Phase one had three goals gain air superiority, destroy saddams stroo teategic capabil, namely scuds, and disrupt his command and control. The allies estimated the first phase would last 20 to 25 days. Phase two would be short. The allies planned on taking one day to suppress mobile air defenses in the kto or kuwaiti theatre of operations. During phase three, allied air power would continue to hit the targets of phase one, but they would shift their attack to the iraqi field army and the kto, totaling close to half a million men, over 4,000 tanks, and 3,000 artillery pieces. One of the Main Missions was preparing the battlefield. He called it shaping the battlefield. He had to defeat those elements of his Ground Forces capable of mass casualties, artillery, armor. An important part was the Republican Guard. Saddam was depending on them to drive back the coalition Ground Forces if they attacked his dugin army. One of the centers of gravity, we were told, is destroy the Republican Guard and destroy a lot of the military support for Saddam Hussein. Planners believed phase three would take about three weeks. The fourth and final phase of the air campaign was to support the allied Ground Troops as they moved into kuwait. Planners estimated the ground offensive would be launched 30 days after the air campaign began. Now the 28 countries with forces in the gulf area have exhausted all reasonable efforts to reach a peaceful resolution. We have no choice but to drive saddam from kuwait by force. We will not fail. Air attacks are under way against military targets in i q iraq. The coalition waited 48 hours after the u. N. Deadline expired, then began their attack. Hhour was 0300 on january 17, 1991. That was when the first bomb would fall on baghdad and when operation Desert Shield became operation desert storm. Over 600 planes were launched that night from bases throughout the arabian peninsula, from turkey, from carriers in the red sea and the persian gulf, from the indian ocean, from even as far as the United States. Now, to give you some idea of the order of magnitude within the first 24 to 30 hours, we launched over 300 tanker sorties alone to support the strike package that went in through that period of time. There had never been any launch as big of support packages ever in the history of the air force that incorporated that many tankers. In their opening attack, the allies combined their stealth and precision technology, Electronic Warfare tactics and the classical elements of mass and surprise. We had been here since august, and so he had seen every day an awac sitting up here, f15s in defensive mode. He was kwlused to seeing that ey day. He knew that was up there and thats what we wanted him to see right up until the minute that the bombs started falling. Just beyond the radar warning capabilities and the iraqi radars, our attack aircraft were forming up in orbits with tankers so that they were able to top off their fuel at the last moment before heading on into the target area. Although they numbered less than 3 of the coalition fighters, the f117s struck almost 1 3 of the targets on the first day. These stealth fighters led the attack, penetrating the iraqi iads on seen. The first step that was taken that one could not then stop was a tlan coming out of a ship. At h minus 1 hour and 26 minutes, a navy cruiser in the red sea launched a tomahawk land attack missile or tland. They would arrive five to ten minutes after the first f117 strike. The second thing that occurred, of course, was taking down the sites by forces. Eight apache gunships guided by pave load helicopters took out two iraqi reporting sites on the border. This helped clear the way for nonstealthy fighters heading towards western iraq. The first actual bomb to fall on iraq, that occurred at about nine minutes before we refer to as hhour. A 117 took out an ioc that patrolled the sites. We knew 32 f117s right into downtown baghdad in the first hour and 20 minute ps. Their next target was the principal telephone communication, also referred to as the at t building. It was really their central com node. Cnn was reporting and he went blank at hhour plus about four seconds. That was that bomb hitting the at t building. At hhour, f117s took out the adoc in baghdad and the iocs and socs in the southern part of the country. Immediately at hhour, his ability to see airplanes coming in from the south was degraded. The iocs and the socs were taken down. His ability to communicate was taken down and the city went black. Having opened up the gateway then, our other strike packages rushed through and we hit very hard. That w this was a massive attack. We attacked all the stroo teej call targets, electric power, air communication and defenses and so forth. Our goal was to put them into shock and destroy their ability to defend their homeland. We were able to do that by having massive attacks across the full spectrum of targets, primary command and control and his air forces and also surfacetoaramisles. Once we took down what he preferred to socs and iocs, then we fired a few harms, when i say a few arms, im talking about hundreds in the first 24 hours. Harms are high speed antiradar missiles. When fired, these missiles hone in on enemy radar munitions and destroy those radar sites. The f15es went after all the permanent scud launchers in the western part of iraqi and the storage associated with that. The f11s dpurg the same time period took out of the some power grids and hit many of the industrial sites and the airfields. The gr1s also were very heavy in striking airfields as were the b52s in striking the southern airfields. The f14s and f15 cs were there from the start that evening making sure the tankers and the airplanes were protected. The iraqis never recovered from the allies first punch on that first night. Of course, at sun up the first morning, we brought in the f16s and fa18s. It was almost eerie to how precise the plan unfolded in to the first 24 hours. For all practical purposes, there were no glitches. All the details