Tue 15 Jan 1991:
Well, here it is; the deadline has passed and it’s the day we have all been waiting for, anxious to see and be a part of. Yep, the wait was over but … no action yet. And Iraq still says they will not leave Kuwait. All diplomatic efforts have failed. It’s coming. The song from the rock group Queen comes to mind, “We will we will Rock You…! We Are The Champions of the World.”
DESERT STORM:
Wed, 16 Jan 1991:
In the early morning hours, three Squadrons of F-15 Fighters from the First Tactical Fighter wing took to the air. We could the loud, harsh rumbling sounds and see the fire trials of the after burners as they kicked in and pushed each aircraft into the air. We thought, “Saddam,” here we come; it’s time for the Storm, “DESERT STORM!” The air war was on. The US and allied air craft began the bombing of Kuwait and Bagdad. Reports say that Iraqi air fields, command and control, and scud missile sites are main targets. The war has finally gotten here, a war that none of wanted to miss. This is why we are here; this is what we trained for. We are “Ready Eager and Prepared Every Recall … R.E.A.P.E.R.”
For the next two days we continued to hear about the progress of the Storm. The Air campaign was relentless. But even in that, we knew it was just a matter of time before ole Saddam retaliated. And that day would be very soon, very soon indeed.
Sat 19 Jan 1991:
Scud attack. At about 03:00 a patriot missile shot down a scud headed for us. Funny thing is we never got any warning that it was inbound. Man, were we caught off guard. We are supposed to get at least a three minute warning, did not happen. 8-10 scuds fired at Israel with 5 hitting targets.
JANUARY 18, 1991 (8 Scuds – seven at Israel and one at Dhahran at 03:30 or 04:28)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: At a U.S. CENTCOM (Central Command) Briefing, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf said: “Of course the significant news today, I’m sure you all know about, but there were seven Scuds fired early this morning against Israel, and there was one Scud missile fired against Dhahran.
The one Scud missile that was fired against Dhahran was destroyed by a United States Army Patriot missile. Fortunately, the seven missiles that were fired against Israel I would characterize as having yielded absolutely insignificant results. As a result, I think to date we can say that the enemy Scud campaign has been ineffective.”(24)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: In a CNN interview, the Saudi Ambassador to the UN asked about an Iraqi Scud attack against the air base near Dhahran. Amb. Shibabi said “there is nothing more that I have at this time more than we heard on CNN…. the rocket was hit in route and that no damage has taken place.”(25)
The Pentagon: At a Pentagon briefing, the following question was asked: as long as any of those Scud missiles are still around, that we can’t really protect Israel…. what about the Patriots that we sent to Israel?” Gen. Thomas Kelly answered: “….If you want to know what Israel’s capability is to counter the missiles when they get there, you’re going to have to ask Israel.”(26)
The report above is from the official Scud Watchers and as you can see this war did not leave us out of it. Scuds would find us just like they will anybody else they are fired at.
But to counter the scud missile threat we had at our disposal a Patriot Missile Battery as our Air Defense.
JANUARY 20, 1991:
Today at guard-mount (Shift 2000-0800) Two attacks for this shift.
We have been at war now for 6 days and all of our thoughts were geared toward that. How, if at all, we would be involved, we did not know but combat was always a possibility. We knew how the terrorist would attack and possibly where so we prepared. Now, we as the First SPS have never been in combat so we were inexperienced and untested. How we would react was yet to be seen and we really hoped we wouldn’t have to, but if we did we knew we would give a good account of ourselves.
Today it was my turn to drive the deuce so I go to where it is secured, jumped up into the driver seat, started it up and drove it around to where the guys were waiting. After everyone was loaded up, we made our way to Tent City which took us about three or four minutes to get there. We arrived just before 1930. I parked the deuce and we off loaded and walked the seventy or so yards to where we gathered under the main overhang to receive post assignments and to get the Intelligence briefing. Ray and I walked together and everyone with us had on their flak vest and helmet and carried their weapon, 240 rounds of ammo, water, knife, and flashlight and then carried the rest of our alert gear. At guard mount we received our sign/counter sign, radio frequencies’, primary/secondary, and of course the latest intel that came from OSI. We would change over the radios on post.
This day we were briefed that Iraqi Commandos maybe in the area; Some RPG-7’s were found on a nearby beach that was in our AO. Divers had also been seen nearby, and parachutes found within a 60 mile radius of the base. All of this information told us all that we could expect to be hit by Special Forces. As a matter-of-fact, we were told and expected just that. We knew their targets would be POL, Ammo, Com., the control tower, the Air Craft and response force personnel. All sectors were on a high alert status.
