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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 a Captain assigned to the US Army Concept Analysis Agency. We had been involved in the "war gaming" preparations for Desert Storm for many months before.
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USS Fife DD-991 Launching Tomahawks with the Midway Battle Group (7th Fleet Homeport Yokosuka, Japan) Sitting in Radar 2, listening to the Tomahawks leaving the ship.
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-On Station Persian Gulf- USS Midway (CV-41) 51E Shop--> Bustin' Tires for the Flight Deck!
'We-Willy, Bull, Chunks, Daily and J-Junior'
'We-Willy, Bull, Chunks, Daily and J-Junior'
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I was in Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin getting desert training in 2' if snow. Watched the start of the air war on a 3" TV screen someone had in our barracks.
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I was in Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia awaiting to move to the desert and set up a POW camp to hold the thousands of Iraqi prisoners that would be transported to four different camps. We had arrived in country 36 hours prior and spent the next several days with 2am - 4am wakeup calls of scud attacks. We moved to the dessert several days later and ended up with 12,000 Iraqi prisoners at our peek. It was an adventure I will never forget.
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PFC Jay Instone
What Unit? I was with the 301st MP PW, the biggest POW camp in theatre. We landed in country 2 days after the air war started to a patriot taking out a scud over Khobar towers while I was looking out the back of the C-5 we flew over in. Hell of a welcoming, spent the next 5 hours on the tarmac in MOP 4
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LTC Hillary Luton
PFC Jay Instone I was with the 403rd MP PW Camp. I was still in Khobar Towers at that point. I was probably in MOPP 4 huddled in a hallway with other Soldiers. Although after a few nights of that, I found standing in front of the window more entertaining.
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I was at Dharhan Air Base in a GP Tiny tent which served as my aid post. One of the launcher guys from the Patriot battery I supported woke me up at zero dark thirty. His words to me where "wake up Doc, the war has started." I stuck my head out of the tent flap and started wondering who turned off the lights. Dharhan was completely blacked out and all I could hear was generators and the solemn wail of air raid sirens. It was a surreal experience.
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SGT (Join to see)
I was over at Camp Jack, which was right across the Dhaharan (King Abdul Aziz) AFB.I remember smelling the Cordite from the launched Patriot Missile during one of the SCUD alerts.
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19-year old, PFC Mansfield was sleeping soundly on his cot at our field site near Log Base Alpha somewhere in Saudi. We were awoken sometime around 01, 02 and told to get on the perimeter, gas mask and all. Being a helicopter crew chief, I dragged both my M60s (door guns) out to the line and arranged the belts (pre-positioned in the fox hole) so my buddy and I could lock and load quickly if necessary. I remember looking at the stars and noticing that there were a whole lot of fast mover lights flying north and winking out as soon as they crossed what I assume to be the Iraqi border.
We had no idea what was going on until about an hour later when our first sergeant came around to give us the scoop. He said a whole lot of tomahawk cruise missiles were launched a couple hours prior and every jet that could carry bombs was going north to "service targets" as General "Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf" so eloquently put it.
I suppose we were waiting for the "Elite" Republican Guard to give our guys the slip and attack deep. Whatever.
Those were heady times, more than half a lifetime ago.
We had no idea what was going on until about an hour later when our first sergeant came around to give us the scoop. He said a whole lot of tomahawk cruise missiles were launched a couple hours prior and every jet that could carry bombs was going north to "service targets" as General "Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf" so eloquently put it.
I suppose we were waiting for the "Elite" Republican Guard to give our guys the slip and attack deep. Whatever.
Those were heady times, more than half a lifetime ago.
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At KKMC - King Khalid Military City. Pres Bush had drawn his "line in the sand," and that deadline had passed a day or so earlier. We all had one training MOPP suit and one new sealed MOPP suit. We were told to open up the new suits for an "exercise," and promised that we'd receive new ones later. Hmmmm. Let the talk begin:
"Tonight's the night the war starts." "How do you know?" "Because they told us to break out the new MOPP gear, even though we don't have replacement gear." "But they said this is an exercise! Why wouldn't they tell us if we're about to go to war?" "OPSEC!" "No, they wouldn't lie to US... would they?" "Yup. OPSEC."
Sure enough - it kicked off that night. We never did get the new MOPP suits. After seven days had gone by, we were assured that actually, the suits would be okay for another seven days. After that date had expired, we were told they would be good as long as they didn't get wet, and to keep them in the original packages if we still had them. We weren't feeling too confident about the MOPP situation by then and we were wearing the suits practically every night because of all the SCUD launches during the air war. Fortunately, chems turned out not to be much of an issue after all.
"Tonight's the night the war starts." "How do you know?" "Because they told us to break out the new MOPP gear, even though we don't have replacement gear." "But they said this is an exercise! Why wouldn't they tell us if we're about to go to war?" "OPSEC!" "No, they wouldn't lie to US... would they?" "Yup. OPSEC."
Sure enough - it kicked off that night. We never did get the new MOPP suits. After seven days had gone by, we were assured that actually, the suits would be okay for another seven days. After that date had expired, we were told they would be good as long as they didn't get wet, and to keep them in the original packages if we still had them. We weren't feeling too confident about the MOPP situation by then and we were wearing the suits practically every night because of all the SCUD launches during the air war. Fortunately, chems turned out not to be much of an issue after all.
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SGT (Join to see)
Excellent story, LTC Robin P.! I remember having one training MOPP suit and one that was unopened, too. I never broke the seal on the MOPP suit bag but I had donned my M17 pro-mask many times during the SCUD missile alerts.
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CW3 (Join to see)
I remember one of those attacks. A SCUD was demolished by a missile over our field site, well, at the usual time when most everybody was sleeping. My section leader, SGT Kevin Hornby, describes the situation (I'll never forget it as long as I live): "So there's this double boom from the Patriot missiles. Everybody jumped out of the cots and started dressing to get to the perimeter. And here's Mansfield, usually takes him about 5 minutes to put on a sock in the morning, but he's fully dressed, masked, and jumping up and down on his cot yelling 'MOPP4?? MOPP4??'"
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I was 12 yrs old, but I remember it and I remember sending a letter to a Soldier.
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