Ndezvous with eagles he describes the soldiers daytoday activity during wartime. The george bush residential library hosted this event are it it is about an hour. 1991, general. Told troops as they went into battle, they must be aware of desert storm. Among those this ploy deployed was gday rendezvous. Ith eagle Stephen Wiehe he was placed on the front lines. His memoir gday rendezvous with eagles, describes the day to day activities of a desert storm soldier. It has been called one of the best firstperson narratives of the gulf war. Awards earned many including for Army Accommodation metals medals. Wherees in austin, texas he is active in veterans affairs. He is joined tonight by his wife sue and his two children, kristin and cody. He has a deep love for country and family is an proud and is proud to serve. We are going to show a video to begin the program, and then stephen will come up to the podium. They will be a reception after willrogram and stephen leave enough time at the end for questions. We will begin now with the video. In the Early Morning hours of iraqs2 following dictator saddam hussein, not to use force. Powerful iraqi army invaded its trusting and much weaker neighbor, kuwait. [no audio] mr. Finch we are having some technical difficulties. Mr. Wiehe i just had to do it. I just had to do it. [applause] thank you. Technical difficulties are part of the deal. It is just part of what happens. It is what happens at four. I tell you what, technical difficulties happened. You have to be able to turn on a dime and go in a different direction, and that is what it is all about. How many veterans do i have any room . Everybody. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Appreciate you coming tonight. This is not all about me, and i just counted a blessing to be a spokesperson for other veterans, veterans like you. This is not about me. This is not all about the book, this is about our history and that is why we are here at the museum. What a great honor to be here at the museum, on this night, in this library talking about history and the 101st airborne , who is near and dear to my heart, by the way. ,ny of my friends will tell you it takes only five minutes for me to Start Talking about my division and who i am and where i came from and where my roots are. That is what it is all about. This is the 21st anniversary of desert storm and there are so many things going on this year, mainly we have the National Desert storm war memorial in washington dc that has been 3700. D by congress, it was signed into law by the 2014,ent on december 19, and we are just truly blessed and honored to have that piece of legislation that has been passed in washington. Ago,s of a couple weeks were through negotiations with the National Director at the memorial, and they negotiated in area one position that is in the other memorials in washington dc. Standup, steve. Thank you very much. Thank you for your help, and thank you for your warmth. That is what it is about. It is about us coming together, and contributing and giving to ourselves of this grand and noble cause. With the fortunate desert storm by having good leadership. Leaders, and that is why it is such an honor to be here tonight. President bush was a fantastic leader. He brought together a coalition of 34 countries for a noble cause to defeat a tyrannical ,overnment that overtook kuwait brought in the 82nd airborne, they were the line in the sand that was transported from fort bragg to saudi arabia and they coined the phrase, line in the sand. You defended the president s line in the sand, god bless you. The 101st Airborne Division got their 30 days later, ok . I have to give the 82nd airborne credit for getting their first in defending the line in the sand. The 101st took over 30 days later. We took over the position from where you were. We went out into the desert and ate a look took a look how it was like to live in the desert. That is something isnt it . Desert, makes me thirsty just thinking about it. [laughter] mouth gets dry just thinking about that. We learned to live in the desert. Like toed what it is use the bathroom in the desert, some of us say, take a dump in the desert. We learned to use the bathroom in the desert. Put a cheek on the side of an entrenching device. Like to eat it was with a thousand flies. We learned what it was like to look up at the desert sky and see thousands of stars with no lights, no lights. We learned what it is like to feel like at any moment, saddam and nine divisions were poised along the border at that time, nine divisions could have crossed the border at any time and we would have been that iraqi speedbump as the 101st, coined the phrase. We could of been the iraqi speedbump that was in the way of saddams tanks. Infantry does not marry up very well with armor. It just does not work very well. Done waswe could have shoot some antitank weaponry, missiles. The one thing we did have made me feel pretty good about that defense. We are talking about desert shield. That defense would have been balanced, lets call it balanced by attack helicopters, all the air support. We had the air support, and if those columns, if saddam had chosen to come into the Industrial Complex of saudi arabia, we would have stood firm against that onslaught because air. R air, because of our north, i amt to going to progress a second. Before we went north, we went to eagle. That was a place where we could rest. Cant eagle to was where we could write letters, clean our uniforms, sometimes it would be a month or two without a bath. It was not like we could just take a shower anytime we want to do. That was few and far in between. We would write letters. One night, i had the idea, i was a sergeant, lets write letters to the president. The president , lets show him our support of the decisions that were made or being made on our behalf and on behalf of the world. I say on our behalf because we had general sports golf general schwarzkopf general general schwarzkopf. We had the best general at the time. We had a general that had our own welfare in mind. We had a president with our welfare at heart. North, that iraqi speedbump, i get a brown envelope in the mail and who delivered it . A captain. A cap and comes to my foxhole and says, sergeant, who are you . I did not know how to respond to that, but i took the brown envelope from him and i looked at the envelope and it said, the white house. I said, oh, sir. That is just one of my friends. [laughter] he left mumbling to himself, you