Posted on 01/12/2011 1:03:14 PM PST by Kaslin
Interesting article though, thanks for posting it.
Retired DS/DS AF vet.
No kidding, I was at my daughters school for Veterans day, one of the students asked what war I was in, told him I served during the Gulf War, he looked at me like I made it up.
During Desert Shield, I remember Rush talking about “smart” munitions like smart bombs and cruise missiles.
“Saddam, there is good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we tested a cruise missile and it missed its target. The bad news is that it missed it by two feet”
I was an intel analyst then. First briefing I gave with the information on hand after Iraq invaded Kuwait was that this was to be a limited incursion into Kuwait to seize the oil fields. At that point Hussein would just wait it out, baiting the UN with false promises of resolution, while strangling Kuwait due to lack of oil sales.
Well, I did occasionally get things wrong :-)
. . . .and I’ll never forget John Holliman whooping it up at the window reporting on the action while Bernard Shaw was trembling under the bed. I’m sure he lost it all together when the 500# cruiser hit the pool of the hotel.
The Soviets desperately warned SH about the coming barrage. Thankfully, he did not listen. I remember reading articles in the Desert Shield phase about the mighty Iraqi armed services. The articles indicated that SH would badly bloody our forces perhaps leading to a protacted struggle.
You just gave me an idea, tonight, I’m going to ask some of my sons Boy Scout buddies if they know about the Gulf War.
I can only imagine the look on that kid’s face and your conundrum. ;^)
And we were none to happy about being told to stop, being all ready to go to Baghdad. We knew we'd have to be back to finish the job eventually, either us or the next generation of soldiers. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
Well, I did occasionally get things wrong :-)
Given the conditions at the time, that's a totally reasonable analysis.
Wasn't your primary job, though, to analyze the other guys rather than our side? :=)
So you weren't completely wrong.
F117A's
You’re welcome
I remember seeing the planes take off before it started with everyone wondering where they were going. I went to a bar and the whole thing just lit up.
I wish I had recorded it.
I remember sitting in a bunker with my chem gear on listening to the radio as they announced the air strikes.
You weren’t the only one to get “things wrong”. But you play with the hand your dealt. I can only imagine the level of frustration in trying to figure out intent with someone such as SH.
Sheesh, I can’t remember how many different stories we heard about the whole mess while we were cooling [HA!] our heels between Aug and Jan.
Do y’all remember Teddy Kennedy wringing his hands over the “45,000 body bags” that were allegedly headed to the Gulf?
Maybe Saddam could’ve used them, but as usual, Teddy had his sizable head up an even more-sizable orifice.
I watched it on TV in the mess deck of USS Billfish while tied up at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.
I believe the air war started with a Wild Weasel strike to help take down Iraqi SAM defenses. It was a F-4 Phantom.
I always thought it was fitting that the last enemy that the old girl got to light up was a bunch of rag heads.
They might have if the initial coalition ground advance bogged down. Then chemical weapons might have been employed against relatively static forces. The best protection was to keep the fighting highly mobile.
There were reports that the USAF was running low on precision munitions. Had the cease-fire not happened when it did, things might have gotten a whole lot bloodier for the Iraqis.
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