraq was waged in the sky for six weeks, and then to the ground for a hundred hours. George Bush Sr. freed Kuwait, but did not make his way to Baghdad. His critics criticized him for not finishing the job. Now his son has returned to Iraq, and we are entangled in the conflict, which is very different from the Desert Storm operation worthy of victory. Visit http://www.gwchronicles.com and read the Chronicles of the Persian Gulf War to understand how the world and the nature of war have changed over the past 14 years, and then visit http://www.MarinesintheGardenofEden.com to buy Richard S. Lowry next book, Marines in the Garden of Eden which tells about the sons and daughters of America in the war in Iraq.
www.MarinesintheGardenofEden.com
