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Desert Storm- A Quarter Century Ago

Goodness, I’m getting old. The ground campaign of Desert Storm (aka Desert Saber) kicked off early on the 24th of February 24, 1991.  My unit, A Company, 7/6 Infantry, part of the 1st Armored Division, was a part of VII Corps. We were initially scheduled to jump off early on the 25th as a part…

Goodness, I’m getting old.

The ground campaign of Desert Storm (aka Desert Saber) kicked off early on the 24th of February 24, 1991.  My unit, A Company, 7/6 Infantry, part of the 1st Armored Division, was a part of VII Corps. We were initially scheduled to jump off early on the 25th as a part of the massive “left hook” planned by the CENTCOM CinC, General Norman Schwarzkopf. Instead, the early successes in the east with the frontal assault into Kuwait led to us jumping off at noon on the 24th. To our west, elements of XVIII Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the French 6th Light Armored Division screened the left flank of VII Corps. VII Corps was truly the fist of 3rd Army. Commanded by LTG Freddy Franks, the corps consisted of 1st Armored Division, 3rd Armored Division, 1st Infantry Division (Mech), the British 1st Armored Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, along with a host of supporting Artillery, Engineer, Military Police, Military Intelligence, Medical and various support brigades.

The first two days, for me, at least, would see only very minor skirmishing, as we passed through the border, and sought to move the massive corps to within reach of our objective, the divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard Corps.  On the third day, we would slam into them, smashing their formations with tank, TOW, cannon, Multiple Launch Rocket, artillery and helicopter gunship fires. I remember being in awe of the concentrated firepower of an entire armored brigade at night focused on the enemy formation. The glint, the sparkle of a 120mm depleted uranium sabot round impacting on an Iraqi T-72, followed almost instantly by an eruption of flames as the onboard ammunition ignited, and the turret was blown clean off the tank, to tumble a hundred feet high.

Every IRGC unit we came into contact with was swiftly destroyed.

The problem was, we hadn’t come into contact with all of them.

And GEN Colin Powell, seeing the images of the so called “Highway of Death” where Iraqi forces fleeing Kuwait were relentlessly attacked by airpower, feared that the US would be seen as a bully. And so he lobbied President Bush to unilaterally impose a cease fire before the actual defeat of the IRGC. That single decision was, I believe, the root cause of much of the foreign policy disaster in the Middle East in the ensuing 25 years.

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Responses to “Desert Storm- A Quarter Century Ago”

  1. Esli

    Technically it is called “pyrophoric effect” not sparkle, but I suppose that doesn’t sound quite the same. Regardless, better to have watched it live than to have just ETS’d like me.

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  2. ron snyder

    Nice Post. Doesn’t seem that long though does it? I remember wondering why we did not destroy all enemy forces that were on that Highway.
    3rd Army has a great history -my Father was in 3rd Army w/Patton during WWII. Dad had mentioned that he was in a photograph with Patton in either Look or Time. Someone in our family had a copy of that issue that made Dad smile. I remember Dad saying that he had a high regard for Patton.

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  3. Hmm

    If we had occupied Iraq in 1991 instead of 2003 – assuming the coalition went along with it, which is a huge IF since that’s not what they signed up for – would we have done a better job?

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  4. Diogenes of NJ

    The thing I remember about DS I is that Saddam was flinging Scuds into Saudi Arabia. You may remember when he got lucky and hit the Marine barracks. Patriot was shooting them down (or not) – but the point was Saddam may have thought we were and held off on launching more. Then this POS Ted Postol (MIT) goes on WGBH in Boston and comes up with a dozen reasons why Patriot in ineffective against Scuds and the Army is making the whole thing up.
    I’d like to meet Ted on a cruise ship that was underway and see it he’d like to view the ocean from the sponson deck.
    Found this chronology: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/nirq050.htm

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  5. T Ellis

    In an archive somewhere sits the power plant logs of the USS Francis Scott Key, and in those logs during patrol 69 are entries in the rector operator, electrical operator and throttleman logs that read “commenced war” in that same patrol there were later entries that read “secured war.” One entry being the sum total of my contribution to that war, things seemed simple then.

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