Operation Desert Shield

Maj. Gen. Tim Hanifen served during Operation Desert Storm and the Iraq War and flew over 3,300 hours during his 35-year career.

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who is best known as “Stormin’ Norman,” the four-star general who led American forces to victory in Operation Desert Storm.

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Julie Butner, who served as a commander during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

During Hispanic Heritage Month, today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Navy Veteran John David Perez, who retired after 30 years as a master chief petty officer.

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Navy Veteran Charles Altman, who served as a flight officer, attaché and educator during his nearly 30-year career.

On the anniversary of the Desert Storm ground war start, today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran James Douglas Higginbotham, a communication specialist.

Gary Kunich originally wrote this first-hand account the morning after Desert Storm started, when he was a 21-year-old Air Force sergeant. It’s 11:55 p.m., Jan. 16. The clock continues ticking past the United Nations’ deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait. While the world holds its breath in anticipation of war, F-16s sit silently on a quiet runway. Will these mighty, Fighting Falcons fly into combat tonight? If they do, when?

When Air Force Veteran Greg Feest took off in his F-117 Jan. 16, 1991, there was a 50/50 chance he wasn’t coming back. Iraq was one of the most heavily defended airspaces in history. According to the Gulf War Air Power Survey, there were 972 anti-aircraft artillery sites, 2,404 guns and 6,100 mobile guns. There were also surface-to-air missiles: 6,500 SA-7s, 400 SA-9s, 192 SA-13s, and 288 SA-14s. Pilots spent months planning operations, developing routes and making target lists during Operation Desert Shield. During that planning, the numbers were grim. For the 12 F-117s that left Jan. 16, commanders said six might not return. Most spouses didn’t know when the Desert Storm air war started and watched the TV coverage from the U.S. Bridget McGovern, Feest’s wife and also an Air Force Veteran, knew hours before. She watched from a command center at their base in Saudi Arabia.

On their second mission during Operation Desert Storm, the crew of an AC-130H gunship, call sign Ghost 02, flew a mission that none of them should have lived to tell. Flying into Iraqi airspace, the 14 men aboard destroyed a command and control center, then evaded three surface-to-air missiles through death-defying maneuvers in the lumbering, four-propeller aircraft. The crew’s actions followed their aircraft commander’s first and last rule: all 14 men come home alive.

Desert Shield and Desert Storm Veterans who want to comment on their health concerns or ask about Gulf War Research can do so through the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses.

Desert Storm was a short war, but Veterans from that era still have many different avenues and programs to connect with VA.

Nearly 700,000 men and women served in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s. Now, three decades later, as many as a third of that population are affected by a cluster of medically unexplained chronic symptoms that have plagued them following their return from deployment. The symptoms can include fatigue, headaches, joint pain, indigestion, bowel discomfort, insomnia, dizziness, respiratory disorders, skin problems, and memory impairment. VA clinicians and researchers often call this condition "Gulf War illness” in the medical literature.