worked out the numerous times we, to use the phrase, we desk flew the first 24 hours to make sure there wnt any glitches. It was a good plan. It was very thorough, and we used a lot of airplanes and assets to do that and we totally overwhelmed them from the getgo. He never was able to recover from the first 24 hours in terms of being able to effectively use a defense against our capability. So we seized control of the air in the initial moments of the air campaign and as a result made all the rest of it much more easy and efficient and possible. The first bomb dropped 18 hours later, the longest continuous weather front that hit iraqi in three years moved in and we fought nothing but weather for eight straight das. S but we intended in the first three days to take out all his nuclear, biological and chemical storage. The weather really hampered up in this area, and that was our number one concern. He would go into the facilities and take the stuff out and start moving it around. The coalition was still able to destroy many nuclear, biological and chemical storage sites and cripple saddams ability to produce and research these weapons. He was never able to use these weapon against the allies during the war. The thing that slowed us down more than anything else. The second most important thing was scuds. We had to divert an inordinate amount of assets to deal with that problem. Although Coalition Air power destroyed many permanent scud launchers in the opening attack, they did not destroy saddams mobile launchers. Saddam was still able to send scuds towards israel and saudi arabia. Scud missiles caused a lot of problems in terms of psychological impact on both saudi arabia and israel. So it became important we locate these very time sensitive fleetding targets. We actually wound up using 24 airplanes continuously. And then we supplemented those airplanes with strikes. So it averaged out that we were using almost 100 airplanes a day just to deal with scuds. We used landing pods on the f16s. We used a variety of intelligent sources to provide us the quick data we needed. Then used a command and control network to put the airplanes over the target at the right time. The coalition knew that the mobile launchers had to come out of hiding and drive to certain areas so their scuds could reach their targets. These launch areas were called scud boxes. During the day a10s flew along the roadways looking for them. By night, f15es circled overhead. British forces used dez cig nay tors to target scud missiles. In eastern iraq, the new experimental joint stars aircraft successfully directed strike against scuds as well. They were able to locate mobile launchers with their radar which can track movement on the ground. Hunted down and destroyed. Day 11, we were actually at day 4 1 2 in the car, just because of weather alone. Then when you subtract the scuds out, we had only accomplished about three days worth of what we had intended to accomplish. Although the scuds were never fully suppressed, air power greatly produced their chances of hitting their targets and dramatically reduced scud launches from five a day to three a week. Although the coalition struggled with the weather and the scuds, they had little difficulty with the Iraqi Air Force. They were no match for coalition pilots. Blast, blast coming out westbound. The Iraqi Air Force was basically decimated at day three. It was decimated more emotionally and psychologically than it was in reality, because every time they took off they got shot down. They could not complete intercepts. They couldnt even get close to airplanes and that had to be very demoralizing for them. Splash two, splash two. Second coming off hot. Since they couldnt survive in the air, the iraqis began hiding their aircraft in shelters. Secondary, big time. Four, three, two, one. Impact. Oh, theres a hit. Theres a shack. Oh, yeah. Keep it in there. Good time secondaries. 9 allies began to concentrate their attacks on these shelters by day seven of the air campaign. Laserguided bombs penetrated and destroyed over 300 of them since they couldnt survive in the air or on the ground, iraqi began to run en masse since day nine. It changed mass to precision where we drop 30,000 bombs to take out a target in world war ii and 300 bombs in vietnam, we dropped one in iraq. Precision guided munitions are conventional bombs fitted with laser or electrooptical guidance systems. With the combination of stealth and precision attack capability in 117, we were able to attack targets very d discretely. We made sure we attacked only military targets and attacked them quite precisely. With precision munitions, the coalition could avoid civilian areas. We went after the securities facilities, the Baath Party Headquarters facilities. Those were the areas where the most barbaric acts and decisions supporting those were made and executed and controlled from. It was critical to be able to take that element out of that society. And its also critical to let the populious see that segment f society was as vulnerable as anyone else. This was an electronic war like no other in history. The f111 was able to go in there very close and jam the acquisition radars. Anytime we sent a package somewhere, we had jammers. Because of that. Youre being jammed. You cant work through that jamming. They wouldnt leave their radars on long enough to work through that jamming. They had almost zero effectiveness. Another danger is antiaircraft fire. If youve got as many gun sights as hes got, you cant take them all out. The basic tactic we use for that was medium and High Altitude to overcome aaa. From the very beginning we had essential had air superiority. We didnt lose many airplanes. You look at the volume of this campaign. We lost 20, 22 airplanes. I think that speaks for itself. We had more than enough air power on the scene to do the phase one job at the beginning and we simply diverted it to begin on phase three. There was no time from day one on that the iraqi Ground Forces were not under heavy air attack. The