Desert Storm

[ten ocho recon scout]

Felt bad that the other thread got hijacked. wthe other thread was a good one, so figured Id make this one for my fellow nerds and I to gossip about that event.

Ill open with Khafji. Khafji is on the Saudi / Kuwait border and was the first land battle of the war. 

Saddam was tired of the air war because it was so devastating, and wanted to start the groumd war early. His plan was to sacrifice his own grunts in the hopes of causing enough casualties that the American people would scream for it to stop, because American lives arent worth losing for Kuwait.

Saddam quietly massed several armored and mechanized divisions and began heading south. They came in with rehire turrets backwards like they were surrendering.

Marine Recon and ANGLICO teams picked them up and started sounding the alarm, but centcom didnt take it seriously.

Then the Iraqis overwhelmed the American positions and all hell broke loose.

In the confusion and night action, an A-10 killed a Marine LAV.... to this day the LAV community bitches about A-10's. (They quietly forget a LAV-AT killer a LAV-25 in the same battle... turns out in the dark, in chaos, armored vehicles look similar, regardless of what side theyre on)

Cool side note for this battle.... US forces withdrew and regrouped south of the city before pushing back in. But one lone Recon element got stuck in the city.... they spent the next like 4 days calling for fires, artillery, on Iraqi forces in the city... this was a 6 man Recon team, hiding on the roof of a building the Iraqis occupied! (They never checked the roof)

One of those Recon Marines gave us a lecture / breakdown of it way back when I was young.

The battle itself, and that story in particular, have been forgotten in time, but are still pretty insane.

 

Marine LAV 25 killed by friendly fire (TOW missile)

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

For anyone who likes to read, this is a great book about that battle

[ten ocho recon scout]

Also, for aviation fans. If I remember correctly, Khafji was the one combat loss of an AC-130. They ignored protocol, and stayed over the battle area after sunrise, to continue supporting the Marines on the ground.. paid the price. Shot down by a shoulder launched SAM. All 14 aircrew KIA.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2020 by ten ocho recon scout

[ten ocho recon scout]

 

[Slegnaac]

I worked in the Shipping department at a Defense contractor when that War started.  The amount of hardware we routed went up significantly.

[Amazing Larry]

On 8/20/2020 at 2:19 PM, ten ocho recon scout said:

For anyone who likes to read, this is a great book about that battle

After reading your first post I was going to ask if you knew of any good books on the subject lol. Thanks for the recommendation. Just ordered it. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

9 hours ago, Lhalo said:

After reading your first post I was going to ask if you knew of any good books on the subject lol. Thanks for the recommendation. Just ordered it. 

let me know what you think! If you like it I have some more recommendations. 

Tip of the Spear is another good one. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, calscuf said:

If I had to go to war I’d want to go someplace where the weather is nice.  I’m not a big fan of the desert.

I’d be OK with participating in Operation San Jose, Costa Rica Storm.

Operation new england in september

[ten ocho recon scout]

@Lhalo anofher good one about desert storm is Hornets over Kuwait. Written by a Marine F-18 guy. Great read, good sense of humor.

[Tank]

i'd like to fire a minuteman missile on fenway every time i hear sweet caroline (duh duh duh).

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Before all of this kicked off, I was working night shift at the prison. On my drive to work, I pass the Nellis Test Range. I would sometimes see parachute flares and tracer fire in the desert. During the morning hours, A-10s would circle overhead and we would hear the explosions after they fired. This was military training for Iraq. The terrain and climate here are similar to what they were going to face in Iraq, so it was the perfect training site.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Vegas Halo Fan

[arch stanton]

A large part of the mission at Nellis is operational test and evaluation. They’re given a scenario and a configuration and they roll out into the range and see how it works. Those were my favorite pilots to work with

[Tank]

1 hour ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

I would sometimes see parachute flares and tracer fire in the desert. During the morning hours, A-10s would circle overhead and we would hear the explosions after they fired.

sounds like my GI system after one too many burritos on taco tuesday.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

sounds like my GI system after one too many burritos on taco tuesday.

That is what veggie tacos will do to you.

[Tank]

2 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

That is what veggie tacos will do to you.

Oh hush, you.

[ten ocho recon scout]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wearethemighty.com/amp/unarmed-f-111-downed-enemy-2640908279

Cool story about a unique air to air victory.

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Cool pic... most of the prominent aircraft of the time represented here.

[arch stanton]

9 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wearethemighty.com/amp/unarmed-f-111-downed-enemy-2640908279

Cool story about a unique air to air victory.

 

I wanted to get close to the F-111's early in my time in the Air Force but they were all in shit locations except the ones in UK

[ten ocho recon scout]

17 hours ago, arch stanton said:

I wanted to get close to the F-111's early in my time in the Air Force but they were all in shit locations except the ones in UK

Underrated platform..

One of the first true precision strike planes. Vietnam, Libya, finally the Gulf. Not as "sexy" as the fighters, but very cool in its own right.

The all black/gray ones were very cool looking.