23 years ago... Desert Storm started

It is a shame that so few of the citizens in this country really appreciate what you guys did and are still doing. I'm struck by how many Av-Chatters surfaced that have " been there". Helluva bunch!

 

The best book I've seen about the air war is "Gulf Air War Debrief" published later in 1991 by the publishers of World Air Power Journal. Although long out of print, there seem to be a number of good used copies available at fair prices.

Gulf Air War Debrief: Described by the Pilots that Fought: Stan Morse: 9781880588000: Amazon.com: Books

 

Although I didn't work directly for Col. Karp since I was on the maintenance side of the house, I always had a lot of respect for him. He'd get up there on a box giving us a pep speech of some kind from time to time and shaking his fist in the air calling us his warriors. Heck of a guy.

 

Wade- Funny story to go with your 33 TFW post. Early in the war the 1 TFW commander, to remain unnamed, said he was not sure he wanted his airplanes up that close to Baghdad. The 33 TFW commander said great, we will take all those CAPs. So the 1 TFW had very few (1?) kills and the 33rd got the majority.

 

Just after the war, I drove to Eglin to take a few photos of the 58th TFS Mig-killing C models. At the time, I believe the Eglin Wing, had the latest F-15C models in the A.F. I also believe it was the only squadron in D.S., which was equipped with the new AMRAAM ? I have a 58th TFS Deployed patch with the white rag on top of the Gorilla's head . Just after the war, TAC had been re-designated ACC.

The authentic 58TFS F-15C war-era photos would have the TAC badge on the tail with a blue fin flash.

 

I was skiing in Utah..saw the news on CNN, and called in..we deployed 2 days later...and Taz..we had support crews that headed out for battle field repairs for the A-10 and F-111...as we were the depot the next day...

 

Norcal- It all happened pretty quickly. We deployed in late August carrying GBU-15s and GBU-24s and external tanks because there were no PGMs in theater. We followed KC-10s all the way from Lakenheath to Taif RSAB and they also carried our initial cadre of ops and maintenance troops.

The F-111Ds at Cannon AFB actually were tasked to CENTCOM, but they had no PGM capability, so we went instead with F-111Fs.