This Day in History...

On January 16, 1991, the Persian Gulf War began with the allied bombing of Baghdad.

I was a few miles south of the Saudi-Iraq border, and had radio watch that morning. I received the radio transmission notifying our unit (3rd Brigade, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Air Assault Division) that the war had begun, and had to go wake up the commander.

Later, as that morning dawned deeply foggy, and we nervously stood watch (on full alert) just a few miles south of the Iraqi border, the deep chattering sound of .50-caliber machine gun fire rang out. We all probably held our breath, wondering if the Republican Guard would be so bold as to come across into Saudi Arabia that morning. It was a huge relief to discover it was just a jumpy young soldier shooting at phantoms.

Weird to think its been nineteen years.