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#OnThisDay #gulfwar30
Another quick snapshot of what life was like onboard a warship on this day in 1991, down the Gulf. A disclaimer. It’s been thirty years and my memory has doubtless failed me on some minor details. 1/
Another quick snapshot of what life was like onboard a warship on this day in 1991, down the Gulf. A disclaimer. It’s been thirty years and my memory has doubtless failed me on some minor details. 1/
I might have one or two things a little off but the idea is to give non-naval types an idea of what it was like during those busy days we had
So HMS Exeter is in a swept box, about 10 miles East of Kuwait. USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri are conducting shoots at targets ashore 2/
So HMS Exeter is in a swept box, about 10 miles East of Kuwait. USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri are conducting shoots at targets ashore 2/
Meanwhile we continue to provide air defence for the battleships, and cover the allied mine hunters as they sweep further safe transit lanes for the next box north of us. Mine warning remains red, air raid warning yellow. The Chemical Rule is in force, 3/
#Onthisday1991 #gulfwar30
Today thirty years ago we had completed a swept lane transit through the minefield, followed by Wisconsin, Princeton, Tripoli and Jarrett as seen in this picture.
At about 0450 hrs USS Tripoli ran onto an Iraqi mine missed by the sweepers. 1/6
Today thirty years ago we had completed a swept lane transit through the minefield, followed by Wisconsin, Princeton, Tripoli and Jarrett as seen in this picture.
At about 0450 hrs USS Tripoli ran onto an Iraqi mine missed by the sweepers. 1/6
The blast created a hole sixteen by twenty five feet, flooded a pump space, dry stores compartment and auxiliary engine room. Fractured firemain flooded a magazine, with further shock damage throughout the ship. She remained immobilised for most of the day as allied ships 2/6
cleared the area round her, finding further mines and marking them with smoke canisters. There were no fatalities and the mine was believed to be an ex-soviet moored type.
As damage repair continued, to our north twenty eight nautical miles off Failaka Island at 0715 hr, 3/6
As damage repair continued, to our north twenty eight nautical miles off Failaka Island at 0715 hr, 3/6
1/30/1991: a special CENTAF log entry for the cluster munition fanboys in the house #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
"F-16s employing non-precision, free-falling general-purpose bombs, as well as older-generation cluster bomb units (CBU) — Mk-20 Rockeye, CBU-52, and CBU-58 —flew the majority, 569, of these missions."
"Battlefield effectiveness was below expectations, which led to concern over the high-consumption rates of the more modern, armor-piercing CBU-87 during the first two weeks"
1/30/1991: first combat use of another failure-prone weapon system - FASCAM mines #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
Developed in the 1970s, FASCAM, or Family of Scatterable Munitions, were artillery-delivered mines ejected from 155mm projectiles. The antipersonnel mine is "ADAM" for Area Denial Artillery Munition, and the antivehicle mine is "RAAM" for Remote Antiarmor Mine System
image source: May-June 1978 edition Field Artillery Journal 'Submunitions Of The Future' by Maj. William Whelihan web.archive.org/web/2018120100…
What a surprise: the people who planned and lead the air war in Desert Storm think it went great. Let's do some fun keyword searches in this report, shall we? mitchellaerospacepower.org/single-post/de… #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
The word "mistake" is used sparingly -- once to refer to Saddam Hussein, and the rest mostly to talk about "honest mistakes" that don't get further review #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
No discussion of fratricide. No discussion of the weapons that killed American troops. No discussion of unexploded American ordnance that continue to kill Iraqis and Kuwaitis today #gulfwar30 #desertstorm30
