Hornets over Kuwait by Stout Jay

Author:Stout, Jay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GuinS Press
Published: 2011-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15: Killing Boxes

Around this time, though we still continued to fly some large strikes, the emphasis and tactics for prepping the battlefield evolved a bit. We began to exercise the concept we called the killing box. The killing box was an area defined by longitude and latitude. I don’t remember the exact dimensions, but ten miles by twenty miles seems about right. Just big enough so that if you paid attention, you wouldn’t accidentally fly out of your box into someone else’s.

The idea behind the killing box was to assign it to a given number of aircraft for a certain amount of time. During that period, the aircraft were free to roam throughout the box without fear of conflict with other aircraft or of bumping into a strike group. Though targets within that area might be highlighted for the mission, generally the pilots were free to pick and choose among whatever they might find.

The emphasis was, as it had been for some time, on artillery, armor, or whatever could directly harm our troops when the time came to storm Kuwait. But if something else particularly juicy presented itself, it was open season.

That we were able to do this was due in part to two factors. First, the threat from radar-guided SAMs was practically nil because of all the damage inflicted earlier, as well as the HARM and EA-6B umbrella that existed over Kuwait. Second, the air-to-air threat from Iraq over Kuwait was nonexistent. While airborne, I never heard of any Iraqi aircraft within a hundred miles of Kuwait. Certainly, I don’t believe that any allied aircraft were ever molested by Iraqi fighters while operating over Kuwait. That is not to say that the skies over Kuwait were completely safe. Already, several aircraft had been brought down over the country, and more would be. The threat from handheld SAMs and AAA was very high.

There was an area along the coast south of Kuwait City that was defined by two pointed bulges which extended into the Persian Gulf. Their appearance caused them to be tagged “the Tits.” Simple, crude, and very descriptive. What else could a fighter pilot have called it? The Pointy Peninsular Projections? This area was notorious for very heavy AAA.

Hand-held SAMs were everywhere. Anywhere there were troops, it seemed they were armed with these relatively cheap and simply employed weapons. Pilots were coming back and reporting up to ten launched against a single aircraft. They would continue to plague allied aircraft until war’s end.

My next couple of missions were killing box sorties. I believe they were officially called “armed reconnaissance.” On the evening of 1 February, Vector and I were paired with Major Mike “Walt” Garrison and Fattie for a night mission into Kuwait. Walt, also known as the “Man Mountain” because of his tremendous size, was our assistant operations officer. With a wealth of Hornet experience, plus the Weapons and Tactics Instructor and Top Gun schools under his belt, he was a long-ball hitter for the squadron. On top of all that, he was a lot of fun, as well as protection, in the bar.

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