Since Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm!

v6,
boNes

Saddam's invasion of Kuwait happened the summer after my junior year in high school and Desert Storm happened during my senior year in high school.


I still remember very vividly waking up from a nap one early evening and turning on the tv and seeing the now famous night-vision CNN footage of the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire over Baghdad as Desert Shield began.

Yeah, I noticed that this morning and it was a jolt. Time does indeed "fly".

I remember watching it live on CNN.

CNN reporters in Baghdad with live footage of the aerial bombing.

My girlfriend of the time was with me and she started crying.

She kept asking me what will happen now.

I told her it's too soon to tell.

She thought the world was going to end in a nuclear war.

The air campaign begin on January 16th.

The ground campaign begin on January 17th.

Shouldn't the 16th be the start of Desert Storm?

It seems like your girlfriend at the time could have used a course on contemporary Middle Eastern politics and weapon capabilities.


Having said that, I look back with some amusement at the severe over-reaction the Western media had over the capabilities of the Iraqi SCUD missiles.

I did not worry much, although it all unraveled at the end , we were lucky in that we had a steady hand in the US and the UK.



Israel took it so seriously that they were just about ready to strike Iraqi targets (when SCUD missiles started to hit Israel (*) ) and only the direct intervention and assurance by the US prevented it, the great SCUD hunt followed and they managed to sort of contain it.

The impact of the SCUD can be seen today in the extensive layered defenses Israel set up, the Hezbollah threat against Israel derives from the out of proportion impact those SCUD had on Israel at the time.

(*) as a side note: all US deployed Patriot SAM in Israel that fired at SCUD missiles missed, not one hit according to Israelis and at best they hit some of the debris when the SCUD came crashing down.

Thanks for this info. I did not know this.

I remember doing an inventory after hours at work. We'd been waiting for it, knew it was coming but when the manager came out and said "We're at war" it was a bit surreal. We stopped the inventory and went home.

you should then watch this



at the end you realize that the (conventional) battle was won by the Coalition but the winner in the end was Saddam Hussein : his only goal was (for him and) his regime to survive - and he did just that.

Compared to what happened to Germany in both WWI and WWII, Saddam did indeed make out like a bandit after he was kicked out of Kuwait. Sure, the majority of his military was destroyed and there were the "No Fly" zones but Iraq was never occupied and he stayed in power.

Saddam was a serial blunderer - every decision he took misfired.

He saved the bulk of the Republican Guard for a battle that did not take place when the Coalition declined to pursue the war to its logical conclusion.

It was not so much that he managed to ensure his ( win ) survival , it was that the Coalition ( i.e. the US ) did a full stop once the primary and main objective of the war was achieved : securing the Oil fields of Kuwait.

Oil fields saved, Mission Accomplished .

Saddam remains in power and turns on those that rose against him and starts the slaughter.

The No Fly zone was a belated reaction when the size and scope of the humanitarian catastrophe ( due to Saddam's actions against the opposition ) was realized by the Coalition - and that it would be a PR disaster that would soil the afterglow of the Nintendo-style War.

and the rest is what we all know.

Well, it was Jan 17 local time/date really. . The ground campaign didn't start until Feb 24 though.

v6,
boNes

... i totally missed the entire thing .. only being 2 at the time

So Maggie was still PM when you were born. That's good to know!

I was managing a software store at the time, and we had a TV with a VCR to play promotional videos, but I put it out and was able to get a news channel over the air and kept it on for the first few days.

After the conflict was over, combat simulators were booming (no pun intended), and Discovery Wings went into high gear.

Ok, so I have to ask the burning question. Was it Egghead, Electronics Boutique or Babbages?

This BBC documentary say "42x41" Patriot success ratio over Israel.

https://youtu.be/8zQT5WB_nHE?t=4063

Egghead

Actually, it says that then President Bush claimed it, but shortly after that, the video says that Israel claimed they all missed. I'm not sure anyone really knows the success rate.

o i'm sure there's a record of it somewhere, now whether it 'officially' exists or not ..?

the impact craters showed that the Patriot SAM missed and all that they hit when they did hit something was missile debris.

its success rate was a propaganda stunt - when the time came do field a system capable to defend Israel against ballistic missiles, the Israelis with US help went ahead and developed the Arrow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_(Israeli_missile)

There is no definitive answer to how well or how poorly Patriot performed in the Gulf War. The claims of Postol and Lewis are certainly not without error, as detailed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20131224183852/http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/docops/zimmerman.htm

I read about it - but I believe that ( the Israeli SecDef ) Moshe Arens opinion is accurate.

the Patriot worked 100% well in the sense that it provided Israeli government with a powerful argument to stay out of the conflict, imagine the pressure they were in with Scuds hitting them like they did.

the Patriot PAC-3 was developed as a kinetic ballistic/cruise missile killer that reportedly is so-so as an anti-aircraft SAM and was designed to do what the original could not, but it did leverage on the Patriot name to sell

I recall recently that a patriot was used to kill a drone once.

Now there's ROI for ya!

v6,
boNes

No, she could had used a course on taking care of herself.

She was 22 at the time.

I found her on Facebook last year but I didn't contact her.

She looks rough now at 51.

She looks more like she is 65.

I know everyone age and you can't run away from time but she looks like she didn't take care of herself these past 29 years.

I know one thing is she liked to happy hour party every day.

Get off work at 5: where are we going to go drinking until closing time tonight?

So many times she called me and I passed.

I am older than she was and no longer into the drinking and partying everyday mode.

That takes a toll on your body between the alcohol and the lack of proper sleep from staying out til the club/bar closes at 2 am.

I have seen 60 years old women that look like they are still in their 30's.

My mum is in her late 70's and she still look like she is in her 40's,

the Israelis shot down several drones and a Su-24 with Patriot - but the ones that have had a lot of success are the Saudis, they shot down a lot of surface to surface missiles fired from Yemen.

It was "interesting" walking everywhere, carrying the gas mask. Anytime the air raid alert came on and we sealed ourselves in the "isolated room". The TV first showed warnings and bulletins followed by videos of smiling soldiers showing how to administer Atropin into your thigh. Shelter drills at school were also frequent.