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Home My WebLink About20_Mil-Asia€€€ AMX-30 main ba le tank of the French 6th Light Armored Division. Photo by Sta S gt. Dean Wagner. USAF ground crew loading 500-lb. bombs into bo om of ghter aircra. LIFE Magazine. F-16A Fighting Falcons and F-15C and F-15E Eagles y over burning oil elds. USAF. AMX-30 main ba le tank of of o the FrFrFench 6th Lighighit ew b. m a. e. “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into ba le. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into ba le.” Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf CAMPAIGNS There were three campaigns for the Southwest Asia War. e streamer is tan with a black border and center stripe. On each side of the black center is a green stripe. A grouping of red, white, and blue stripes are centered on each side. e sand colored ribbon with red, white, blue, green, and black stripes represent the desert and the colors of the United States and the coalition members. ÛDEFENSE OF SAUDI A BIA 1990-1991ÛLIBETION AND DEFENSE OF KUWAIT 1991 BELLIGERENTSÛKUWAIT VERSUS IQÛUNITED STATES ÛSAUDI ABIAÛUNITED KINGDOMÛEGYPTÛFNCEÛSYRIA STATISTICSÛ Total U.S. Service members 694,550 Û Bale Deaths 148Û Non-Bale Deaths 145 President George H. W. Bush 1989 - 1993 President William Clinton 1993 - 2001The First Persian Gulf War, or as it has become more popularly known, Operation “Desert Storm,” was the multinational military operation conducted from 17 January to 3 March 1991 under joint U.S.-Saudi Arabian command to free the emirate of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. e immediate origin of the crisis came on 2 August when Iraq seized Kuwait and its rich oil elds. Iraq’s aggressive action threatened the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the West’s Persian Gulf oil supply. e United Nations (U.N.) condemned the Iraqi in- vasion of Kuwait and imposed an economic em- bargo of Iraq on 6 August. On 29 November, aer the failure of diplomatic eorts by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the U.N. Security Council set a deadline, 15 January 1991, for Iraq to with- draw from Kuwait. is Resolution, Number 678, permied the use of “all necessary means” by a growing coalition of nations if Iraq failed to respond to the deadline and withdraw from Kuwait. In January, aer a month of debate, the United States Congress authorized President Bush to use force. Behind the scenes, Bush and Secretary of State James Baker had cobbled to- gether a coalition of nations to combat the Iraqis. Ultimately, 35 nations contributed troops and resources to the coalition, with the principal military forces provided by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Great Britain, France, and Syria. and British divisions), a grand sweep around the Iraqi defenses, and an aack deep into the Iraqi rear beyond the Kuwait border to destroy the Iraqi theater reserve. Simultaneously, two U.S. Marine Corps divisions, reinforced by an Army tank brigade, along with Arab Coalition forces would aack the Iraqi defenses along the Saudi-Kuwait border to liberate Kuwait City. e ground oensive began in the early morning hours of 24 February 1991. e Coalition forces ad- vanced much more rapidly than U.S. generals expected, geing behind the Iraqi forces and cuing most of them o from retreat. On 26 February, Iraqi forces began withdrawing from Kuwait, seing re to the oil elds as they pulled out. A retreating column of Iraqi vehicles was caught along the main Kuwait-Iraq highway and was bombed repeatedly by Coalition aircra, result- ing in what became known as the Highway of Death. A number of bales raged as the Coali- tion forces engaged the Iraqi forces eeing back to Iraq, inicting heavy casualties on the Iraqis while sustaining light allied losses. With Coalition forces less than 250 miles from Baghdad, President Bush declared a cease-re at 8:00 a.m. on 28 February. By this time, coalition forces had destroyed a large por- tion of the Iraqi Army and forced the remainder of Saddam Hussein’s troops into a small pocket around the Iraqi city of Basrah. Cease-re talks held on 3 March at Safwan in southeastern Iraq ended the combat phase of Operation “Desert Storm.” United Nations forces then moved in to protect Kuwait from any returning Iraqi forces and, later, occupied a major part of northern Iraq to protect rebellious Kurds from Iraqi reprisals. Coalition forces sustained 379 killed during the air and ground campaigns. U.S. forces suered 148 bale-related deaths with 145 other Ameri- cans were killed in non-combat accidents. Esti- mates for Iraqi military casualties range from 20,000 to 35,000 killed in action. Iraqi forces were ejected from Kuwait and the Iraqi nuclear, chemi- cal, and biological programs were thrown open to international inspection. e subsequent United Nations inspections grew increasingly controver- sial. In the aermath of the war, Saddam Hussein remained in power with a formidable, if greatly re- duced, capability until he was toppled by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. James H. Willbanks, PhD, Texas A&M University, ‘69 e Coalition plan for ousting the Iraqis from Kuwait called for a four-phased oensive. ree phases were entirely oriented on the de- struction of the Iraqi military by massive use of air power; the fourth phase was a ground aack. e air oensive began on 17 January, with the destruction of Iraq’s military command and control system in and around the capital of Baghdad; it continued for 38 days, concluding with a massive air- ground preparation designed to dis- rupt the Iraqi forces in Kuwait and prepare the way for the ground war. e air campaign, which totaled over 100,000 sorties, caused casual- ties, decimated Iraq’s military infra- structure, severed communications and supply lines, smashed weapons arsenals, and destroyed Iraqi troop morale. e Iraqis had a formidable army that included over a million troops, 5,800 tanks, over 5,000 other armored vehicles, and 3,850 artillery pieces. Saddam Hussein’s air force also had 750 ghters and bombers plus 200 other aircra and an elaborate air defense system. e Iraqis were thought to have ele- ments of 43 army divisions positioned in and around Kuwait. To counter these forces, U. S. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, ordered the U.S. ird Army to shi its two corps, as- sembled over a period of six months from bases in the United States and Europe, west to the Iraq-Kuwait border. e Coalition plan called for the concealed movement to the west by the U.S. VII and XVIII Corps (including French A Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk and soldiers, c. 2003. over burning ng n oil elds. USAF.F.F e early 1991. vanced U.S. behind most 26 withdrawing re out. vehicles Kuwait-Iraq days, - and war. totaled - - communications weapons troop formidable SPC Virginia Hampton Gobert. Dallas News. SSGT Stacy Goad. Dallas News. U.S. Marine carrying the American a g across the sands near the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. LIFE Magazine.A member of Co. A., Marine Barracks, Eighth and Eye Streets, mans an M-249 squad automatic weapon. Photo by Sta S gt. J. R. Ruark. Oil well res, set on re by Iraqi forces, rage outside Kuwait City in the a er -math of Operation Desert Storm, c. 1991. Modern U.S. soldiers utilizing an ancient mode of supply transportation in the desert. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Photo by Ken Regan. F-16A FiFiFghighiting ng n FaFaFlcons and F-15C and F-15E Eagagales y y r b l ld €€€€ Prerersident G 1989 - 1993 1990 Û SOUTHWEST A S I A W A R Û 1 9 9 5 United States 50-star ag on ÛÛÛ ÛSOUTHWEST ASIA CEASE-FIRE 1991-1995 Dan West, USMC, First Marines, Operation Papa Bear, Desert Storm. 2010 e Memorial for all Veterans of the Brazos Valley, Inc.Le-Write InkÛ ÛÛ