...it'd be able to drink right now.

It's the 21st anniversary of Desert Storm. Where does the time fly? Especially since back then GPS was still kinda primitive...

v6,
boNes

One good thing was that they dropped the "selective availability" for Desert Storm and my GPS was accurate for once rather than the +/- 100m it had up to then

God I'm old!

Cheers!

Rick...

That was the same year I graduated from high school. Sigh.

I was 29 and out on a lake ice fishing. Had my portable TV along in my fish house
and had just caught a 12 lb pike when the news broke in to announce the start of
Desert Storm.

I`m with ya Rick, beginning to feel my age. At least winter has been easy so far.

It was a world apart from what the Iraqis had. The Coalition could navigate through the empty desert on the western flank and slip behind the Saddam line. The Iraqis thought it was impossible, since when they tried maneuvers out in the desert they got lost without any recognizeable features. Consequently, they weren't set up to deal with it.

I just read "Vipers In The Storm" am currently reading "Warthog," (late to the party, I know), but it's interesting to read about what they were doing and compare that to the equipment in use today, especially the A-10C.

(130 degrees and still drinking coffee in one of the few times we were in the rear)

A guy i worked with at the time was of middle eastern descent. When Desert Storm broke i remember him saying " you watch, now those Americans will get their ass kicked big time, Saddam will walk all over them" He had not been in Oz long and obviously being brought up in the region he really thought that Saddam and his military was that good of a force.Clearly not a big Western fan either. I didn't even worry with a rebuke to his comment, wasn't worth it.

Then it's been 21 years since I first fell in love with F-117. I think I was in 1st grade back then.

I was in 4th or 5th Grade. I remember my mom calling me in from the back yard where I was playing basketball to come watch the news when the air campaign kicked off. My dad was still in the USAF at the time, and there was a bit of concern that he might have to TDY over there. I still remember that night rather vividly.

-Jenrick

Ah yes, the first war on CNN. Also the last I bothered to follow.



The Jedi Master

I was a sophomore in college at the time. Me and a friend of mine were leaving class thinking, well, the deadline passed...is war coming? We both agreed that if it was, it would happen at prime time when everyone was home from work and school to see it on CNN.

Around 7pm I turned on the TV to ABC and they had their usual programming. So I flipped around and went to CBS and they had a news correspondent on reporting from the roof of his hotel because he thought he heard jets overhead but wasn't sure. Suddenly there was AAA and explosions and alot of ruckuss. I turned back to ABC to see if anyone had noticed. Nope, still had on some sitcom.

So it was kind of odd that I happened to catch it haphazardly on one channel but not another. My sister was serving aboard TAH-20 (USNS Comfort) as part of Desert Shield and now she was there as they transitioned to Desert Storm so we were concerned for her being in the Persian Gulf what with the threat of chemical war and all.

It is also kind of odd that I still have that same TV I saw this unfold on.

Heh.

v6,
boNes

I was in Korea (1st Battalion 2nd Avn Regt 2nd ID) during Desert Storm (June 90-Dec 91) Locked down during 'stop loss' Had to spend an extra 6 months there which was bad enough.
Watched very little AFKN (US military tv station) so i didn't learn much about Desert Storm until years later.

...what pissed me off most was i had orders for Germany after Korea. Stop loss cancelled my orders, but i still assumed i was going. When i was ready to outprocess some joker thought it would be funny to send me to Ft Polk Louisiana. Damn Saddam to hell i wanted to go!!!

Wow, 21 years ago? Even I feel old!

I remember keeping all the newspaper cuttings and I made a scrapbook out of them. A mate up the road did the same, and as our parents had different 'papers, we had different stuff to show each other. I remember there being a lot of stuff about the SCUD launchers. I must have been about 7 back then. Jeez, no wonder I grew up to be a military nut.

I have all issues of Air Forces Monthly from that period. I remember my friend sharing an earpiece of his walkman so that we could listen to the news in the classroom, in return for a Coke and a chocolate bar. Come to think of it, that's probably how I lost my Seasons in the Abyss tape... And that the Republican Guard were to be no pushovers.

This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand

I still remember seeing some news story on CNN a couple of days after the air campaign started that cracked me up. It showed people in some Georgia town buying gas masks as a precaution aqainst any Iraqi scud missiles that may have been fired at the US.