With the information received, we felt this shift will turn out to be one scary shift.
I was posted as Charlie Mike-2 with Baker, Poor, and Coulter. We were a Fire team and after we conducted change over with the off going personnel, we set off on our initial patrol checking our area of responsibility.
“Hey Sergeant Fulbright, what do you think about that stuff in guard mount?” Coulter asked as we made our rounds.
“Well, to tell you truth it kinda scares me. I mean if we are attacked on the ground…” I shrugged my shoulders and made a turn down one of the main roads headed for one of the gates.
After checking on all the gates in our area we patrolled around until at 21:20 when Charlie Base called us and said that Amn Hatfield on Charlie-5 needed a latrine break. Charlie-5 was the bunker on the perimeter of BDOC, so we responded and dropped off Amn Poor to relieve him. We headed over to tent city because he (C-5) wanted to get something from his tent. We arrived and I parked outside of the area and Amn Poor got out of the Humvee and walked into Tent City. So, here we are sitting outside tent city without expecting anything to happen. 21:45: while we were there, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, off in the distance, and without warning, back to back. My first thought, to which I reacted to with great fear, was that we’re under a ground assault by those Commandoes we had heard about earlier and we are about to die. “Air Soldier” all the way.
“Hey Coulter, does this answer your question?” I say as I quickly get out of the hummer and start putting on my gear.
Everyone quickly followed suit and jumped out of the hummer and starting gearing up, that is except for Sgt Baker.
“Where’s my gear?” He shouted desperately trying to locate it. He was beginning to panic because he couldn’t find it. After a few more seconds he decided that Amn Hatfield had taken it with him.
As for me, I was shaking. That’s right, I said shaking. Shaking so bad I could hardly get any of my gear on. Now I admire the Klingon’s that says “It’s a Good Day to Die,” but for me, there ain’t, no good day for that kind of attitude, no sir. However, in light of looking back, I do laugh, it’s just the thought of dying at the time was not at all funny, especially by scuds or chemicals or bullets or any other projectiles for that matter.
Finally Baker located his gear and hurriedly got it on. Not knowing what to expect I told everyone to take up a defensive position behind the makeshift barriers at Tent City. After about thirty to forty minutes we got the all clear and man what a relief. We found out a little bit later that the explosions we heard were 7 Patriots going up after 5 scuds. The funny thing is, we were supposed to have gotten the warning for incoming but never heard any type of alert. BDOC never got the alert and thus never announced it. Charlie-base, not getting any alert, also didn’t announce it. So the question is, how, did these scuds get through without any notice and if they were detected why didn’t the siren go off? Here is something that very few people know. The Patriot only has a fifteen mile range so that tells you that a Scud can get very close before the Patriots are activated. That accounts for a lot of times us seeing the Scud shooting across the sky and the short time it takes for the Patriot to reach it.
I was still thinking and talking about the last attack when at 00:30 (21 Jan) there was another 7 scuds fired. Three were for us, shot down, and the other four were for Riyadh. Charlie Base called out again “Alarm Red, MOPP level four, take cover but remain vigilant.”
Again we were in our gas mask and waiting. Although the patriots did their job, it was still a possibility that Saddam would use chemicals and to us it was confirmed when we went into another Condition Black.
I have the same things written in my notes on dates in particular.
After getting off shift I returned back to our barracks, took a shower and hit the sack. I will be up again at 1900 for the next shift. I was posted back on Charlie Mike-2 with Johnson and Roberts and a third man I can’t remember who. After getting on post and doing the usual things we talked about being attacked again as you could say we expected. Then, as if right on schedule 22:23 the high shrill of the horns went off. We were parked at Charlie Echo-2 and already gearing up when Charlie Base announced Alarm Red, MOPP level four (That is all chem gear), for us to take cover but remain vigilant.
“Loud and clear Bravo-11 how me,” Charlie base says. Then the radio comes back on with some music. You can hear a Saudi Guard yell in the back ground.
“Time is 22:27, 21 Jan, 1991, alarm red MOPP 4, expecting some form of attack appears it could be another scud attack, standing by for confirmation needless to say…not knowing if patriots fired yet or not, we are at Gate-2…Every ones in their gas mask, chem gear, the whole routine, just waiting…A few minutes more pass…”We are in alarm yellow, time is 22:35, lasted for about five minutes seemed to be the possibility of enemy air craft moving into the area, however, guess not.”
***We had an alarm red at 0710, another alarm red at 1030 with a condition black (chemicals on the ground), then another attack at 1715 with another condition Black. (I Can’t remember these particular attacks.)
THE DEFENDER 
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