[bomb explodes] -[Narrator] Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm ushered in a new era of American warfare.

Faster, more precise and witnessed by the world in real time.

[bombs rumbling] Many who served were Virginians, and these are the personal stories and experiences that changed their lives and the nation they defended.

-[Bush VO] Just two hours ago, Allied Air Forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.

This conflict started August 2nd when the dictator of Iraq invaded a small and helpless neighbor, Kuwait.

Saddam Hussein systematically raped, pillaged, and plundered a tiny nation.

He subjected the people of Kuwait to unspeakable atrocities.

And among those maimed and murdered --innocent children.

Saddam was warned over and over again, "Leave Kuwait or be driven out."

Saddam has arrogantly rejected all warnings.

We now believe that only force will make him leave.

[explosion] Tonight, 28 nations, countries from five continents, Europe and Asia, Africa and the Arab League have forces in the Gulf area standing shoulder to shoulder against Saddam Hussein.

Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq, it is the liberation of Kuwait.

-[Narrator] In August 1990, as tensions erupted in the Middle East, thousands of American service members, including many from Virginia, were suddenly called to deploy.

Launching into a fast-moving mission where uncertainty loomed and little was yet known about what lay ahead.

-On the 2nd of August in 1990, I got up early and saw the news that Kuwait had been overrun.

And I didn't think much of it.

And I got to work and the commander was not there, I was second in command.

And one of my RTOs came out and got me, flagged me down and said, "You need to be at battalion headquarters now ."

So I went and put on my flight suit and hurried over to battalion headquarters, and I saw the map on the wall.

It showed Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait.

And we were now on alert because we were providing medical evacuation support to the RDF.

-I took command of the 20th Engineer Brigade at Fort Bragg.

It's the brigade underneath the 18th Airborne Corps.

And while we were out on the exercise on Fort Bragg, my S2 came in, my Intel officer, and said, "It looks Saddam Hussein just invaded Kuwait."

And I said, "Well, they'll figure it out.

They'll come to some solution."

And I bet my S2 we would never go to war.

I won't bet with them again.

[laughs] -[Joe Barto] So this was about three o'clock in the morning on the 7th of August.

He said, "Send the message out.

"Bring all the leadership in for a meeting at the headquarters at 0600."

Barry McCaffrey went to the head of the room.

He said, "Gentlemen, we've been alerted "to deploy to Saudi Arabia.

"And we have two planning assumptions.

"The first planning assumption "is we are going to fight off the boats.

"And the second planning assumption is we're not coming home."

-[Narrator] Operation Desert Shield was underway as American and coalition forces and equipment moved swiftly into the region not to attack, but to stand guard and to lay the strategic, logistical and psychological groundwork for what followed.

-[Barto] There was a huge operation in Saudi Arabia to offload and stage all of the force that we were deploying.

And initially, we deployed the 82nd, we deployed the 101st.

They were the first two divisions in country.

Then came the 24th Infantry Division and then the First Cav.

They were all tucked under 18th Airborne Corps initially.

[explosions] -[Narrator] By January 1991, when diplomatic efforts had failed, Desert Shield transitioned into Operation Desert Storm, shifting from defense to a decisive offensive aimed at liberating Kuwait and its people.

[explosion] The war began with a massive aerial assault designed to cripple Iraqi air defenses, shatter command and control networks, neutralize airfields, radar sites and communications.

-[Jim Prokop] My specific unit was the Marine Air Control Squadron.

It was the Air Command element.

We had radars and fancy air traffic control consoles, and our job was to keep the Marines safe from air assets inbound.

Whether it was a missile, aircraft, helicopter, it didn't matter.

Pretty much be the eyes and ears for Marine Corps and all the other adjacent units.

-[Wettlaufer] My first flight was on January 17th.

We went almost all at night from the bombing perspective.

We were really nighttime players.

And our targets were downtown in Baghdad, artillery production facilities, scud missile factories, or where they would put the fuel into the missiles.

