Posted on 01/20/2011 6:14:56 AM PST by US Navy Vet
I was in my freshman year of college, was working on my homework with my TV on, and saw the Iraqi sky light up with AA fire. Began to contemplate along with my other buddies if we would soon be drafted.
Kewl.
I was a cadet at West Point. We sat in the ‘day room’, where there was a TV set. We waited anxiously for every report about how many bombers had made it back vs being shot down.
There had been a long run-up to this...Saddam’s invasion having happened the previous August. According to the media, this would be a terrbly bloody war that would last for several years. Based on this, we all expected to eventually go over there; and, we were very, very interested in how well the air war would go. Turns out things went alot better than advertised, and I never went to the sandbox.
I was SO pround that my country had FINALLY KILLED the Viet Nam era thing.
This Vietnam Era vet felt the same way. Amen, brother, Amen!
Shuffling messages for Commander, Training Command, Atlantic (COMTRALANT) and lamenting about how I joined the military to go to war and come home a hero, and that the only war that came along found me stuck on shore duty here in Norfolk. I had transferred off the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) the previous March after 3 1/2 years of sea duty just in time to see them deploy for Desert Shield. Gone to Fleet Training Center or instructor duty and was sent TAD to TRALANT for 6 months.
My Dad was awarded a Bronze Star in WWII, best I did was three Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medals.
Ramstein AB Ops Center, preparing briefings for Gen. staff. Watching it all unfold on multiple screens and datastreams.
Me, too. I'd just had my hair cut, walked to the car and heard it on the radio. On the *wild* ride home, I pulled over to say a little prayer for our son and all the military.
I was on alert and on the job at Osan AB, ROK.
I’d just had my bottom wisdom teeth pulled out, sitting on the couch glued to the tv, thinking of my fiance who was over there.
I was very pregnant and I remember sewing a blanket for my new baby. She will turn 20 on 1/22. Vividly remember the news in the background while I sewed.
I was in VA-165 on USS Nimitz steaming west. The CO of the ship made an announcement over the 1MC, “President Bush has ordered Desert Shield transition to Desert Storm”. The vibration effect was amazing. I had no way to know how fast we were going; they blocked SINS (ships inertial system) data.
Wearing chem gear and watching aircraft take off from our base in Saudi Arabia to bomb the crap out of Iraq.
In Lemoore, CA sitting drinking a beer after work at NAMTRAGRUDET as an Instructor, at the river marina. We had CNN on, and heard the air war has begun.
Family and friends didn't even know where Saudi Arabia was or had heard very little about it until we went over. They were full of questions.
Sitting around the radio with a bunch of airmen at a USAF radar site in Conrad, MT. I was explaining to them what was going on with the AAA and SAMs the AF was encountering. It was an electric moment, because that’s what we trained aircrews to do.
FrogDad was in the desert, already.
I walked into the house after work, the FrogKids were sitting in a row on the couch watching CNN (!), the eldest said to me, “Sit down, Mom, it’s started.”
CNN (yes, Wolf Blitzer pissed me off) was on at my house 24/7 until the war ended.
If you’ll recall, they had a lot of moving-the-mail issues at that time. I hadn’t heard from FrogDad since he’d left around the first of December. I wrote to him every day, after the war he told me that he’d get a stack of letters every so often.
The mail on our end finally caught up about the time the war ended.
Rough times.
And I intended to add to my post.....a BIG Thank You to all of you who served and I’m very glad you made it back from wherever you were. My dad was in one of the Normandy landings, I lost a cousin in Viet Nam, and have a long history of family in all the wars and various branches. We are a strong U.S. military supporting family here.
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