25 years later: Zeroing in on Iraq

Events from a quarter of a century ago are distant memories for many military servicemen and women, especially for those involved in the first Gulf war when the United States and coalition forces began to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Late in the afternoon on Jan. 16, 1991, an eerie feeling of quietness permeated Naval Air Station Fallon as the coalition launched a full assault on Baghdad early in the morning on Jan. 17 with more than 100,000 sorties flown by coalition aircraft, thus resulting in more than 88,000 tons of bombs dropped on both civilian and military targets. The coalition’s mission was to force the Iraqi army out of Kuwait after that country’s strongman, President Saddam Hussein, ordered his troops into the neighboring country on Aug. 2, 1990, claiming the country was stealing oil from Iraq. Ironically, Kuwait had supported Iraq in its 1980s’ war against Iran.

Meanwhile, inside the Strike Warfare Center, military planners — like many Americans — were glued to television sets watching CNN’s footage of the aerial assault. Almost 70 miles to the west at the Nevada Air National Guard complex in Reno and at the Office of the Adjutant General in Carson City, a similar scenario unfolded as both airmen and soldiers watched the “shock and awe” brighten an early Iraqi morning.

high roller reconnaiSsance missions

Nevada airmen from the 152nd Tactical Reconnaissance Group deployed to Shaikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain in late 1990, where they flew their RF-4C Phantoms in support of Desert Storm.

“We actually got over there the first week of December to relieve the Alabama unit,” said Brig. Gen. Bill Burks, the adjutant general of Nevada.

Up until that time, though, the Nevada pilots practiced their maneuvers and, as Burks put it, “got up to speed” before more than a hundred men and women deployed to the Middle East. Burks, a captain at the time, said no one knew when the order for deploying to the Gulf region would come, but he was confident the Nevada aviators would be ready to conduct their reconnaissance missions if Saddam did not stand down his Army and retreat from Kuwait.

As the days and then weeks passed, the RF-4C two-man crews trained over central Nevada’s desert floor.

“We were so close to NAS Fallon at the time. And they were bringing in a lot of carrier air groups,” Burks recollected. “We were always practicing with the carrier air wings… with the Navy and Marines.”

Burks had a strong gut feeling the Silver State aviators would be heading to the Gulf. Besides the reconnaissance role with the 152nd Tactical Reconnaissance Group, only one active-duty reconnaissance unit existed. After a month in the Gulf and flying out of their Kuwait base, the order to begin the aerial command commenced in mid-January. Burks said they were ready.

“Our first mission was to take pictures of the Republican Guard,” Burks said. “Unfortunately, we had cloud cover, and we didn’t get any pictures.”

At first the 152nd Tactical Reconnaissance Group flew during the daytime over Iraq and Kuwait, primarily looking for Republican Guard units. Pilots also flew high over Baghdad and the adjacent countryside looking for rocket fuel and chemical weapons plants and both command and communications centers. Military records show the Nevada RF-4Cs took more than 300,000 feet of film that produced more than 19,000 prints of targets.

Burks, a weapons system officer, flew in the backseat of the RF-4C behind pilot Ron Bath. Burks, who was also a pilot, was responsible for using the camera on the targets below. Each mission produced some anxiety.

“Every time we flew, we were shot at by missiles or artillery or both. After a while we got used to it. It was not comfortable,” Burks explained.

Prior to the air operation, Burks remembers being told that the command expected a 50 percent casualty rate and that Iraq had the third or fourth strongest Army in the world.

Joint aviation traiNing

Before Desert Shield and Desert Storm, both Bath and Burks had met a Navy aviator and struck a friendship with Lt. Cmdr. Steve Endacott, who worked at NAS Fallon’s Strike Warfare Center, first in the contingency cell and then tactics in 1991. Endacott and the NAS Fallon’s commander flew to the Gulf to brief the aircrews that had already arrived in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia and then returned home with threat assessments. During the time, Capt. Scott Ronnie, who later became the air station’s commander, served as executive officer of Strike.

Compared to the second time the United States launched a major strike on Iraq in 2003, Endacott said the makeup of an air wing was much different with the number of aircraft assigned to the wing. Strike’s goal at Fallon was to both integrate the various jets with each other as well as to integrate the cruise missiles.

“We worked on integrating the cruise missile with the usage of aviation assets,” Endacott said. “During the buildup, we had back-to-back air wings. When one left, another arrived.”

Ronnie, though, said military intelligence had indicators predicting Saddam and his army would cross the border and invade Kuwait.

“The issue at that time was would he stop in Kuwait or keep going. If he kept going, it was going to become a Navy and Marine show,” Ronnie said.

During the build up and with flight training at Fallon, Ronnie’s superiors told him the military must work together and how to deploy within a week or two if ordered. Ronnie said Strike developed a realistic training program with the carrier air wings and with the Nevada Air Guard RF-4C pilots. Even with the sophistication of the Navy jets, Ronnie said the Air Force had a good system in place to take high quality tactical photographs of enemy movement and have them ready for briefings.

Consequently, the RF-4Cs from Reno became involved in the Navy and Marine exercises.

“They had a critical capability, and we needed photos,” Ronnie said.