And we had just learned that summer how to fly with night vision goggles, the very first iteration, generation of aviation night vision goggles.

So that allowed us to fly closer together and allowed us to keep our risk down by being as close as possible through that temporal opening, if you will, or the opportunity to get in through the IADs, Integrated Air Defense.

-[Narrator] Though the scud missiles were first developed and used in the 1950s, Operation Desert Storm made it a household name.

Iraqi forces launched the missiles toward coalition positions and into Israel, hoping to widen the war and fracture the alliance against them.

Militarily imprecise but psychologically powerful.

Each launch sent troops into protective gear.

Many feared the scuds carried chemical warheads, raising the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

-[Michele Rose] Of course, we were all warned about the chemical and biological warfare that Saddam Hussein was known for using.

Saudi Arabia had a kind of like a civil warning system like we do here in the United States when we have tornadoes, like especially in the Midwest.

And so when a scud missile was launched, as soon as we detected it, the alarms would go off.

So you knew something was in the air.

But the scud missiles, it turns out, and we didn't know this early, they were very inaccurate and they would just launch 'em and they would land somewhere, but they were highly inaccurate, you know.

And I tell you, you know, at that point, it became very real.

I have never had that feeling that that pit, that your heart and your pit of your stomach feeling then putting on--and I have never put that chemical suit on that fast in my life.

-[Narrator] In the end, it was discovered that the scuds carried only conventional explosives, but the tension and uncertainty they generated became one of the defining anxieties of the conflict.

-[Wayne Ozmore] We, as aircraft carrier, provided combat air support for the opening stages of Desert Storm.

We made sure our pilots knew what they-- what the threats were and what they were looking at.

We also made our pilots aware of all the associated radar systems that were employed within Iraq, all the surface to air missile systems, Triple A, things of that nature, making sure our pilots put bombs on targets.

My job in intelligence was to support that mission.

-[Julia Pfaff] So the night the air war started, we moved out.

And we had Cobra helicopters that were flying over us as we drove down Tapline Road.

And there was this eerie feeling driving in the desert in this long convoy with these helicopters flying over watch.

It was-- it felt very surreal, that whole journey, that whole trip into the unknown.

And the realization that we're a signal corps unit, like we have phones and radio equipment.

So we saw civilian vehicles coming towards us that were packed to the gills, like literally stuff everywhere.

They looked like the Beverly Hillbillies truck with everything like strapped to the-- and they're trying to like, get more into the interior of Saudi Arabia and away from the Iraqi border because nobody knew what was going to happen.

-[John Ford] So our entire battalion was put in charge of passage of lines.

So basically directing the armored battalions where to go, you know, in country, you know, from Saudi Arabia into Iraq.

And it was pretty nonstop.

And then it was, you know, shoot and move, shoot and move.

-[Flowers] Our major first objective was the airfield at Al-Salman.

It was a Iraqi air force base that we had bombed, and we needed to get in there and fix it up and make it C-130 capable.

Because we were going to use it as a forward staging base for medical, POL, ammunition and medevac.

[explosion] And it was on Al-Salman during the airfield seizure that we lost our soldiers to include First Lieutenant Terry Plunk.

Terry was a lieutenant platoon leader in Alpha Company, 27th Airborne Engineer Battalion.

He was in line to be a company commander.

Very sharp.

He had a lot going for him and a really bright future ahead.

It was a tragic day.

-[Scott West] Unfortunately, we lost some soldiers that were in a little too close to where they were blowing up ammunition, and certainly, we shouldn't have lost any on that.

But we did lose some of our soldiers there.

-[West] For several days after they blew the main charges, there were artillery and mortar rounds that were cooking off and launching and kind of unguided and unaimed.

It was raining mortar and artillery ammunition that were landing around friendly forces.

So for the better part of 3 or 4 days, the soldiers were pretty shook up about these ammunition rounds, just kind of cooking off and taking off.

