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Desert Storm began 24 years ago on the evening of January 16 (US)/ the early morning January 17 (Middle East), where were you at?
January 16, 1991 began as a normal day, the operation in the Middle East was still called "Desert Shield", but turned out to be very hectic at the end of the day.
I was stationed with the 10th Mountain Division up at Ft. Drum, NY. Any military history buff knows that, save for one support battalion, no other units left for Saudi Arabia. There were, however, "onesies and twosies" picked from different units to fill the gaps of the of the units already over there.
As an Avionics Radar Repairer (35R), I didn't even think that I would go over there, until my squad leader called me during lunchtime. I was at the CQ desk, when he called asking for three 35R volunteers to deploy with a Reserve unit to the Middle East. Without hesitation, I told my squad leader that I would be the first volunteer. The other two "Romeos" volunteered later on.
After lunch, it was a mad dash to get the three of us through the whole deployment readiness process. This was completed later in the afternoon.
I was calling up different family members, letting them know that I'll be leaving for Ft. Rucker and, a few weeks later, to Saudi Arabia. I remember that I had the TV on in my barracks room, watching ABC News with Peter Jennings, and being on the phone with my oldest brother. I was probably about five minutes into our conversation when breaking news came on from Baghdad- Operation Desert Storm had begun.
I was a bit shocked, but after I got over the initial shock, I knew that I had a job to do- serving my country.
So where were you when Desert Storm began? I'd like to hear your stories.
January 16, 1991 began as a normal day, the operation in the Middle East was still called "Desert Shield", but turned out to be very hectic at the end of the day.
I was stationed with the 10th Mountain Division up at Ft. Drum, NY. Any military history buff knows that, save for one support battalion, no other units left for Saudi Arabia. There were, however, "onesies and twosies" picked from different units to fill the gaps of the of the units already over there.
As an Avionics Radar Repairer (35R), I didn't even think that I would go over there, until my squad leader called me during lunchtime. I was at the CQ desk, when he called asking for three 35R volunteers to deploy with a Reserve unit to the Middle East. Without hesitation, I told my squad leader that I would be the first volunteer. The other two "Romeos" volunteered later on.
After lunch, it was a mad dash to get the three of us through the whole deployment readiness process. This was completed later in the afternoon.
I was calling up different family members, letting them know that I'll be leaving for Ft. Rucker and, a few weeks later, to Saudi Arabia. I remember that I had the TV on in my barracks room, watching ABC News with Peter Jennings, and being on the phone with my oldest brother. I was probably about five minutes into our conversation when breaking news came on from Baghdad- Operation Desert Storm had begun.
I was a bit shocked, but after I got over the initial shock, I knew that I had a job to do- serving my country.
So where were you when Desert Storm began? I'd like to hear your stories.
Posted in these groups: 
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 371
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I was on the border of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait getting ready to cross the berm. We were 1-67 AR and we were attached to the 2nd Marine Division with 1st Tiger BDE. I remember driving through the oil fields that were all burning at the time, thinking this is what I would imagine Hell to be!
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I was on the border of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait getting ready to cross the berm. We were 1-67 AR and we were attached to the 2nd Marine Division with 1st Tiger BDE. I remember driving through the oil fields that were all burning at the time, thinking this is what I would imagine Hell to be!
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There I was... Jeddah, Saudi Arabia...waiting for the jump off. We arrived in Theater in August and waited and waited. While our aircraft experienced battle damage, We were set up outside the SCUD circle. Twelve months after we deployed (and four months after we returned) my duffle bag, with all my uniforms and clothes, showed up back at Barksdale! What a fun deployment.
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Two miles from the Iraq/Saudi Arabian border with 7/101st. Col Cody and the boys from the 2/17th Cav flew right over head on their way to fire the first shot, knock out the radar installation and open a hole in the "picket fence" that allowed the F117's to wreak havoc during the air phase.
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i was sitting in a bunker with my M-60 when I heard what sounded like a herd of cattle coming through. I looked out the back and saw everyone running for their foxholes. I was like WTF. So I grabbed the TA-312 and called the CP. CP responded with STANDBY. I was like ok whats going on. The CP called back 5 min later and said we just launched Tomahawks at Baghdad. Needless to say I loaded up the M-60 and we didn't sleep for 2 days
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I was XO of 44th Chemical Company, 2AD, attached to 1st Cavalry Division. When the war began on January 17th, we were sleeping. I had an advanced party from 44th Chemical Company. The day prior, we began a long movement from our initial desert position located a few miles north of Uray’irah, which was a little north of the Dammam-Riyadh road. We moved to a new position northwest of King Khalid Military City (KKMC). KKMC is south of Hafar Al Batin to the west of the road to Riyadh. We would learn later that this was the “Secret Base in the Desert” referred to in the news.
We were sleeping. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I was awakened by our soldier on radio watch. He said that he wasn’t sure he had the right radio frequencies as he had been unable to talk to the Division CP since frequency change at midnight. I asked if he had tried the old frequency. He had and that had not worked either. I resolved that I had to get up and drive over to the CP to fix the lack of commo.
