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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 assigned to the Joint Communications Support Element providing comms for SOCCENT. We were at an airport near Dhahran. Later on I was shuffled to CENTCOM and provided comms from between a mosque and parking garage.
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I was Como SGT for 36th Engineer Group. Myself and my retrans team crossed the border with a convoy. When the 1lt started firing white star clusters so someone could find him, my team and I proceeded on to the FOB on our own. We felt safer on our own. We spent the entire Desert Storm performing retrans for our group. I am proud to have served with Col. Miller and the rest of the Group.
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I was two years old. Most of the people in the unit I deployed with were privates at that point.
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I was in Germany with the 18th Engineer BDE. A sister BN deployed early to provide support, My BN followed later. But the effort was largely over by then. We spent 27 days in Turkey, never donned a uniform or touched a weapon the entire time. We did send a couple nail-bender platoons on a humanitarian mission to build structures for the Kurds, but that was it.
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I was in Saudi Arabia, close to the Kuwait and Iraqi borders. I was detached from 8th Comm Bn.
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I started in Saudi,at international airport that was under construction,we were there for a few months.Right before the actual war we moved closer to Kuwait,we thought thats where we were headed,but we were wrong.All the sudden we got orders to pick up and fly to the border of Southern Iraq and wait.The new mission was to cut off the retreating army.When it started we took all of Southern Iraq.We were all over flying troops to different locations until it ended.Seems like I remember Viper.
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I remember this like it was yesterday, I was chatting with a friend of mine who was on leave from Ft. Campbell, we just happened to be catching the news on t.v. when low and behold they are reporting on the Iraqi's occupation of Kuwait We just sat there and looked at each other knowing what was coming next.
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I was at KKMC with the 5th MASH out of Fort Bragg - ordered to MOPP level two as part of a "training exercise" and squatting in a hole in the ground.
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SGT (Join to see)
ABC as in the Australian Broadcasting Company, right? I never new that there was another "ABC" other than the American Broadcasting Company until a few years later.
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
Yeah. It was confusing, at first. After a while, one forgets that there is any other ABC.
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