Defining Moment #3 - Desert Storm

[CarolinaMom]

January 16, 1991 - "Mother of all Battles" begins. The Gulf War Allies sent hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq, at the start of Operation Desert Storm.

I was terrified, glued to the TV. I had never seen a war in real time, taking place right then and there, and our country dropping bombs on another. I was 16 years old at the time. It was hard to sleep that night. I thought it was the beginning of WW III.

How did it make you feel?

 

[WomanAtTheWell]

Oh, do I remember that!

My very first boyfriend was in the Navy and although we had broken up by the time Desert Storm started, we were still in touch and I still cared for him so deeply as a friend and I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. I was worried sick about him - I think that my boyfriend at the time had major issues with how much attention I was paying to the news and what was going on in the Pesian Gulf. Luckily, everything ended quickly! I had other friends from high school who joined the military and went over there and they told me that things didn't end as smoothly as they appeared to on the news.

Now, my baby brother is a US Marine and in Iraq as we speak, the worries are so much more than they were back then, but back then I didn't think that I could ever worry as much as I was at that point in time.

 

[CarrieAg93]

I was in school at Texas A&M and that was right around the time the semester was starting. A&M has a large ROTC program and many of the cadets have military obligations. You'd be sitting in class next to someone one day and the next he'd be gone because he'd been "called up". Most of them were called up to military bases state-side. They would take the places of soldiers who were sent overseas. Nevertheless, it was a scary time and a weird dose of reality for a small college town.

 

[ranyhyn]

I remember the start of the war very well. I think I too had the same kind of feelings in that I had never seen a war. I really wondered if we were making a mistake.

Some of the things I remember most was seeing the footage of the anti-aircraft tracers flying through the sky as they were trying to shoot down our planes. I thought that after seeing how this war turned out that the face of warfare would be changed. I was wrong.

War still requires troops on the ground unfortunately ...

 

[lucypevensie]

I remember sitting there thinking - Wow, this is a REAL war! I never thought I'd see the day. I was never really worried about it though, not sure why. My own brother was over there on a ship in the Gulf.

 

[Oblivious]

Funny, I was just talking about this today with some friends.

It's the first war I remember seeing. I think I was a Sophomore in HS when it was going on. It was so bizarre to see that actual fighting going on live on TV.

 

[JPPT1974]

I was a sophmore in high school
With angst and emotional problems
Remember that loud and clear!

 

[WannaWitness]

I was a high school junior at the time; I also remember some people joking about Saddam Hussein, making his name into a word play, and calling him "So (expletive deleted) insane".

 

[natanya]

I was 16. A UPS guy was at our house picking up a package and he stayed and watched the news with us. We were all silent.

Having grown up in the early 80s (with the constant threat of nuclear war) I was preparing myself for escalation.

 

[MaraPetra]

I was 17. When Saddam invaded Kuwait, my parents sent for me to come home from Spring, Tx., because my brother was shipping out with his Marine unit. Less than five days after the invasion, my brother was over there in the Persian Gulf. We didn't know exactly where he was stationed, because he was in Aircraft Support.

Very clearly, I remember the evening when my father bellowed for me to come upstairs. There was an edge of panic to his voice. I bounded up the stairway, got into his bedroom, and almost screamed.

There, on the TV, was the images of the anti-aircraft artillery over Baghdad. All I could do was sit on the edge of the bed, stunned, because we didn't know where my brother was. I could feel a scream lodged just below my voice box, but I couldn't scream because my father was upset enough without me going into hysterics. I remember praying for my brother like I'd never prayed before.

My brother left that August, and returned that March. Turns out, he was in Bahrain for the whole war, and was scared witless most of that time because CNN was reporting where the Scuds were hitting around Bahrain. My brother, and most of the people on the base, ended up abandoning the barracks and sleeping in the open desert with no covering but boxes, because of that coverage.

I don't think I was ever as glad as when I saw my brother come back home!

 

[JPPT1974]

I heard that the elder Bush Sr
Will go to his grave for not getting
Saddam during the first Gulf War
Like W Bush did!

 

[CarolinaMom]

MaraPetra,

We must thank all of our servicemen and women every chance we get. They fight for our freedoms that we take for granted. God bless your brother for serving!

 

[Christianmom1968]

I remember it well. My ex and I were getting married a month after the start of the war. As many have already posted, I was glued to the television watching it unfold. I never thought I'd live to see a war.

 

[JPPT1974]

That war lasted like one month
This war now has lasted over three years!

 

[Jenn75]

I remember that night well. We were actually at a basketball game - my sister was in 6th grade, and a cheerleader for our Catholic school's b-ball team. I was in 10th grade at the time. I remember one of the kid's dads coming in very late, and he just looked...disturbed, I guess would be the right word. When he told us what was going on, we all just kind of sat there in disbelief.