Army Apache crews who fired ‘first shots of Desert Storm' receive Distinguished Flying Crosses
Fifteen pilots and weapons operators were presented the awards Thursday by Army Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, the commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Novosel, Alabama, at an annual convention for Army flyers in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a Defense Department release.
Known as Task Force Normandy, eight Army Apache helicopters launched from a Saudi air base toward the Iraq border in the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 1991 carrying Hellfire missiles. Led by four Air Force Pave Low helicopters that used terrain-following radar systems to keep the helicopters hidden, the Apache crews flew 90 miles into Iraqi territory to take out two of the country's early warning radar sites, opening the skies to a massive U.S.-led bombing campaign that quickly overwhelmed the Iraqi army.
The crews originally received Air Medals with 'V device' for the mission, denoting valor for flying an aerial combat mission. But behind-the-scenes efforts by the battalion commander who led the mission, retired Gen. Richard 'Dick' Cody, paved the way for their award upgrades. Cody commanded the 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, which the Apaches were assigned to.
'The eight crews of Task Force Normandy fired the first shots of Desert Storm leading to the destruction of the Iraqi radar and ground control sites and officially kickstarting the allied air campaign. Their outstanding dedication to mission accomplishment is in keeping with the finest traditions of the military, and reflects great credit upon themselves, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and the United States Army,' the award citation states.
The crews flew over the desert skies 20 minutes before H-hour, the official planned commencement for the U.S. military's early air campaign of Operation Desert Storm.
As the helicopters drew close to the targets, totally undetected, one of the pilots gave a 10-second warning:
'Party in ten,' called 1st Lt. Tom Drew, according to a 1991 account in Air Force Magazine.
At around 2:30 a.m., the Apaches fired 27 Hellfire missiles, hundreds of rockets and thousands of 30-mm ammunition to knock out the Iraqi radars.
As the U.S. military contemplated how it would evict the Iraqi army from Kuwait, it focused on how U.S. bombers could reach Baghdad and other key sites inside Iraq. Planners knew the eyes and ears of the Iraqi air defense had electronic warfare radars that showed information like enemy aircraft size, direction of attack, and speed axis. Their defense system also included medium- and long-range surface-to-air missiles and short-range anti-aircraft artillery pieces, according to a large-scale combat operation analysis by Col. Paul E. Berg and Kenneth E. Tilley, both Army colonels.
'We knew that if we didn't destroy the sites on time, the early warning sites would notify Baghdad and Saddam would know we were coming,' retired Air Force Col. Michael Kingsley, a lead 20th Special Operations Squadron pilot who flew one of the Pave Lows said at an event back in 2006.
The original attack plan named 'Instant Thunder,' called for dropping Army special forces into the desert to destroy the radar sites on the ground. But planners instead opted for a mission that included MH-53J Pave Lows, embedded with GPS, as the navigators while Apache crews carried the weapons and soldiers for the attack.
The crews were named Task Force Normandy after the site of the 101st Airborne Division's famous airborne operation on D-Day during World War II. Their 15-hour combat operation gave Navy and Air Force bombers a 20-mile-wide corridor for the ensuing air campaign at the start of Desert Storm.
'This is one of those truly significant moments for us, both as an Army and as an Aviation branch,' Gill said at the ceremony. 'We need to use these example setters as people we should recognize and honor and then replicate the commitment that they made on that night of January 17, 1991.'
Army infantry officer calls new XM7 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle'
Attempted Fort Leavenworth prison break leaves military inmate tangled on fence
When Americans, Germans and POWs fought the SS from the walls of a castle
This Army combat medic fought off an active shooter and rendered first aid
This 53 aircraft 'elephant walk' has everything you'd need for a war in the Pacific
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Ceremony in Norwich CT to honor veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan conflicts
The Norwich Area Veterans Council will host its annual Iraq/Afghanistan war commemoration ceremony at 1 p.m. Aug. 30. The event will take place at the Richard E. Hourigan VFW Post 594, located at 30 Connecticut Ave., Norwich, according to a community announcement. The ceremony aims to honor those who served, were killed in action or are listed as missing in action during the conflicts. It will specifically remember Keith Heidtman and Jacob Martir, two Norwich men who lost their lives in Iraq. Martir, an Army specialist, was 21 when he was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad in 2004. Heidtman, an Army first lieutenant, was 24 when his helicopter was shot down in Diyala province in 2007. From October 2001 to February 2024, the United States has reported 60,618 casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 7,085 military fatalities and 53,533 wounded service members. Connecticut has lost 32 residents in the Iraq war and 20 in the Afghanistan war, with two missing in action from Desert Storm. The guest speaker for the ceremony will be Mark Jones, C Civ USN, Subbase Public Relations Office, a former U.S. Navy flight operations launch officer during Desert Storm. This story was created by reporter Beth McDermott, bmcdermott1@ with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich CT veterans to host Iraq, Afghanistan war memorial event Solve the daily Crossword
Wall Street Journal
6 days ago
- Wall Street Journal
‘Ring of Fire' Review: World War I, Beyond the Trenches
