Posted on 01/12/2011 1:03:14 PM PST by Kaslin
The Jan. 17, 1991, air attacks on Iraq that launched Operation Desert Storm two decades ago gave the world a spectacular look at the high-tech weaponry the United States had developed to thwart a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.
The initial air strikes on Baghdad riveted a global television audience. On that first night of the air offensive, reporters with cameras poking from Baghdad hotel windows provided real-time video of Iraqi anti-aircraft guns firing streams of tracer rounds into a blue-black sky randomly lit by the bursts of American precision munitions hitting targets on the city's perimeter.
Those cameras, however, only caught a tiny slice of the broad combat action raging across Iraq and Kuwait. Cruise missiles fired by warships blasted Iraqi defense complexes and command posts. A variety of aircraft, from B-52s to attack helicopters, delivered missiles, smart bombs and dumb bombs (stockpiled for use should the Cold War turn hot), striking airfields, radars, troop concentrations and ammo dumps.
The air assault was the preparatory phase of a combined air and ground campaign designed to destroy the Iraqi mechanized army occupying Kuwait. Colin Powell, at the time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made that clear when he said: "Our strategy to go after this army is very, very simple. First, we're going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it." In that process, the U.S. and coalition forces intended to severely damage Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war on his neighbors. Toppling Saddam, however, was not an approved coalition goal.
Anticipating the air offensive, the Iraqi Army in Kuwait and southern Iraq took shelter in fortified trenches and bunkers. In NATO's Cold War nightmare scenario, mobile Soviet tank armies would attack through Central Europe toward the Rhine River. However, NATO intended to stop the armored thrust by pursuing a version of the "cut off and kill" strategy. NATO would cut Soviet command and intelligence links, and destroy their reserve echelons with deep attacks, while a steel rain of bomblets, smart munitions and air-delivered minefields hobbled the advancing tanks. The weapons used in Southwest Asia were built for this campaign.
Conventional war in Europe always risked escalation to nuclear war. Thanks to a 1981 Israeli attack on his nuclear facilities, Saddam did not have a nuke. Without the nuclear sword of Damocles, the U.S.-led air attacks had time to attrit and shatter Iraqi defenses and pave the way for the ground attack in late February.
In Europe, Soviet theater ballistic missiles -- with conventional, chemical or nuclear warheads -- would have hammered NATO ports, command sites and staging areas. The SCUD missiles Iraqis fired at Saudi cities demonstrated this dangerous could-have-been.
The SCUD barrage was Saddam's attempt to launch deep attacks on coalition rear areas and sow terror in Saudi Arabia and Israel. Chemical or nuclear weapons on SCUDs could have cut allied supply lines, killed thousands of civilians and forced ground troops to disperse.
In Desert Storm, American Patriot anti-aircraft missiles employed as anti-ballistic missiles provided the frailest of defenses. Fortunately, Saddam's SCUDs were inaccurate and lacked warheads with weapons of mass destruction. A senior Indian defense official would later observe that the lesson he learned from Desert Storm was, "Don't fight the United States unless you have nuclear weapons."
That lesson has current relevance, as Iran's radical Islamist regime pursues nuclear weapons.
Iraq was no Soviet Union. Yet Saddam pined for superpower status. In a speech made in February 1990, he noted that the Cold War was over and U.S. power unchecked. Then he added, "The big does not become big nor does the great earn such a description unless he is in the arena of comparison or fighting with someone else on a different level."
In retrospect, it appears Saddam intended to fill the void left by a fading Soviet Union, though he may have moved too quickly. As the Soviets quit Europe, the U.S. began to reduce its forces. On Jan. 17, 1991, however, America had more than enough Cold War-era wonder weapons to isolate then decimate his hapless army.
They are not rags, they are sheets.
Bernie, are you ok?
I still remember watching the F4s and A10s training over the south Austin skies during that time. That was fun to watch.
At that time the F117’s were the latest and greatest.
I can’t help but wonder, what do we have today? Even beyond the F-22’s.
Before the Gulf War I had a job at the shipyard in Bayonne, NJ. It was amazing watching all of the stuff (tanks, hummers, etc.) lined up on the docks and getting loaded onto the ships. Lots of tanks. I always got a kick out of hearing the evening news where folks were wondering what we were going to do? Would we dare risk a war with Iraq, etc.? Each time I’d say to no-one in particular, “go look at those docks and figure it out!”
The week before the air war started in Desert Storm I was at Fallon AFB (Top Gun fame) with them screaming over my head on landings and takeoffs. And thinking to myself - “in another week or so, these types of guys are going to be laying it down on the enemy. I’m glad they are on my side!”
At Wurtsmith Air Force Base I stood outside the hangar I was working in and watched B-52s lift off our runway carrying cluster bombs. I knew they weren’t going to be carrying them when they landed.
Remember how the Iraqi Republican Guard was supposed to be the most elite fighting force in the world and how Iraq had the world's fourth largest military?
Well many of them would eventually surrender to CNN camera crews (FoxNews wasn't around back then).
I remember seeing a reired colonel on one of the evening newscasts predicting 30,000 American casualties on day one.
Oops!
I predicted in 1991 that we would have to go back in and get that bastard, and that it would be much more difficult.
Yeah, sucks to be right sometimes.
It was dull and lull for months......then all you saw was afterburners lighting up the night.
We knew then that it was on.
And God Bless All DS/DS Veterans !!!!
Actually, the first shots were fired by AH-64 Apaches taking out radar sites. However...the Phantoms did an excellent job and were very busy the first night.
I remember seeing the camera feed from a Hellfire missile for the first time, as it flew into the front door of an Iraqi bunker. The voiceover from the pilot said, “Knock-knock, m****er f***er!”. Laughed ourselves sick over that.
Wasn’t it the presence of our soldiers in Saudi Arabia that motivated Osama bin Laden to plan the WTC attack?
Thanks! I always never get “Base”, “Station”, “Fort” correct - not being a military type! Thanks for the link. I remember one afternoon I got done at a reasonable time and wandered around the display of fighters they have. The Phantom is the coolest looking plane!
We must have been side by side, I was a newly minted PFC then, blinked my eyes and somehow got to be in my 40’s...lol.
goes fast doesn’t it
It was an interesting campaign...I remember being in the Persian Gulf before it was cool to be in the Persian Gulf...
Lost a couple of friends on the USS Stark, but it all came full circle for me and a few other who were recalled to get back into that sandbox for a little bit of creative ordinance offloading...
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