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#DesertStorm30 we killed the owner of this book of poems. He was a conscript in the Iraqi 52nd ID. He was dismount fighting alongside his BMP & we killed him and his terrified plt w 25mm and coax. His Plt Ldr initially lived, but his leg was severed above the knee....1/6 
He dismounted, in shock, and surrendered, w his leg still in his BMP. He tried to give me his watch in return for treating his wounds. We put a tourniquet on him, I put his watch in his pocket, did some basic first aid on others & kept rolling. Zone recon waits for no one 2/6
“War is Hell” said @secularagnostic. I’m fortunate that I fought a uniformed, conventional & overmatched enemy...we had 3 KIA and about a dozen WIA in @1stCav2bct, but none in my Sct Plt. It was short, yes. I’m glad. Bc unlike the CNN broadcast of war being a “video game” 3/6
#DesertStorm30 EENT 25k into Iraq & 1st obstacle belt properly covered by direct & adjusted indirect fires. It’s a 2-way fight. HHC-26 has thrown track in an obstacle/fire trench. Driver outside w tanker bar and 2 Scts dismount w M-60 MG & fire at origin of inbound tracers 1/4
I see SPC L run back up the ramp, I assume to get more 7.62 for the M-60. But he does not re-emerge. Rounds whip past us and indirect being adjusted. I tell my gnr to look for their Fwd Obsvr so we can kill him & turn off the indirect. I see SGT H, the BC, out of the turret 2/4
In the chaos, I see SGT H screaming at SPC L. He pushes him down the ramp as I see the driver, PFC L, give thumbs up...the track is back on, no WIA...I see them scramble in & the ramp come up as black smoke pours out of the exhaust as they back up, while the 25mm thumps 3/4
#DesertStorm30 15k into Iraq. Battlefield thickens & Tanks moved to the front of the TF. My six M3 r now screening the W flank of @1stCav2bct, moving and echeloned in 3 sects of two. Boom!! Massive explosion, smoke and fire 350m to my E. M1A1 from D Co has hit an AT mine 1/5
“Holy shit” The front left #1 skirt is blown apart and the comp idler arm is blown off the hull to the desert floor. 4 mins..I hear the D XO on TF Cmd “Delta One Three is a mobility kill. Driver and TC both WIA but OK. Estimate 6-8 hours till back up”. 2/5
LTC M replies “Roger, self recover and leave for Wolfpack. Copy, Wolfpack Six?” “Wilco” says the HHC Cdr. I’ve halted, TOW up to provide security and I look over and see the crazy ass tankers on the ground looking at the damage. I flip my intercom and talk to my crew 3/5
#DesertStorm30 at EENT and 7k deep into Iraq, I am told to hold my Scts at Phase Line Nebraska, which is the 29 degree latitude line (yes, we’re using maps designed for flight and manually converting lat and long to MGRS on the move in combat). TF Cmd “Guidons, hold Nebraska” 1/5
My driver puts M3 in a hull dwn & I’m pissed that everywhere I am maneuvering seems to be on a map seam. “Inbound JAAT in 15 seconds, Scouts button up”. Ok. Thx for the 15 sec heads up. I quickly relay to platoon and I am about to witness the most amazing unleashing of power 2/5
Tick, tick, then the rounds & rockets of 2 bns of 155s and a bn of MLRS scream over my head inbound on Iraqi trps, BMPs, tanks and ADA that are 5km N of me. Good God. It’s sure easy to find the enemy now. Smk billows, detonations boom. “Blue air, south to north, time now”. 3/5
TOP SECRET STORY TIME: Today #DesertStorm30 I moved from the slightly sinking USS Tripoli to the battleship USS Missouri’s SIGINT team to watch reactions of Iraqi 11th & 19th Infantry divisions to a fake amphibious attack we would make to hold them while Kuwait was invaded.
My space was the STRIKE WARFARE on 03 Deck, a WW2 Battle bridge w/18” steel walls/doors aft of the 16” gun Mount 162. The Big Mo RQ-2 Pioneer Drone team asked me to help identify viable targets. First mission: bombard a Iraqi weps depot. 16” shells hit it within 200m fm 23 miles
16” gun shells were called “bullets”. We fired bullets all night 24-25. At 0400ish I hear a terrifyingly familiar radio call “ALL STATIONS THIS IS HMS GLOUCSTER! VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE!” It means Volkswagen sized Iraqi SILKWORM anti ship missiles are flying at us. Unhealthy!!