Casually, as an after-thought the soldier said “also, the war started a little while ago.”
At that, everyone in the tent sat straight up on their cots. I asked “Why didn’t you wake me up?” Before I finished the question, I knew the answer, but the solder voiced it for me in a way that only a young PFC could. “uhh… I didn’t know I was supposed to, sir...”
He was right. We were all wide awake now with nothing to do. If he hadn’t told me, I would be awake going to the CP, but everyone else would be asleep. Now we were all awake, our senses anticipating imminent battle, but our minds knowing that we really had nothing to do.
Hell of a thing. The war starts, you can’t sleep, and you can’t do anything. We didn’t really appreciate this until we got home, but there we were, on the ground, relatively close to the battle, but knowing almost nothing of it. Our families back home were watching it on CNN. We, who were prepared to fight, had no idea what was happening.
The First Sergeant said, “Sir, I’ll go to the CP and take care of the commo.”
I said, “OK Top, thanks.” The First Sergeant pulled his boots on and walked out of the tent. I immediately regretted letting him do it. I smiled and laughed to myself. There I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and I just let the First Sergeant do the one thing I could do. Oh well! Now I could sit and ponder my urgency and anxiety.
A sergeant from Smoke Platoon decided that the prudent thing to do would be to dig a bunker. Everyone got up and went outside to do this. This of course was silly. We were about 50 miles south by southwest of Hafar Al Batin, which is about 60 miles south of the Iraqi border. We were in no danger from the Iraqi’s, but it gave us something to do. Heck, for all we knew, Iraqi special forces disguised as Bedouins could attack us at any moment.
I really wanted to dig, but there were already too many soldiers working on it. So, I, the lone officer, got to watch. I figured that I would just get in the way of the NCO's and they wouldn't appreciate me standing right there and watching, so my only alternative was to move away. I walked about 30 meters away and watched from a distance.
Through the remainder of the night, an occasional Tomahawk cruise missile flew overhead. As the dawn was breaking, a formation of Apache Attack Helicopters flew overhead, southbound, returning from the fight. This was our only direct evidence of the fight going on far to the North.
We were sleeping. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I was awakened by our soldier on radio watch. He said that he wasn’t sure he had the right radio frequencies as he had been unable to talk to the Division CP since frequency change at midnight. I asked if he had tried the old frequency. He had and that had not worked either. I resolved that I had to get up and drive over to the CP to fix the lack of commo.
Casually, as an after-thought the soldier said “also, the war started a little while ago.”
At that, everyone in the tent sat straight up on their cots. I asked “Why didn’t you wake me up?” Before I finished the question, I knew the answer, but the solder voiced it for me in a way that only a young PFC could. “uhh… I didn’t know I was supposed to, sir...”
He was right. We were all wide awake now with nothing to do. If he hadn’t told me, I would be awake going to the CP, but everyone else would be asleep. Now we were all awake, our senses anticipating imminent battle, but our minds knowing that we really had nothing to do.
Hell of a thing. The war starts, you can’t sleep, and you can’t do anything. We didn’t really appreciate this until we got home, but there we were, on the ground, relatively close to the battle, but knowing almost nothing of it. Our families back home were watching it on CNN. We, who were prepared to fight, had no idea what was happening.
The First Sergeant said, “Sir, I’ll go to the CP and take care of the commo.”
I said, “OK Top, thanks.” The First Sergeant pulled his boots on and walked out of the tent. I immediately regretted letting him do it. I smiled and laughed to myself. There I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and I just let the First Sergeant do the one thing I could do. Oh well! Now I could sit and ponder my urgency and anxiety.
A sergeant from Smoke Platoon decided that the prudent thing to do would be to dig a bunker. Everyone got up and went outside to do this. This of course was silly. We were about 50 miles south by southwest of Hafar Al Batin, which is about 60 miles south of the Iraqi border. We were in no danger from the Iraqi’s, but it gave us something to do. Heck, for all we knew, Iraqi special forces disguised as Bedouins could attack us at any moment.
I really wanted to dig, but there were already too many soldiers working on it. So, I, the lone officer, got to watch. I figured that I would just get in the way of the NCO's and they wouldn't appreciate me standing right there and watching, so my only alternative was to move away. I walked about 30 meters away and watched from a distance.
Through the remainder of the night, an occasional Tomahawk cruise missile flew overhead. As the dawn was breaking, a formation of Apache Attack Helicopters flew overhead, southbound, returning from the fight. This was our only direct evidence of the fight going on far to the North.
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We were on a range detail cleaning up from gunnery I think, and we got the "call" saying bring everyone in. I was just into my first year in the army, stationed at Ft. Hood.
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I was in the rack at Bateen Air Base Abu Dhabi. Not sure but it must have been 0200-0500. Someone came in yelling to get in MOP gear. We dressed out and went over to the rec place and watched on TV
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