A young man watches a fellow soldier beat a dog with the butt of a rifle and another soldier shoot the dog's owner—a pregnant woman—in cold blood, and simply calls the scene 'war in all its horror.' Another sets fire to a stranger's home in a town far from his own and admits 'the desire to destroy took over,' adding, 'if war is like this, then it's very ugly.' A third writes with equal detachment of the killings he has taken part in as 'living in a perpetual nightmare.' One of these voices belongs to a member of the French army, one is Austro-Hungarian and the other German. Which uniform each man wears, or in which theater of war he is fighting, is less important than what his experiences have in common with the others. These are but three among the countless troops and civilians whose experiences are viewed with a fresh perspective in 'Ring of Fire: A New History of the World at War, 1914,' by Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst. Popular histories of World War I often reduce the worldwide conflict to two narrow fronts—eastern and western—both on a single western continent, with a primary focus on one of those two narrative boxes at the expense of the rest of the world. 'Ring of Fire' widens that lens and recenters the narrative, turning the conventional, top-down approach on its head. It pulls away from the proclamations of men in corridors of power to focus our attention instead on a bottom-up view of how the war impacted everyday men, women and children—lives lost, homes destroyed, jobs taken, food rationed, travel restricted, speech censored—whether they went to war or the war came to them. Ms. Churchill is a historian and battlefield guide who has hosted documentaries on military and royal history; Mr. Eberholst is a historian and archivist. The two skip past the daily volleys of righteous indignation in July 1914 and take us directly to the streets of the nations headed to war. We see young men in St. Petersburg and Berlin and Paris driven by patriotism to enlist, immigrants in Australia viewing service as a free passage back to Europe, and tribesmen in Africa volunteering for the food and regular income the military promised—with perils of combat paling next to recent famine. 'Ring of Fire' employs words with visual force to show us the opening shots of the war, following Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium, France's first offensive through Alsace-Lorraine, Austria-Hungary's attacks on Serbia, and Russia's bloody clashes with Austria-Hungary and Germany. In contrast to the recurring trope of 'lions led by donkeys,' we are shown armies adapting to modern, industrialized war and the replacement of incompetent field commanders with leaders who proved themselves effective during the war's first trials of combat. And we see the war's global reach, as the first British shot of the war is fired by an African soldier, the first British officer is killed in action in Germany's West African colony of Togoland and the first Australian officer is killed in action in German New Guinea.
CBS News
14-08-2025
- CBS News
West Point Cadets honor Junior ROTC cadet killed in Parkland shooting
Washington — Just before the class of 2025 graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and accepted their commissions as officers in the U.S. Army, a group of cadets this past May decided to honor one of their own — a boy who dreamed of attending West Point but before he could, laid down his life as a hero. Peter Wang, an Army Junior ROTC cadet, was just 15 years old and among the 17 killed during the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. During the shooting, he held a door open to allow students to escape the merciless gunfire on that day. In a follow-up story published seven years after the shooting, CBS News reported in May that Wang was posthumously accepted to the West Point class of 2025. When CBS News reached out to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the days before graduation this year to ask whether Wang — who was symbolically accepted into the class — would be awarded his diploma posthumously, the inquiry appeared to catch both the academy's media relations staff and leadership off guard. Yet among some class members, Wang's story of sacrifice remained vivid, and their determination to see him honored had not faded. "When we put out a form asking for classmates to nominate honorary members of our class, I was not expecting Peter Wang's name to be on the list of nominees," newly minted Army 2nd Lt. Katherine Metz, the president of the class of 2025 at West Point, told CBS News. "Most cadets nominated former classmates who were separated from West Point for reasons outside of their control — mostly medical — or foreign exchange cadets who made a significant impact on our class or their countries. However, Peter's name appeared countless times within our class's responses." Metz had read the article by CBS News and other news stories from the time of the shooting. She said a number of cadets from the class nominated Wang for the Honorary Graduate Award and would soon be mailing his certificate to his parents. The award is an honor conferred on those who did not physically graduate with the class but who embody West Point's core values of duty, honor and country. When the sounds of gunfire reverberated through the hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wang was in study hall. As panic spread, he moved toward the exit — not to flee, but to hold the door open, easing the way for his classmates to escape. He was shot 13 times. Wang was found dead in a third-floor hallway, wearing his Army JROTC uniform. The Florida National Guard honored Wang with a military funeral, and hundreds assembled to pay their respects. Metz said one of her classmates wrote about how Wang "valiantly sacrificed himself to hold the door for his fellow classmates to escape," and said it was only fitting "that we recognize him as an honorary graduate, as he would have been with us." Some members of the class of 2025 were already familiar with Wang's story and the tragic path that led to his posthumous admission. But for many, the details emerged only when his name was announced as an honorary member of the graduating class. From that moment, classmates say, his story became part of the class's shared identity — an enduring example of selflessness and sacrifice. "Now, our whole class knows his story and will take his selfless example of sacrifice with us into our service as commissioned officers in the United States Army," said Metz. For his actions in 2018, Wang was posthumously awarded the Medal of Heroism by the U.S. Army, the highest award given to Army JROTC and ROTC cadets whose performance "involved the acceptance of danger and extraordinary responsibilities." Junior ROTC cadets Alaina Petty and Martin Duque, who were also killed during the shooting, also received the medal. "Peter demonstrated the characteristics and attributes we seek out of graduates of the Naval Academy or West Point," retired Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen told CBS News in May. Caslen, who was the superintendent of West Point in 2018, authorized Wang's entry into the class of 2025. He added, "Individuals like Peter are exactly the men and women you want leading America's youth in combat situations, the fact that he demonstrated that at his age says a lot about him which is why we made him an honorary member of the class."