#DesertStorm30 OTD. First direct fire combat. Sct Plt, TF 1-32 AR Bandits @1stCav2bct Iraqi/KSA border berm, N of Hafr al Batin. 0320, waiting in ambush position since 2300. Split Plt, w 3 M3s per sect spread 1200m apart W to E oriented N into Iraq. Hull down embedded in berm 1/8
Turret able to scan 10-2, but neg contact for hours, despite suspicion Iraqi engineers will return at night & close US berm breaches & re-lay mines. We created breaches 3x before and left. Never bothered them. Now we are suckering them, hoping they show up per their pattern 2/8
“One, this is Six, spot report”. “Send it”. “Six dismounts at 238593, moving S, w crates” “Roger, Charlie Oscar, going higher, out” Now on TF net Bandit 6 conf. no friendlies N of border, says “Scout, Bandit Six, it’s your show, over” “Wilco, Bandit Six...Smoke six, standby” 3/8
TOP SECRET STORY TIME: #DesertStorm30 yrs ago today I endured my first of 3 actions in 100 hours. I was Cryptologic Intelligence Chief (forward) on USS Tripoli (LPH-10) sweeping Iraqi sea minefields for an amphib feint to make Saddam think we were invading Kuwait from the sea.
We knew there were at least 1000 sea mines across the gulf. Tripoli had helicopters to sweep lanes to the Kuwait coast. When I went to bed on the 24th something made me put away my “abandon ship pack.”Personal photos, Candy bars, an ID card wrapped in waterproof plastic.
I lived with the Marine Gunnies forward of the bridge below flight deck. The minehunting helicopter Squadron found plenty of mines and cut a lane for us & the battleships. At zero dark 30 30 years ago today we found one! It exploded just in front of where I was sleeping.
1/30/1991: a special CENTAF log entry for the cluster munition fanboys in the house #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
"F-16s employing non-precision, free-falling general-purpose bombs, as well as older-generation cluster bomb units (CBU) — Mk-20 Rockeye, CBU-52, and CBU-58 —flew the majority, 569, of these missions."
"Battlefield effectiveness was below expectations, which led to concern over the high-consumption rates of the more modern, armor-piercing CBU-87 during the first two weeks"
1/30/1991: first combat use of another failure-prone weapon system - FASCAM mines #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
Developed in the 1970s, FASCAM, or Family of Scatterable Munitions, were artillery-delivered mines ejected from 155mm projectiles. The antipersonnel mine is "ADAM" for Area Denial Artillery Munition, and the antivehicle mine is "RAAM" for Remote Antiarmor Mine System
image source: May-June 1978 edition Field Artillery Journal 'Submunitions Of The Future' by Maj. William Whelihan web.archive.org/web/2018120100…
What a surprise: the people who planned and lead the air war in Desert Storm think it went great. Let's do some fun keyword searches in this report, shall we? mitchellaerospacepower.org/single-post/de… #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
The word "mistake" is used sparingly -- once to refer to Saddam Hussein, and the rest mostly to talk about "honest mistakes" that don't get further review #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
No discussion of fratricide. No discussion of the weapons that killed American troops. No discussion of unexploded American ordnance that continue to kill Iraqis and Kuwaitis today #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
1/
#DesertStorm30 & first Tornado tasks are in:
Muharraq to hit Tallil
Tabuk go to Al Asad & Al Taqaddum
Dhahran to Mudaysis
JP233 night TFR attacks on massive, heavily defended Iraqi airbases (+ 2 Tabuk ALARM jets)
Engineers work hard to get everything ready
Night pic @Alderfen
#DesertStorm30 & first Tornado tasks are in:
Muharraq to hit Tallil
Tabuk go to Al Asad & Al Taqaddum
Dhahran to Mudaysis
JP233 night TFR attacks on massive, heavily defended Iraqi airbases (+ 2 Tabuk ALARM jets)
Engineers work hard to get everything ready
Night pic @Alderfen
2/
A Tornado 8-ship each with 2xJP233 drops 480 cratering & 3440 anti-personnel devices
Nasty
But we trained to attack a SINGLE 7000ft Soviet runway
Iraqi airfields like Tallil had 2x12,000ft
AND 2x12,000ft taxiways usable for ops; a Heathrow-sized base
It was going to be tricky
A Tornado 8-ship each with 2xJP233 drops 480 cratering & 3440 anti-personnel devices
Nasty
But we trained to attack a SINGLE 7000ft Soviet runway
Iraqi airfields like Tallil had 2x12,000ft
AND 2x12,000ft taxiways usable for ops; a Heathrow-sized base
It was going to be tricky
3/
Remember: NO ONE had flown ANY attack ops EVER
Greatest fear was Iraqi fighters like the Mig-29 & their INCREDIBLY sophisticated SAM system with
ZSU-23/4, SA-3, SA-6, SA-8 & MUCH more
No one had given 'too much' thought to basic AAA
We were wrong; it would be a baptism of fire
Remember: NO ONE had flown ANY attack ops EVER
Greatest fear was Iraqi fighters like the Mig-29 & their INCREDIBLY sophisticated SAM system with
ZSU-23/4, SA-3, SA-6, SA-8 & MUCH more
No one had given 'too much' thought to basic AAA
We were wrong; it would be a baptism of fire
