Exactly 30 years ago today; Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm

[Estil | 1,264]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War

As some of you may know I've had this project going where I've been reading my local newspaper archive at newspapers.com from 30 years ago (you know, like Back to the Future?) and so I'm now at where we had the 1991 Gulf War.  To put it simply, Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq at the time invaded Kuwait and claimed it as Iraq's newest providence.  The Bush 41 Administration, the UN, and the allies gave Saddam an ultimatum...get out of Kuwait by Jan 15, 1991...or else.  Well creepy mustache guy opted for "or else".

I was only near 11 years old at this time so obviously I didn't really fully understand what was going on.  Iit didn't help we were out of range to get cable so no CNN, which got themselves on the map at this point.  Exactly how CNN got to arguably the peak of its influence is a pretty fascinating story also:

And said newspaper archive mentioned this special which caught my attention for this "giant walk on map" sort of deal:

And you can find on YT what live coverage of the war was like from any of the networks too.  Pretty neat that we live in this modern day and age where we practically have a real life time machine of sorts isn't it?

How many of you were around when this went on?  Where you old enough to really know what was going on?  Since this is a history sort of discussion from 30 years ago (and even its sequel the 2003 Iraq War is nearing 20 years ago) hopefully it won't be as hot or emotionally charged as say, debating current events.  Hopefully...

[Hammerfestus | 3,837]

I missed out on some cartoons because of it.

[Estil | 1,264]

34 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

I missed out on some cartoons because of it.

I hope you had some VHS tapes of some of them, like these:

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Estil

[The Count | 527]

I remember watching SCUD missile attacks on the news, it was wild.

[Hammerfestus | 3,837]

13 minutes ago, Estil said:

I hope you had some VHS tapes of some of them, like these:

 

Whoa there Ross Perot.  Official turtles VHS?  More like...

 

[Estil | 1,264]

1 minute ago, Hammerfestus said:

Whoa there Ross Perot.  Official turtles VHS?  More like...

Well that too...

[Hammerfestus | 3,837]

I do remember watching the invasion with my parents.  I would’ve only been like 6 at the time.  We still had one of those old console TVs as our main tv at the time.  It’s actually weird how vivid my memory of it still is.  

[RH | 4,903]

1 hour ago, The Count said:

I remember watching SCUD missile attacks on the news, it was wild.

This is all I really recall.  I also have no recollection of being worried.  I was 10 and in the 5th grade and I understood that the middle east far away.

[Estil | 1,264]

3 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

Whoa there Ross Perot.

No!  Ross Perot doesn't come along until the next year!  Ask me about him in 2022 when I'm scheduled to be reading the 1992 paper archive  

Remember that scene in Back to the Future where Marty McFly sees that newspaper dated 1955, thirty years ago at the time (the movie/trilogy's "present time" is 1985)?  Hard to believe I'm doing exactly the same thing!

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

I remember that Line in the Sand special.  Crazy.

Pop was in the Army and we were stationed in Germany at the time.  He was tapped and ordered to Saudi Arabia for 8 months just before Christmas of '90.  It sucked! 

During that time we had MP guards armed with M16s on the bus and at school it was kind of bizarre.  I remember one even had the M16 with grenade launcher.  Predator style!  We constantly asked about the guns.  They were more for show.  The guns were never loaded; I'm not sure if they even carried magazines.  

There were also bomb threats at school pretty regularly.  I imagine the first couple might have been malicious but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older high school kids just started doing it for a laugh to get out of class.  The whole thing was very surreal. 

 

[Ausden | 323]

I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.....

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

6 hours ago, RH said:

This is all I really recall.  I also have no recollection of being worried.  I was 10 and in the 5th grade and I understood that the middle east far away.

Same here except I was concerned that they might be able to shoot missiles back at us.

[Estil | 1,264]

5 hours ago, Ausden said:

I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.....

Oh yes they played that once or twice back in my day   Though I like even better this little number that was done in response to 9/11...boy Charlie Daniels was a great man who will surely be missed...

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Estil

[Estil | 1,264]

There was also this story mentioned as well, and of course I just had to hit up YT to see if there was a clip of the incident and sure enough...

Well I guess in those pre-Internet, pre-YT, pre-social media, etc days that WAS the only way you could reach a (inter)national audience!  Other than buying commercial/airtime I suppose...

I wonder whatever became of that guy who interrupted Dan who was clearly Rather bothered by the interruption  

[Sumer | 221]

My memories of it:

Like Estil, I was 11 at the time that it became "Desert Storm."  The war permeated the playground back then.  Four Square was a big recess pastime in the later elementary school years back then.  I remember our crazy "semi-friend" (the kind of kid who would eat worms on the playground just to impress people and cover up how strange he really was) make up "new Four Square moves" to include Skud Missile and Patriot Missile, which could only be used once per Four Square round.  If you have played Four Square, you know what I mean by moves/rules.

My mom was also scared-to-death that the Gulf War would turn into another Vietnam and that I would be off to fight Saddam in 1997/1998 via a new draft.  

Edited January 26, 2021 by Sumer

[Estil | 1,264]

7 hours ago, Sumer said:

My mom was also scared-to-death that the Gulf War would turn into another Vietnam and that I would be off to fight Saddam in 1997/1998 via a new draft.  

Well by that time there was that whole Operation Desert Fox thing along with all that ethnic cleansing and other really bad war crimes going on in The Artist Formerly Known As Yugoslavia by another very bad man named Slobodan Milosevic.

And by then there were eh, a few little rumblings/foreshadowing of what was to come in the sequel, the 2003 Iraq War...

Wow Saddam Hussein sure was a very VERY bad man wasn't he?   Especially if you happened to be one of those Kurd guys in northern Iraq...  

Edited January 26, 2021 by Estil