[explosions] -[Narrator] During the ground war of Operation Desert Storm, coalition forces avoided a direct assault into Kuwait, and instead executed a sweeping armored advance far to the west.

This maneuver, known as the left hook, turned east into the Iraqi rear, where defenses were weak and command and control had already been shattered by weeks of air attacks.

-We moved very quickly.

We were not aware when we were moving on the left what was happening on the right, but they had successfully breached all of the Iraqi minefields and they allowed the Arab Corps to take Kuwait City.

But the Marines were very successful on the right.

Seventh Corps had a fight and took out the majority of the Iranian armor force.

And then we moved in on the left and sort of sealed things.

And in doing that, we captured Saddam's major ammunition supply point that had all of his weapons.

It was a massive 4 or 500 acres.

-[Narrator] As the ground war surged forward with overwhelming force, the scale and speed of the coalition's advance left little room for resistance.

Iraqi units, exhausted and outmatched, found themselves facing an unstoppable momentum.

In the midst of the chaos, many soldiers made a simple human choice to lay down their weapons and surrender.

-[Pfaff] The Iraqis and the Iraqi military was a kind of mixed bag.

You had the group that was actually really well trained, and then you had the group of people who really didn't want to be there.

-[FlorCruz] When the shooting kicked off, I was flying command and control.

And there was a lot of cloud cover, so I lost everybody.

For a few minutes, it was just terrifying.

And then got to a place where suddenly it was clear and I could see the aircraft.

What I didn't expect to see was thousands of Iraqis surrendering just out there with their hands up, and they were just saying, "Please get me out of here."

So we were not prepared for that.

-[Ford] Many of the [indistinct] were pretty much conscripts.

You know, just thrown into service.

You know, without shoes, without boots.

Most of the time, their weapons didn't work.

Lack of food, lack of water, lack of proper gear.

They were ready to go back home.

-[Narrator] While many Iraqi soldiers surrendered to coalition forces, other retreating Iraqi troops left their mark by setting Kuwait's oil wells ablaze as a scorched earth tactic meant to punish their enemies and leave lasting damage behind.

The fires disrupted military operations, shocked the world and devastated Kuwait's economy and environment.

Ensuring that even in defeat, the cost of the war would continue to be felt long after the fighting ended.

-We watched the guys pull up in their limousines, setting the oil wells in front of us on fire.

We just sat there like, what are these guys doing?

They're coming up in these black limos.

They go to the oil well and then they go to the next one.

They drive up to like two hours later, all of a sudden, they started exploding in the fires.

So that's how we started getting smoke from that oil from that.

-[Narrator] Whether surrendering or fleeing, Iraqi soldiers showed a rapid collapse in their will to fight as defenses gave way.

With rumors of a cease fire spreading and coalition forces closing in from all sides, escape became the only perceived option.

Convoys of tanks, troop carriers and supply vehicles streamed north out of Kuwait on Highway 80 towards Iraq.

Not as an organized withdrawal, but as a desperate, chaotic exodus driven by fear, confusion and the dawning realization that the war had been decisively lost.

-And we gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum, which was to leave all of your armor in Kuwait City, don't drive any of it out.

And we would go from there and, uh, they didn't heed that warning.

[explosion] -I don't know what those Iraqis were thinking, but man, this is not going to work out well for them.

It was like the gates of hell had open.

I mean, the sound and the noise.

-[Wayne] From there, we attacked the armory.

It was basically a five-mile long kill box.

And the armory that was in there was totally destroyed by assets from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines in there too.

It was an ugly scene.

I recall vividly looking at the imagery.

It's something out of your wildest dreams, smoke rising up.

You would see bodies laying out of the tanks because they'd be fired, they were trying to escape it.

But that's the price you pay when you face the United States in open combat.

-[Narrator] On February 24th, 1991, coalition forces began a ground campaign across the desert, overwhelming Iraqi defenses with speed and precision.

In just four days, Kuwait was liberated.

Enemy forces collapsed and the war ended almost as suddenly as it began, marking one of the most rapid and decisive victories in modern military history.

