Tag: Operation Desert Storm
The photos are of 2 different aircraft, but there might have been as many as 4 aircraft painted up like these during Operation Desert Storm. The interesting photos in this post feature U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) CH-53 heavy-lift helicopters sporting quite a sexy paint scheme.
“There was AAA everywhere, and I could see these big white puffs and red ropes getting closer and closer. They were gaining on me every second, and were now only 25-30 ft off my wing...” Capt James R Mastny, former F-117 Pilot The end result of the USAF's Have Blue programme launched...
No one in uniform likes war, but as he pulled off and looked back at eight tanks burning and exploding, ammunition cooking off and creating a furious spray behind him, Warthog pilot Eric Solomonson thought, "For an A-10 pilot it just doesn't get any better than this." The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt...
Stenciled on the tails of VF-1's Wichita 103 were the words “El Coyote”. This Tomcat scored the first recorded air-to-air kill against an Iraqi helicopter in Desert Storm. After a four-day port call at Subic Bay in the Philippines, the USS Ranger set sail on Jan. 3, 1991 for the Persian Gulf,...
Code named Operation Senior Surprise, aka Secret Squirrel, this 35 hour mission was the first combat use of the Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile At 3:00 a.m. on the rainy morning of Jan. 16, 1991, Barksdale Air Force Base (AFB) crews were awakened to the alert, “All Sierra crews report to the...
"I thought about my family a lot. I felt that if I was reduced to counting the bricks in the cell, I would have lost control," Lieutenant Larry Slade, former VF-103 F-14A(Plus) Tomcat RIO While Lieutenant Jones struggled to survive in the desert, his RIO, Lieutenant Larry Slade, had already been picked up....
"I had a moment of panic there. But, hey! the A-10s have those huge cannons. They opened up with their 30-mike-mike. By the time they each finished two runs there was nothing out there, just flames and dust, about 100 yd from me,” Lieutenant Devon Jones, former VF-103 F-14A(Plus) Tomcat driver Lieutenant...
"This is the first time to my knowledge that an airplane scored a kill while carrying four 2,000-lb bombs, then continued on to hit its target,” Lieutenant Commander Mark Fox, VFA-81 F/A-18 Hornet Pilot On Jan. 17, 1991 Lieutenant Commander Mark
Fox and Lieutenant Nick Mongillo launched with five other VFA-81 F/A-18 Hornets
as part...
"During Operation Desert Storm the B-52s heavily involved in CAS missions flew ten-hour missions from Diego Garcia. None had the external racks they used in Vietnam. They carried only 56 500-lb bombs. Two A-6s did more damage than a B-52" Capt Tom Uryga, former USMC A-6 pilot The Grumman A-6 Intruder was the ‘Main Battery’ of carrier aviation throughout the Vietnam...
VA-35's A-6E 'Ray Gun 502' was hit by an Iraqi Roland SAM just as it started dropping its six Mk 83 Snakeyes Taken on Jan. 18, 1991 the impressive photos in this post show VA-35's A-6E 'Ray Gun 502' BuNo 158539 sitting off the runway at Al Jouf, in Saudi Arabia, the morning after having been hit by an Iraqi...
