In God We Trust.....Semper Fi
I was deployed to an airbase in Oman and doing very little. I was an air traffic controller and the base I was at handled mostly C-130’s. There was a port about 50 miles from the base. Ships would dock there offloading munitions. Trucks would carry the munitions up to the base, transfer it to the 130’s, and then flown north to where the Army was. In the weeks leading up to the start of the war the base was very, very busy. C-130’s were arriving and departing around the clock, actually it was some of the busiest traffic I ever worked. Constant drone of C-130’s landing, taxiing, and taking off. But when the airwar started the traffic out of our base pretty much stood down. The airspace folks didn’t want slow C-130’s flying in the same airspace as so many fighters. So for me, there was little to be done.
I remember well. I had left Saudi Arabia after a two and a half year contract installing a missile tracking system.
It was in place and in full operation when it was needed about a year later for the missiles we had to shoot down coming in from Baghdad.
It was as if someone knew what was going to happen in the future - HUH?
At college...I was the Cadet Corps Commander at my Air Force ROTC unit, and my Vice Commander and I were printing what we thought was the Final version of the next week’s Ops Order and Training Plan, while drinking beer with a TV in the background playing CNN.
We didn’t get to finish the beers. We also got a call from our active duty officer-in-charge, ordering an up-till-then never-tested recall of the leadership of the Cadet Wing.
By the time we were released (sometime around 2AM, IIRC) we had completely re-written our entire semester’s Ops and Training Plans and gone through a lot of pizzas. That was also the semester when I really became addicted to coffee.
I took a three or four hour lunch that day to watch it live on CNN.
Amazing.
I was logging in the woods in Idaho.
Hadn’t had a TV in a long time. Decided I better go get one.
I was riveted to am AM radio listening to a ‘live’ feed from CNN Headline News, back when they were on the radio in Atlanta. (this was at work).
I stayed glued to the TV when I got home.
I was feeling “YESSSS!!” on the outside and anxiety and prayers for our warfighters on the inside.
I was on a US Navy warship in the Red Sea.
Working night shift for Boeing.
On my dinner break I watched a news feed of an F-4 Wild Weasel taking off. Boeing hung a large US flag in our cafeteria and set up a big screen TV.
I was stationed in the Coast Guard in Santa Barbara and working around the clock in Port Hueneme, CA activating the mothballed MSC “Rapid Response” vessels for transportation of military cargo to the Middle East.
Gunner
I was hittin’ it when the war started.
In an operating room (not as a patient) - remember someone coming in and saying that the bombing had started.
In the garage working on my drag car.
Sitting in a TEMPER tent near the flight line in Sharjah listening to the President’s address on the radio with the rest of my flight crew. Like the ATC guy above we had been moved down range from Dhahran S.A. to make room for the fast movers.
I was recently out of the Marine Corps and called some folks inside to see if my MOS was on the critical list. It wasn’t.
Anybody else remember Jim Eason in those days and ‘So...when does the ground war start?’
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.
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.