62
In fairness to the Special Operations commanders, the paucity of CSAR missions can’t be blamed entirely on them. First, the density of Iraqi air defenses has to be taken into account. Flying a helicopter into a near-certain shoot-down obviously made no sense. Second, several pilots were captured shortly after parachuting over the Iraqi Army units they’d just attacked. Third — and most important — very few aircraft were actually lost in combat. Thus, little CSAR was actually needed.
63
Eberly became dangerously dehydrated during the escape and evasion, and later during his capture (when Iraqi doctors didn’t understand his condition, much less how to treat it). After his return, his blood chemistry was seriously out of balance (a hospital stay cured it).
64
Because of the limited number of laser pods, only a few F-15Es were available for tank plinking. The targeting pods were brand new, and not all of them had been delivered, so some of the F-15Es dropped bombs on targets that the leader had designated with his pod.
65
It was almost entirely destroyed; only 20 percent made it back.
66
We have seen this incident earlier in a slightly different context.
67
My former aide, Little Grr Hartinger, had orders to Ramstein, Germany, a couple of months before the invasion of Kuwait. When we deployed in August, he was waiting for his PCS date, which came in September. Though he wanted to stay, we weren’t sure how long we would be in Saudi Arabia, and I had already selected Hoot to replace him.
68
You got to be s — ing me.
69
The numbers refer to sorties flown against units in front of XVIIIth Airborne Corps (including French forces), VIIth Corps, Northern Area Corps (Egyptians and Syrians), the U.S. Marines, and Eastern Area Corps (Arabs, primarily Saudis), except that the final listing is for sorties flown against the Republican Guard.
70
It should not be forgotten that someone did set target priorities — Norman Schwarzkopf. And in the final analysis, targets were chosen by the airmen in the air, by the Killer Scouts and the controllers in J-STARS. But saying this does not deny the legitimate concerns of the corps commanders, or the problems these concerns gave to Chuck Horner.
71
Target trackers accurately track single or multiple warheads in space so other systems can use this targeting information.
72
Fourteenth AF has a proud World War II heritage. It was the numbered air force in China; and the Flying Tigers (23d Wing) was one of its first units after it was formed.
73
Al-Ayeesh is now a major general and the commander at Khamis. Turki is a colonel and graduated at the top of his class at the USMC Command and Staff course in 1997.
74
Khalid is now Brigadier General Khalid, commander of the UAEAF; and Faris was recently reassigned from Commander of the UAEAF Academy to England for advanced studies.
