Desert Storm Relived...

[82Whitey51]

I have been watching (mostly listening to...) the CNN coverage from the opening of "Desert Storm" on YouTube. There is an 8 or 9 part (2 hours each) string of the continuous coverage that CNN had going on during those first few days. I have a pretty boring job riding a desk typing out tech manuals so...

I say "listening" because a good portion of the coverage is the three correspondents, Bernie Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett in their hotel room in downtown Baghdad as it opens up. It's quite impressive to listen to. Bernard Shaw in particular has some really good insight into what is going on in retrospect to our historical knowledge of what we now know was happening on the night of Jan 17 1991.

It isn't until about halfway through Part 4 that they start getting "pool video" up showing aircraft departing Saudi and on through Part 5 you start seeing some footage of aircraft getting armed up and pilots returning and able to talk to reporters. Great to see F-4Gs getting loaded up!

I was active duty at the time but deployed to Howard AFB, Panama with my E-2C squadron so I didn't see much of this at the time, I do recall they talked about yanking us off anti drug missions to go over there land based...never happened. Seeing the contrast between back then and my own deployments to the mid east for Gulf War II is interesting; everyone wearing green flight suits vice tan, the guys in woodland camo...good stuff. The World was a whole different place back then.

EDIT: In Part 6 they really start getting into the good "pool coverage" with pilot interviews and aircraft taxiing and taking off just in case you wanna jump ahead.

Here's a link to Part 1, enjoy.

Edited November 19, 2014 by 82Whitey51

[kurnass77]

Andrew ,

I remember perfectly that night,my mom came to woke me up to show me the news and almost I miss the school to follow this historical event!

I remember that I spended a lot of time videorecording ANY footage showing planes... and in this years I menaged to recollect as many footage I can !

Thx for the link!

Gianni

[Exhausted]

Today I learned that Desert Storm is remarkable for being the first war the US specifically limited its engagements to specifically try to eliminate civilian losses.

I had seen those videos before Whitey. I never watched through them all but I do remember seeing the Marines loading up the artillery when it was first aired. I was 5 when this kicked off and that image has been one of the longest lasting for me, and probably played a role in me becoming a Marine.

[hawkwrench]

I remember that night vividly, because that was my wife and I's first date and when I came home, they were showing video of Baghdad being bombed in the night!

Tim

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

It was my 20th birthday. Cutting cake and watching the first strikes.

I was also in flight training; within a few days we had a notice posted at Flight Ops warning us about not copycatting any of the "hot-dogging" we were able to see of some of the F-16's et al on CNN.

Funny thing is I also witnessed, without realizing it at the time, the launch of the first strikes that morning about 12 hours earlier. As I awakened on the morning of my 20th birthday, there was roar after roar after roar of heavy aircraft climbing out and ascending from the west headed over us to the east. I was in north Louisiana, and the aircraft were B-52's from Barksdale AFB climbing out for a really long range mission--to launch the first strikes at Iraq, which was a surprise from everyone expecting the first strikes to come from the aircraft already stationed at the Iraqi border.

[Horrido]

I was in high school. I looked at the deadline, noted the first new moon, and calculated when 3 AM Baghdad time would be for me at home on that date. I turned on CNN 15 minutes before the first reports came in, and spent most of the night listening to news broadcasts on the radio and feeling deeply concerned for the well-being of our service personnel.

[TomcatFanatic123]

Living out on the West Coast of the US, it was late afternoon when everything began. I was 10 at the time, and I went to my grandparents' house every day after school. My grandma was watching one of her afternoon talk shows, and I was outside playing when the phone rang. It was my grandfather calling us from his work (which he NEVER did) to tell us that the war had started and to put on the news if we hadn't already.

[82Whitey51]

Check out Swarzkopf's press conference too if you get a chance. The Pentagon sure could use some guys like this again.

[fulcrum1]

Check out Swarzkopf's press conference too if you get a chance. The Pentagon sure could use some guys like this again.

He keeps using this word called "strategy", which I don't understand and he is also using a version of powerpoint I'm unaware of.

[Don]

Check out Swarzkopf's press conference too if you get a chance. The Pentagon sure could use some guys like this again.

I agree! I read his book a while back. Fascinating character. He was definitely the right officer at the right time for the job. As an aside, his exploits in Vietnam getting troops out of a mine field using shaving cream was unique to say the least.

[ThePhantomTwo]

I was finally getting out uniform from being on the flightline all day when my son came and dragged me to the television where we then watched the tracers lighting up the Baghdad sky.The next day on the line was regular flying but we were told to prep everything "just in case",the days following we increased sorties using our Pave Spike pods on our F-4E's.We were poised to go on a 24 notice but never got the call.

[Joel_W]

I remember watching CNN on cable at night as they played stock video footage while the three reporters audio played. it was more like a scripted tv show then a war. But we all knew that it was a real war.

Joel

[ALF18]

I had a strange view of Gulf War 1 from the Canadian Joint Headquarters in Al Manamah, Bahrain. It was a mix of command-post activities with what we saw on TV - which was partly CNN, so it's ironic that our view from so close to the action was the same as that seen around the world on CNN, peppered with what we saw outside (like the guy who saw the B-52s launching from CONUS).

