You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Five Desert Storm

Shortly before earning my wings, my life was about to drastically change. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait during the summer of 1990 while I was in flight school. The United States and our allies over the past months had been positioning tens of thousands of troops and tons of military equipment in the Middle East; yet Saddam still refused to back down. The forces build-up was almost complete in Saudi Arabia, but a shooting war had not yet begun.

One evening in January 1991, unknown to me, the air war over Iraq was just beginning. My flight class was deep into the night vision goggle portion of our syllabus when I arrived at the army airfield for a scheduled NVG training mission. When I entered the briefing room the small television that normally displayed the weather briefing was tuned to CNN. I stared at the small screen with some apprehension, WHOOSH; F-16s were taking off from runways in Saudi Arabia to bomb Iraq. Desert Shield had stepped up a significant notch.

A couple weeks prior to this, I had learned my duty station after flight school was Korea. Watching the small television while listening to the enthusiastic whoops of the pilots, I experienced a sinking feeling in my stomach. Somehow I instinctively knew my orders to Korea were about to be exchanged for a one-way ticket to the Middle East. Everyone in the room, expect me, cheered when a jet fighter video showed a bomb blowing up a building. I soberly thought, This isn't going to end well. War never ends well.

After graduating from flight school with my army aviator wings and the rank of Warrant Officer One, the Army chose to reward me by sending me straight to Saudi Arabia. Seventeen hours of flight in a huge unmarked white Boeing 747 ended with a landing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hot desert air and a star-filled dark desert sky greeted me as I struggled to carry my ruck sack, kit bag, and a duffle bag to a waiting tent. My gear must have weighed 120 pounds. I felt every pound each time my boots slid in the dry desert sand. With extreme relief, I deposited my gear next to an open cot in the large tent.

My first day in country seemed never ending as I was in-processed into the theater of war. I was amazed at the administrative and logistical operation the military set up half-way around world. Professional experts had put together a first class operation to bring soldiers and equipment efficiently in and out of the theater of war.

My first night was worse than the day; I was terribly jet lagged and couldn't sleep. My mind wandered as I thought about the possible combat scenarios I would soon face as a twenty-three year old man. Unable to sleep, I got out of my bunk around four a.m. and went outside to the metal trough, which substituted for a sink, to clean myself up a bit. Half-way through brushing my teeth, I was interrupted by an air siren. Looking up into the pitch black dark desert sky I saw a flame approaching from the north. I opened my mouth in awe, toothpaste dribbled down my chin. A bright flame trailed a SCUD missile launched minutes earlier from inside Iraq. My fixation on the incoming missile was interrupted by a, WHOOSH! A Patriot Missile Battery about two hundred meters away from me launched a missile to intercept the incoming Iraqi SCUD Missile. Heat waves from the Patriot launch hit me a few seconds later.

After what seemed an eternity, the two missiles met in the sky with a massive explosion and fireball. Luckily, the high-tech Patriot Missile successfully intercepted the SCUD Missile in mid-flight. "Get in the bunker! Get in the bunker!" a Sergeant yelled at me. Dropping everything, I ran to the closest bunker and donned my chemical protective gear. Welcome to the sand box, I told myself as I felt toothpaste being smeared around my face by the thick rubber of the chemical protective mask.

I sat in silence in the small bunker, shoulder-to-shoulder with a dozen other soldiers, wondering if more SCUDS were on the way. Fifteen minutes later, I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the all-clear signal indicating the SCUD hadn't carried a chemical weapons load.