allies use precision weapons to take down iraqi bridges, cutting down the army from reenforcements and supplies. I put 11 f117s and fou four f111s to drop precision bombs. And we put seven bridges in the water the first night. The resupply of the iraqi army slowed from 20,000 a day. B52s hammered airfields and large stra teak intargets such as power plants, petroleum supplies and military center ps. Their most Important Mission hit the Republican Guard. Very early on, we were providing b52s over Republican Guard targets or the targets that had to do with softening up the kuwaiti theatre operation. The b52 struck regardless of what kind of weather that there was over the target area. Secondly, we struck all day and all night without their ability to effectively mass a counter air offensive against the b52s. As such, it was very, very effective putting fire power on their equipment, their troop locations, their artillery, their tanks, and they could do nothing about it. And it was extremely demoralizing. Behind the bombs that fell and the planes that delivered them were e3a century planes more commonly known as awacs. They delivered bombs on the iraqi iacs, bridges and now the iraqi army. The coalition averaged one Bombing Mission per minute against iraq. The focus became destroying equipment as opposed to destroying troops. Our initial intelligence of the forces in field was poor and we were sending aircraft. When they arrived at the location where they were thought to be, they werent there. And the flight lead would have difficult time getting a valid target for his flight. So one thing we did is we put f16s up over the battlefield. We call them killer scouts. Their job was to control a 20 by 20 box and find the targets in there. He was able to point out where the tanks were and we could make our attacks much more efficient. We also did that at night using lase laserguided bombs, for example. In the last 11 days of the air campaign before the Ground Campaign started with precision weapons of the 111s and f15es, we destroyed in excess of 1,000 tanks. We destroyed in excess 100 artillery pieces. On day 30, general horner gave this assessment of the air war. Weve had some tough times in the 30 days. Particularly unusual weather in january. It was far worse than we had forecast, and it was only because we were doing so well in our counter air campaign taking down airfields and the s. A. M. System in order to maintain the schedule despite a lot of sor dis, up to 50 some days in regard to weather. More importantly, weve demonstrated we were able to dig out his forces in the field in kuwait. Eve had particularly good luck with our systems at night, the f111s, the f15es and the f f117s. Their bombing accuracy is phenomenal. The owem the yyomans work is beginning o pay off. It has to be very difficult to be an iraqi soldier and sit there night after night, day after day. And endure the pounding hes taken. Their accuracy in using the p. O. W. S words, they never missed. When they were overhead orbiting and youre in a tank or with a group, you didnt know if you were being picked out. So it was an unnerving situation to be experienced and had a tremendous psychological impact. Despite saddams fortifications all around kuwait, his flank in iraq was weak and exposed. General schwarzkopf wanted to exploit it. He had air lifters position thousands of trooms and equipment for a massive allied thrust through iraq. One of the biggest jobs we had over here was to move major elements of the 18 Airborne Corps starting on the day after the bombing started. For the first 14 days, we had a 130 scheduled into iraq every ten minutes, 24 hours a day. That ability to move that vast amount of people and a lot of their vehicles that quickly in my mind, Saddam Hussein never caught on until much later on in the ground war that there was anybody even up there. B52s and the f117s teamed up to hit iraqi breach lines as the Ground Troops made their final operations. To bomb through those areas, there would be clear paths that went through the breach areas. So when they went through, there would be a pathway cleared of minds and the wire would be cut. F117s with their precisionguided bombs entered the battlefield, took out the field points of the entire system that he had developed that he was counting on, the field trenches and set them on fire to make the breaching more difficult. It was time for the Ground Troops to liberate kuwait. General schwarzkopf launched the grund war on february 24, 1991, 39 days from the start of the air campaign. The original allied plan was only nine days off schedule. Allied air power entered phase four, providing close air support. Its very difficult in a very fast paced war campaign for the army to know when and where theyre going to need close air support. So we created a system where we pushed sorties over the battlefield every minute of the hour and we were able to divert those sorties during close air support. Or if there was no need from the army, we would then send them on and do an interdiction target. I briefed all of those Division Commanders and calvary commanders before the war started and i said we will destroy a minimum of 50 of the armor and artillery before you cross the boundary, before you start the ground war. Based on what they found, i think theres no doubt in their mind or anyone elses that we exceeded 50 very significantly. One of them related to me, ive got to admit, the majority of the tanks i shot in a radiator, which means the tank is running. The iraqis were routed. He was asked how come you didnt use your artillery, he said my artillery was destroyed 100 . I called for artillery for the Division Next to mine and their artillery was destroyed 12100 . My private conviction is this is the first time in history that a field army has been defeated by air power. Air power truly was the wind that carried operation desert storm. If theres one thing this war really validated, its the excellence of our training and the quality of our people. I say that not as any kind