I knew the war would be starting at about 4pm on the day before, 16 January (local Bahrain time). I was exchanging broken Link 4 (datalinks for our CF-18s) boxes for some repaired ones at the US Marine Hornet maintenance facility at Shaikh Isa airfield, South Bahrain (about a half-hour drive from where I was stationed). Picture the scene: Dozens of F/A-18s on the flight line, several F-4Gs, and stockpiles of weapons and fuel bladders surrounded by dirt berms. The avionics "shop" was in some sea-portable containers by the ramp, with desert outside and plastic curtains trying in vain to keep the dust out of the labs inside.

After I swapped boxes with the USMC Lieutenant, he introduced me to his CO (a LCol), who shook my hand and said "stick around Captain, you may enjoy this."

He stepped out of the 2-storey container complex onto the top of one, where a microphone had been set up with some speakers. A bunch of US Marines (roughly 100 or so) were gathered around on the ground. The LCol gave a short speech about how they had been there for months, slowly building up, etc etc, then announced that that evening they would be loading bombs onto the F-18s, and "those aircraft are going to drop those bombs and kick some *ss", to which a shout of "hoo-rah" was the response from the men.

That was my first confirmation of the imminent war; we had suspected it, but at the Ops Officer level we hadn't been told yet. This was about 11 hours before the war started.

The LCol went on to talk about increased security measures, mentioning that if a Marine was on Sentry duty, and for some reason instinct made him raise his weapon to his shoulder, that the Marine should not hesitate. He said "we're not going to have another Beirut this time", and another Hoo-rah rang out.

Needless to say that I was always very methodical and predictable the next times I visited Shaikh Isa, especially when driving past the guards near runway-end where the fully-armed aircraft were holding for take-off.

The RAF base at Muharraq (the main civil/military airfield in Al Manamah, the Capital city of Bahrain) was also a beehive of activity, with the deafening roar of pink-coloured Tornados taking off was a constant event.

Some events stay engraved on our memories forever. That is one day I will never forget. Thanks for posting the links to the vids!

ALF

Edited November 20, 2014 by ALF18

[Benner]

I was in grade school and seeing all the video of the planes taking off and such made enough of an impression on me that I'm still building models of Desert Storm aircraft :)

[82Whitey51]

I had a strange view of Gulf War 1 from the Canadian Joint Headquarters in Al Manamah, Bahrain.

ALF

ALF,

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Shaikh Isa is still widely used by squadrons detached to the CENTCOM AOR (fortunately I never had to det there, just Al Udeid)

It's surreal listening to the ground guys give their thoughts on the start and that they are glad to get it on and done so they can go home, "we won't be over here long..." etc.

[82Whitey51]

I was in grade school and seeing all the video of the planes taking off and such made enough of an impression on me that I'm still building models of Desert Storm aircraft :)/>

Nice work! What kit?

I have the Revell F-15E and I'm torn between doing a Desert Storm "Seymour Johnson" bird or a Operation Iraqi Freedom era "SJ" bird. When I first went over there in 2005 those guys were next door to us.

[TomcatFanatic123]

What is the brown badge that Gen. Schwarzkopf has hanging from the right pocket of his BDU's underneath his name tag?

[cag_200]

Thanks for the link, I saw this one which i Really like.

Eagles Over Iraq

[ikar]

I remember when it was Desert Shield and John Hartman, I believe was doing a series of reports on each branch of the military and some of their abilities. When he got to the Navy he did something I couldn't believe. He went onboard a battleship to show his audience what they were like. He did a shot near the bow and was sitting with his arms around his knees as all three main turrets swung into position and fired a broadside. You could see him getting hit by the shockwave and he yelled in pain.

What was he thinking? Didn't anyone warn him? Didn't it occur to him that because nobody else was on deck that it might not be a good idea? Maybe he was so arrogant that he didn't need to listen because he knew better. Who knows.

So far I haven't been able to find that special.

[82Whitey51]

What is the brown badge that Gen. Schwarzkopf has hanging from the right pocket of his BDU's underneath his name tag?

I believe those are the equivalent rank insignia, to his own, of the other coalition forces involved.

[82Whitey51]

One thing I noticed is the lack of any "technical experts"/analysts on the aircraft and equipment on the news teams. Is that something that was born out of the first Gulf War?

during one of the British news conference one reporter does ask for clarification one the type of Tornado jets "a GR1 or an F3...?".

And of course you got an Air Force press spokesmen mention the use of "Navy F-14 Tomahawks"...grrrrr.

[Slartibartfast]

And of course you got an Air Force press spokesmen mention the use of "Navy F-14 Tomahawks"...grrrrr.

Gotta get your digs in when you can.

[ikar]

Then there was the cultural misunderstanding form the other side when they tried the Tokyo Rose bit. The woman on the other side was trying to demoralize the troops like they did in WWII but missed the boat when she told the G.I.s that while they were in the desert their girl friends were home dating movie start like Bart Simpson.

That was a classic.

[TomcatFanatic123]

I believe those are the equivalent rank insignia, to his own, of the other coalition forces involved.

Ah...I see! Very interesting. Thanks.

[305swag]

Hmmm, I remember that night too. I was sleeping in this huge warehouse at a port in Saudi Arabia called Al Jubal. I was in the 3rd ID ,3 BDE ,4/66 ARMOR out of A'burg Germany attached to the 1st Armor Div. We shared the port with the Marines and the Brits. Our vehicles had showed up the day before. At about 2:00AM the air raid sirens began to go off and we where told to get in MOPP level 4. That's how ODS started for me. After that it was off to the paint booth and then to our assy area out in the Saudi desert. I later heard that a part of a scud hit one of the buildings at the port and killed some folks after we left.