So... how many have you got left over in your closet Panzer

It was also the last time anyone watched CNN.

I was in the 6th grade.

I remember it like it was yesterday, it was during my glory days of sim gaming and building model airplanes. I remember reading about all of the RAF Buccaneers, the F117's... Fascinating stuff at that age.

I used to have all of my newspaper clippings, and wall poster etc. from the time, but I threw them out at some point.

A few years later, I had a chance to visit Norfolk with Air cadets, and I remember being in such awe of the US military. It was just so BIG. Planes everywhere, subs, carriers, destroyers, buses full of personnel, just this massive industry.

It was a big thing for me, as to actually have seen an f-18 in the great white north was a big thing. It would be great to see one at the end of a runway somewhere. In Norfolk there were a dozen F-14's flying around like no big deal.

Anyway, war is hell, but for a 6th grader at the time, it was a fascinating experience. The boys went out, kicked some ass, came back, very comforting.

I was ten. I remember most yellow ribbons hung on trees in the neighborhood. I also remember going to Israel with my family because of my Dad's work in '91 after Desert Storm. During the layover in Germany we were taken to closets to be thoroughly frisked and all of our baggage checked. There were German soldiers with machine guns also in the airport. I remember my Dad talking about the folks who we stayed with in Israel talking about the close calls they had and damage due to Saddam's scud attacks on Israel.

None! I've never lived in Georgia.

He does have loads of Saranwrap left over from when he wrapped up his house after 9/11....

Man, I was... 13.

I still remember my father calling me to show on TV missile strikes and AAA going off in Baghdad.
His laconical comment was "It is started...", only after hearing that I was a bit afraid.

I always valued my father's opinions and views.

Man it seems both so far away and yet like yesterday...

Italian TV coverage was poor anyway, no we were lucky to have had a TV which could get BBC.

I also remember how bad the media got their facts.

"...USAF was carpet-bombing with their F-16s..." Um...I suppose they had the carpets rolled up and mounted to the pylons? Nothing smaller than a B-52 ever did any carpet bombing in DS.



The Jedi Master

Hah! Loved that I could already spot bullcrap from media back then, I was more of a Military analyst than MANY of those in TV!

I just wrote a 50+ page essay on Desert Storm in school (written in English), fascinating stuff, I had a lot of Offical USAF and DOD reports as sources. Quite proud over what I wrote.

I can honestly say I never wrote an essay of any length in school in Swedish.



The Jedi Master

I've never written anything longer than a 20 page research paper in ANY language.

The military should never have blocked the signal. They should have kept the "selective availability" off and secret for a war in case the enemy decided to piggy back their ordinance on the signal. All of a sudden, they'd go from 3 meters accuracy to oops, 100+m accuracy.

That's one of those things that makes me laugh when people accuse the US gov't or military of various conspiracies. They can keep things quiet for awhile, but they eventually become known. They NEVER try disinformation or partial truths.
Existence of aliens? Yup, they know but say they don't and have offered all this falsified evidence to prove it.
However they couldn't do something as simple as what Timothy said to make enemies rely on GPS as much as we do and then screw it up on them when push comes to shove. Instead we let everyone use it but make the heaviest use of it ourselves so GPS jammers become a hot commodity.



The Jedi Master

It's a double laugh since the Europeans (our NATO "partners") were quite clear that they won't shut Galileo down if the USA is in armed conflict.

Keyword: EU Counter-balance.

I was 11 years old at the time. My initial memory of DS was walking out to the driveway to pick up the newspaper, on the front of which was the large bold headline declaring the start of the conflict. Funny how certain events like that stick in one's mind.

I was 25.
One of the things I remember most was the story about a guy practicing baseball while in the desert and dreaming of playing for the Dodgers. Lasorda gave him a tryout when they returned home but he didn't make it.

Another was a guy sitting in a humvee that had the left rear tire blown off after driving over a mine being interviewed. He was still a little shaken up to say the least.


Wheels

I was sitting in my tent...counting my winnings from the company pool as to when Desert Storm would actually kick off. Was off by 11 minutes, but still the closest out of 50 $5.00 entries.