During the aviation training at NAS Fallon, Ronnie said the desert became a great classroom by providing scenarios for helicopter rescues of pilots and how to teach aviators how to recognize SCUD missiles. Up until that time in the early 1990s and since Vietnam ended in 1975, Ronnie said the newest crop of pilots never experienced anti-aircraft fire. When planes flew over the Fallon range, Ronnie said ground crews provided anti-aircraft away from the jets so the pilots could have a feel for the exploding ordnance.

Endacott said methods and intelligence used during the war received validation especially with the F/A-18 Hornet and its high-altitude bombing missions. The retired Navy officer said an easy validation of the methods taught in Fallon and used overseas became well known to the American public.

“A reporter on an aircraft carrier,” said Endacott, “asked a pilot, ‘How was it?’ “The pilot responded ‘Just like Fallon.’”

Boots on the ground

With the Air Guard pilots flying daily missions in hostile territory, Nevada’s other unit, the 72nd Military Police Co., deployed in December 1990 to Saudi Arabia. The timing was falling in place for the MP company, which previously had its headquarters in Fallon before moving to southern Nevada in 1988. Additionally, the MPs trained as an Enemy Prisoner of War unit ready to supervise Iraqi captives.

Troop Command Battalion commander Lt. Col. Larry Sage, a Vietnam vet, assumed command about a year before mobilization began.

Eighteen months after Capt. Michael Carlson assumed command of the 72nd MP Co., he began to have his soldiers prepare for war. What made the unit’s composition unique at the time, especially for a Nevada unit going into combat — is the MPs consisted of both male and female soldiers.

“The 72nd had such a narrow mission,” Sage said, referring to guarding enemy prisoners of war.

Sage wanted an infantry officer to take the MPs to war, but due to regulations, Carlson had to change his branch designation. Because of his criminal justice degree, however, the Nevada Military Department received permission to re-brand Carlson’s branch to military police before he left Fort Ord, Calif.

Sage had a vision, though; he surprised headquarters by selecting a female major, who spent 10 years on active duty as a military police officer, as his training officer.

“We kept the unit at the highest readiness level,” said retired Col. Alicia Nyland, reflecting on her role with the MP’s mission and working with them after they returned home.

Nyland said she liked one of the stories that involved the 72nd while they were overseas. She said the MPs had females guarding prisoners, and one of the major news magazines took a photograph of two women guarding Iraqis at an EPW camp.

As for the deployment, Sage said Nyland briefed him with information on how the MPs conducted their EPW mission.

Movement came fast for Nevada’s military police, though.

Carlson said the morning after their December drill, orders came in for an advance party to pack their gear and leave within three days. The rest of the company, which had its headquarters in Las Vegas and a detachment in the eastern Nevada city of Ely, traveled to Fort Ord for mobilization within a week.

“The mob (mobilization) officer told us if we were ready within 36 hours, she could get us out (to the Middle East),” Carlson said. “The race was on.”

The MPs reached their goal and departed aboard three different transport planes to Southwest Asia.

Carlson, who now lives in Dayton and works for the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office as an administration officer, eventually attained the rank of colonel and became the Nevada Guard’s chief of staff in 1988 before retiring. He said if the unit was not ready to fly out of Travis Air Force Base, then their chance of deploying to Saudi Arabia would not occur until mid-to-late January.

The MPs left with 85 soldiers from Nevada and 15 active-duty soldiers, but once they arrived in the war theater, the 800th EPW Brigade of New York state became the higher headquarters. Within a week of their arrival, the Silver State’s MPs had moved some of their operations near the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border,

“They were moving forces on the border before the air war,” Carlson said. “We maintained a small footprint near the border.”

Carlson said the MP company was multi-tasked with guarding Republican Guard soldiers, maintaining top security for the camp, providing escort duties and the repatriation of enemy soldiers. During the fighting between the coalition and Iraqi troops, Carlson said the military scattered the EPW camps.

“We had a camp supporting the 1st Marine Division. This was a preliminary source of prisoners,” Carlson said.

WAR’S END

While the MPs performed their mission half-way around the world, Sage said Troop Command worked with the family support groups and USO; furthermore, Sage said personnel assigned to the MP company did not come from just Ely and Las Vegas, but they lived in every part of the state.

“It was the only MP unit in the state,” Sage said, noting Nevada now has at least three MP units.

The hostilities to remove Iraq from Kuwait ended Feb. 25, but the MPs did not return home until the late May-early June time frame. The city of Las Vegas threw a big parade a few days after they returned home.

“It was stirring when we had the parade. It was pretty emotional,” said Carlson, not knowing what lay before them. “We formed up our ranks and then began to march. We turned the corner and saw thousands of people welcoming us.”

Sage also felt the emotion of the parade, and the welcoming the MPs received.

Looking back 25 years later, Sage said he is proud of his battalion’s role in preparing the MPs for war and for some of the moves he made to his staff.

Command decisions prior and during Desert Storm proved to be successful. Sage said the Nevada unit performed its mission well with an infantry-trained company commander, and Nyland rose to be an important asset with her knowledge of military police training.

“Nyland eventually proved her worth by later becoming the first female battalion commander in Nevada,” Sage said of his training officer. “History proved we were right.”