Every Man a Tiger: The Gulf War Air Campaign

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When he came home in April 1991, the wing had converted to new Block 40 F-16s. So there was a much newer and more reliable Lady Ashley. He has no idea what became of the original; he suspects she is parked in the desert getting dusty.

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Taif is the large city south of Mecca, a major stop on the ancient trade route running from Damascus in the north, through Jeddah, and into Yemen in the south. Because it is situated at about 3,000 feet above sea level in high desert, it is cooler than nearby Jeddah on the coast. The air base is quite modern, with new hardened shelters.

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Kaufman was the Chief of the United States Military Training Mission (USMTM) to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His job was to oversee the large number of important Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programs that were being executed between the two nations. He had a staff in Riyadh and people (military and contractor) scattered throughout the kingdom.

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That is, for Horner, an “offensive” or “attack” air campaign.

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United States Military Training Mission.

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Paratroopers are like fighter pilots, with a similar elan. And paratrooper generals have to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, just like sergeants. More practically, the commanders of the XVIII Airborne Corps and the Ninth Air Force have traditionally worked closely together. The Airborne headquarters at Fort Bragg is three hours up the road from Shaw AFB; assigned wings from Shaw provide airborne divisions with the jets they use for training (at Blue Flag and at CENTCOM exercises); and since the Airborne Corps is light, they depend on the Air Force for survival on the battlefield. Going through all of this together, Gary Luck and Chuck Horner had come to like and respect each other.

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Because he was close to retirement and in fragile health (he was a diabetic), Harawi was replaced early in the crisis by General Iroky.

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A force of five allows one E-3 to be kept in the air at a time.

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Don Kaufman and his USMTM staff of military and civil service people played a vital role in getting U.S. efforts off the ground during these early days of Desert Shield. None of them are even cited in the various postwar analyses, or otherwise recognized for their selfless service. Though torn away from their jobs of administering foreign military sales of United States training and equipment to Saudi military forces, they turned without complaint to feeding, housing, and supporting the onrushing tide of coalition forces. If they had not been in place throughout the kingdom, if they had not been trusted counterparts to the Saudi military leadership, the initial U.S. efforts would have failed.

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Status of forces defines the legal relationship between forces deployed in a foreign country and the host government. It covers jurisdiction in legal matters, limits on carrying loaded weapons, obedience to local laws and customs, and the like.

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General Henadi was also a devout Muslim, and he has spent many hours over the years (when there’s time) instructing Horner in Islam, the Koran, and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

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And coauthor, with retired Marine General Bernard E. Trainor, of The Generals’ War (Little, Brown, 1995), a solidly researched and readable but opinionated view of the Gulf War (which it looks at through Marine eyes).

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