Five Nickels by Jim "Boots" Demarest

Author:Jim "Boots" Demarest [Demarest, Jim “Boots”]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permuted
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART 9

The Storm

Desert Storm

Operation Desert Storm began in the early morning hours of January 17, 1991 with a coordinated series of air attacks by coalition forces made of fighter aircraft from Canada, France, Italy, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Syph and Sweetness knew their first combat mission assignment two days before the war started and spent the preceding forty-eight hours in intensive mission planning. As the first combat mission for the squadron, they were required to brief the wing commander, Colonel Sandy Sharpe, about the tactics for the attack.

“Phillis” was the first name on the Panthers’ flying schedule for day one of Desert Storm. He was leading Bianchi, a flight of four, which included Sweet as number two, Captain Gils Gilbert as number three, and First Lieutenant Jim Chambers as number four. Their briefing started at 0345 for a 0545 local takeoff.

The mission involved a coordinated four-ship attack of the ground-controlled intercept (GCI) integrated operations center (IOC) at Nukayb in western Iraq. Located near the Jordanian border and just north of Al Jouf, Saudi Arabia, the target area threat included anti-aircraft artillery (triple-A or AAA) up to 57mm, and man portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS).

It would be a long day. The plan was to launch from King Fahd, recover at Al Jouf to hot-pit refuel, then fly into Iraq for their combat mission, returning to Al Jouf to refuel, then flying back to King Fahd.

Ordnance for each A-10 included two G-model Imaging Infrared (IIR) Mavericks, six CBU-87 cluster bombs, a full load of 30mm combat mix, two AIM-9L heat-seeking air-to-air missiles, and an ALQ-131 ECM pod. Briefing complete, the pilots grabbed their life-support gear and personal weapons and headed out to the revetments protecting their jets. As each approached their Warthog, they felt a boost of confidence seeing all that firepower loaded. It was time to fight.

Fight’s On

“Fight’s on” are the words used on training missions to start a simulated attack, but they took on a whole new meaning on January 17. Bianchi flight took off on time and completed the first fuel stop as briefed. They departed Al Jouf northbound for the target area and, nearing the Iraqi border, “fenced in.”

A fence check configures the aircraft for combat. Exterior lights are turned off, transponders are set to standby, emissions are reduced, combat systems are turned on, and self-protection measures are armed. The MASTER ARM switch is set to ARM, energizing the armament control system and arming the weapons for attack.

The attack began with Steve and Rob taking six-mile Maverick shots to predetermined locations within the target complex. It was Sweet’s second live Maverick shot, and the thing leapt off his wing like a freight train in a huge cloud of white smoke. As he watched his Maverick race to the target, he noticed a series of faint flashes, which he first thought were glimpses of the sun, and soon recognized to be the muzzle flashes of AAA fire.

The flight continued to press their attack, which by all accounts was successful but not perfect.

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