of advertisement, its absolutely true, the people that put these whole things together are absolutely brilliant. From aircraft mechanics to communication. We had to go back up and start again. Thats dedication beyond belief. And they deserve all the credit in the world and my hats off to them. As a director oaf the university of toledo here in ohio, many veterans have come into my office talking about who they want to vote for, regardless of democratic or republican, its your civic duty to get out and vote. Many things are at stake with this erection, i encourage you to get out and vote for the candidate that best supports your causes in the future of this nation. Hi, my name is todd and im here supporting bernie sanders. I feel as though hes one of the most important candidates in this field right now. Hes the most viable alternative to mainstream politicians. And he has the most progressive ideas that are most important to the country and i would encourage everyone to go out and support bernie if possible. The most important issue that the university of Toledo College democrats feels important in this election is going to be college tuition, as well as jobs. When college kids go to school, they need to know how theyre going to pay for it and afford it, as well as leaving college, what their future is going to look like. Who is trying to bring jobs back into the u. S. And things like that. As president of the college democrats, i feel those the two biggest issues for the election cycle. I was originally going to vote for bernie sanders, however, i ended up voting for hillary because she seems more knowledge lk and shes been in a political position before. Shes already seen the inner workings of the white house and how the game goes. Our road to the white house coverage continues tuesday evening as voters in arizona, idaho, utah and American Samoa head to the polls. Our coverage with results and speeches will begin after polling places close live on cspan. Each week, American History tvs real america brings you ar k archival films. Beginning in april in 1965 with an intervention to help americans during the civil war in the Dominican Republic. It also feature action in vietnam, including a look at the challenges of terrain in the country, the importance of the helicopter and air power. And efforts to assist rural vietnamese people with security and health care. I got a lot of pain in that left ankle. Its that sharp pain that you get when youve got nerves, you know. Its that sharp nerve pain. Burning, burning. I will do all i can to save that leg. I know. I know theres not much left. I was carrying that damn things in my hands on the way back. I was afraid the whole thing was going to come off. For these a means, 1965 was a year like no other in history. Fleet Marine Forces with were committed to combat in both hemispheres at once. In the Dominican Republic violence flared endangering the security of the hemisphere. The marines were sent in. And in vietnam, growing communist aggression with the commitment of battleready marines with the pacific fleet. All in all, it was quite a year. This is the story of it. The caribbean in april, blue water, gentle surf, sunlit leisurely beaches. Warmth and laughter and fun. But in april of 1965, the Dominican Republic becomes a scene of violence, unrest and upheaval endangering the security of the hemisphere. Its a threat which is immediately recognized. The american nation cannot, must not and will not permit the establishment of another communist government in the western hemisphere. [ alarm sounds ] on april 28th, word comes to the carrier boxer that help is needed in santo domingo. In moments marines already in a battalion are stationed into a caravan. Like two other such ready battalions on board ships in the mediterranean and the far east, the unit from the boxer is able to react, literally, on a minutes notice. 20 minutes after the call for help is received, a spearhead platoon with full combat gear is on the ground in the Dominican Republic. Quickly the platoon sets up a defense perimeter to ensure the safety of the American Embassy and of civilians who have taken refuge in the ambassador hotel. Immediately United States citizens are evacuated from the danger area. As the situation in domingo grows worse, the company follows the platoon ashore. And the company is soon joined by the rest of the battalion. One of the first jobs is to clear a corridor for necessary movement and communications and to provide a buffer zone, a neutral area between rebel forces and dominican government troops. [ gunfire ] within the neutral corridor, once it is established, the situation becomes fairly stable. But to wander out of it even by mistake can mean trouble. Of four marines whose jeep wandered out of the corridor, two are on their way to medical aid. The other two are in less friendly hands, but an angry marine who has just seen a couple of his buddies hurt does not make the most cooperative prisoner. They took the wrong way. They were seven blocks away if the international line. They were on their way to the airport seven blocks away from the line. They made a wrong turn. They got halfway up the street, your people started shooting at us. You hit one of our men. You almost destroyed one of our vehicles. . We will treat you as a prisoner. We will give you all the guarantee tiers, but you better take it easy. Dont be so arrogant. We will not tolerate it. Welcome to the United States. You can go your way just like that . We have already radioed to announce that we are sorry that by careless of the american forces, this situation took place and loofs have been loos from their side and our side. We hope that they keep their line to avoid trouble. There was this one guy, he couldnt hit anything. Every afternoon hed fire a few rounds down our way and, you know, wed stay and cover more or less, but he never came close to anybody. I mean, if we cleaned him out, they might have put somebody in there that could shoot. Other times the sniper problem requires action