Jan 17 2009
Remembering Operation Desert Storm
I was up early this morning in the wee hours. Couldn’t sleep. Then I remembered I was also up early on this day eighteen years ago.
On January 17, 1991, I was aboard the USS Missouri, steaming somewhere in the Persian Gulf. The evening before, we were advised to get some sleep because we would have an early start the next day. With Saddam Hussein’s deadline for withdrawal from Kuwait expired, we knew something big was going to happen.
At 23, I was already an old-timer compared to many of my shipmates. When reveille was played early that morning, the captain announced that we would soon be going to General Quarters (battle stations) in preparation for a Tomahawk cruise missile attack on Iraq.
Words cannot really describe that gnawing feeling in your gut that comes when you come to the realization that you are about to participate in causing the deaths of other human beings. I distinctly remember thinking of and praying for the innocent people that would inevitably be killed in our soon to be starting war.
I also remember a certain uneasiness. We had no way of knowing if there would be an immediate retaliation, or if we would simply launch our cruise missles and go about our business. But one thing was certain, we were going to war, and our country had not been at war for nearly twenty years. To all but the most experienced veterans, this was all brand new.
Certainly we were well trained and we knew how to do our jobs, but there is a huge difference between training for combat and actually entering into it. Now it was time to put our countless hours of training to the test. So we hurriedly got dressed and waited for the GQ alarm to sound.
I recall one young sailor who kept saying, “we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die!” I told him to shut up and be a man. If there ever was a good place to be in a war, it is aboard the battleship Missouri. Secretly, inside, I felt his pain and wondered to myself if we would ever make it home again.
My battle station was in the forward main battery plotting room- the control center for the 16″ guns which wouldn’t be needed that day. I remember one of the hardest things to do was to sit in silence, our equipment not even energized, waiting for the inevitable. Soon, we would hear the roar of the tomahawks, and though our particular services weren’t needed just then, as the crew of that famous battleship, we would all have blood on our hands.
When you enlist in the service, you are only vaguely aware of the duties which you may be called upon to perform. As a young person without much life experience, it is difficult to consider the life or death situations you might soon find yourself in. But here I was, nearly six years after joining, about to participate in a war.
We sat in silence as the Tomahawks launched one by one. Somewhere I have a journal I kept, which says exactly how many we fired and at what time, but I wasn’t able to locate it for today’s entry. I’ll keep looking. As the missiles flew, with nothing else for me to do, I just prayed.
We had a CNN radio feed piped into the plotting room. It was surreal. Our missiles were on the way to Baghdad, but the reporter on the other end didn’t yet know it. For nearly an hour we waited in near silence, as the missiles lurched ahead toward targets in Iraq some 500 miles away.
Then, all of a sudden pandemonium struck. Explosions began to rock the city as the handiwork of the coalition forces took its toll. We listened for some time, and we waited to respond to any impending counter-attack, but none happened, so we went and ate a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs.
I can identify a little with the survivors of the US Airways crash that happened this week. The feeling that you have somehow cheated death is so euphoric. I remember the breakfast that morning 18 years ago was extra delicious in knowing that we had survived the first act of a very dangerous undertaking.
This is a phase of my life that I do not often spend a great deal of time thinking about, but it is especially hard to forget every time January 17th rolls around. However, I will plan to continue sharing about some of my experiences in the Gulf over the next several weeks
4 responses so far
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Bill, My recollection of that day was uneventful and have not thought of that time in a few years. I do remember the unknowns though and how we were prepping up for gas attacks all the way over.
Remember the announcement to set mopp level 4? Now that was scarry. Remember the silkworm missiles that were shot at us?
And what about waiting in a mine field as two surrounding ships were struke by mines?
I think it may be time I open my journal. Has it really been 18 years?
Shawn
Bill, We thank you for continued support of Freedoms that we now have taken so freely!
[...] Remembering Operation Desert Storm [...]
good job