-[Flowers] The 100 Hours War, no one expected it to be over quickly.

We expected it would be a very long and tough fight.

And so the idea that we could get this over quickly wasn't in our minds.

We were kind of steeled ourselves for the long haul.

So it was a surprise when we were able to move as quickly as we did with little resistance.

-And that was a shock.

That was not expected.

That was just, you know, what, what?

Really?

It has really ended?

Is it really 100 hundred hours?

Really?

I mean, that just-- it was just surreal.

We then got quickly started thinking, "Okay, we got to start thinking about how we're going to get all that stuff that we offloaded back onto ships because all that munition was still sitting.

There was a bunch of munitions still sitting at the port.

And of course, all that equipment we offloaded.

-The reason why we were able to accomplish our mission to free Kuwait, because the generals got it right.

We performed exactly what we wanted to do, which was damn near perfect.

We built a plan.

We executed the plan.

We adjusted when we needed to.

Couldn't be prouder of those guys.

[explosions] -[Flowers] We attacked with such overwhelming force that Saddam did not have a chance, and he immediately moved all of his forces back.

And when it came time to dictate terms, it was unconditional surrender, and he will leave Kuwait.

-Our military objectives are met.

Kuwait is once more in the hands of Kuwaitis in control of their own destiny.

We share in their joy, a joy tempered only by our compassion for their ordeal.

-My personal realization why it was important was probably a day and a half, two days after the ground war stopped, they were so excited.

They were whooping and hollering.

They were just running around hugging everybody they could, and they were grown men hugging and crying and just so happy that we were there.

And when we saw that, we were like, this did mean something.

And I think that's when it hit me why it was important.

-When we rolled through Kuwait City, Kuwaitis were holding up signs like, "Yay, America.

Thank you, President."

But they were extremely thankful that we were there.

-It was very disconcerting because we were prepared to do whatever we had to do for the mission.

You really have to have a focus, right?

And so the focus was we're going to do our mission.

But then when it ended, and Saddam Hussein was not captured, or killed or put an end to, we thought we didn't finish.

-And I remember thinking at the time that we weren't finished, like, I remember thinking, you know, we're going to be back here in the next ten years.

It was 12 years, but we were going to be back in the region fighting a hot war.

The problems weren't really resolved.

-[John] Well, we were joyful that we'd be going back home within, you know, probably within two or three months or so.

But considering our missions, we had a feeling that we might be back.

Um, so we were kind of reluctant to say, "Yay, we're done."

-[Narrator] Desert Storm marked a turning point on the battlefield and at home.

For the first time in American history, more than 40,000 women deployed to a major combat zone, nearly seven percent of the US Air Force.

They served as pilots, military police, mechanics, intelligence specialists and logisticians.

Their service not only shaped the outcome of Desert Storm, it reshaped the future of the American military itself.

-When I got back from Desert Storm, I remember there was an article in Newsweek or Time calling it The Mommy's War , which I found insulting, but I got where they were coming from.

This was the first major conflict where there were so many women deployed.

And to say, we're going to put people who maybe be sick, lame, or lazy, as they used to say, back in the rear, we're going to put all the women in the rear is a false belief.

There's no longer a rear echelon.

You have to prepare everyone.

Everyone has to be fit.

Everyone has to be healthy.

Everyone has to be capable.

There's a lot of documents that have been written suggesting that the United States presence in the Middle East or Southwest Asia has always been about the cost of oil.

When I deployed to Operation Desert Shield, I was certain that the president of the United States was sending us there to prevent one belligerent nation from depriving a nation that was basing its government on freedom.

I wasn't deploying to lower the cost of oil per barrel, and I don't think the people that I deployed with were either.

-In one moment in time, the world stood in almost unanimity to tell a bully to get out of a space that he invaded.

And when that bully didn't respond, the world stood up, took notice, that if there's a bully in the neighborhood, it's okay to fight back.

[bugle plays]