know . I was an observer. I was not in it infantry unit. Infantry but not of the infantry, does that make sense . Observer,rtillery mos but i was in the infantry but not of the infantry. You know, the captain did not know what i was about, despite what the white house stationery set. Said. Tionery i opened up the letter and it remains a treasure to this day. Before the powerpoint presentation, i had the letter pulled up because it meant so much to me. It meant so much. My wife said this morning, she said, we probably need to frame that letter. I think so. I think so. It is one of my treasures in life and it needs to be prominently displayed. After we were that defense, after we were that defense in and weert, we came back came back to camp eagle two and we started washing are close and doing washing our racks and doing the things we were not able to do for the last couple of months. The cover to the book was when i was at the fort. When that picture was taken of me, i was growling at my captain. I told him, this is the wrong time to take the picture. When you book was published, he said, look whos picture that is. [laughter] i had to admit, you do not want a book cover with somebody that is grinning from year to year in in war. R to ear we got arrested him and we knew something was going to be different. We knew we would have to go on the offense to get out of saudi arabia. It was not going to be just, go up and hand along the border and wait for something to happen. We were going to have to go on the offense to make something appen, and president bush put january 15 deadline. January 10, we started getting intelligence from the border location, 73 east that you will probably learn a lot about in the next couple of weeks at the museum. We started learning that we were going to have to go up and first hadarea that located their troops, so we went out there in support of the first cap relate derision cavalry division, we went up there. We went up there really thinking we were going to be another in thepeed bump, still defense, still desert shield, we are going to go up and see another iraqi speedbump. Intelligence says they already breached their own obstacle, they had commanding control of the area and they were passing troops along the border and they were going to come down the east. X around 73 we went up there on january 10 and we begin digging, frantically, frantically. We were just a few miles from the border from where these iraqis were going to come across. We went up and we just started dating, as fast as we could, and about this far underneath the ground was shale, rock. And so, the sinking feeling came across as we were digging our positions six inches into the ground with sand and iraqi onslaught. There were five divisions that were poised along the complex. We went up. Changed positions into a digging, butbegan we were closer to the border. We were closer to where it was going to happen. We thought we were going to die there. We thought, literally, this is where this is going to happen. The intelligence, the special ops, special forces had given us ,nformation that was credible had received information that was credible that they were going to come across the border no later than january 14. Something happened on the night of the 13th and i think it has a prayer, ok . Th our pray or veterans here prayed . There is a lot of veterans that pray in those situations. We prayed, and it started raining. It was miserable. It was in the 40s and it started raining and raining and raining and it never quit raining that night. We were miserable. The 101st Airborne Division do not believe in field of jackets so we did not have fielded jackets. We just had our uniforms, our just plain old uniforms, soaked to the bone, taking frantically. We never quit digging. The next day, we get word that they had ended their approach. Now, i believe in prayer. The 15thpt digging, passes. Complex and athe january 17, the 16th in the united states, local time was the 17th. The 101st Airborne Division kicked off the air war. They kicked off the air war and heres how they did it. Teams two fourman apache poised along the border that went in, that went in approximately 50 miles, 70 miles apart and that is what is called Task Force Normandy led by Lieutenant Colonel cody of the 101st Airborne Division. They went in and destroyed two sitessites, two radar that were 70 miles apart, simultaneously. The first shots of the gulf war. What that did, it allowed a 20 mile corridor to open up radar where our Coalition Forces could go toto the corridor and their objectives undeterred, on the scene unseen. We lost one navy pilot that night, one navy pilot. We could have lost thousands that night had it not been for the 101st Airborne Division going in and destroying the two radar sites, the world would have been a different place regarding the gulf war. We had 2388 soldiers that went night, 2388 Coalition Aircrafts went into their objective, unbelievable. That is thanks to the 101st Airborne Division. Clap. U can [applause] i am in love with the air force. Had it not been for the air force, things would have been different. A specter gunship working in the area of operations, we lost it to a surface air missile on the 31st of january. All of 16 crew members were lost, one missile, the crew lost. I would be remiss if saying the of the airration force, had it not been for the air force, the world would be a different place, the gulf war would have been different. We are thankful for the air force. Day, per00 sorties per day. After we were sufficiently convinced that iraq was blinded sortiee sorties, one after another were going in every day, we moved to the northwest. Did anybody here of the hail , the leftleft hook hook in the hail mary was when we went out to the left because of the air force bombardment and we positioned ourselves for g day. West while to the they were getting bombed and we assemblies,sk force about the size of two houston, texas in size. We are not talking about the size of a small town in texas. Twore talking about houston, texas. We went out to the west, set up a staging area called task force Assembly Area and that was the saving area that the 18th airborne used as they launched g day, ground operation day. 1991, so weary 24, went out and we set up a staging area, while we were setting up the staging area, the division is talking about two different locations that we could hit, objective strike, objective goal. Objective goal was a known ammo supplies point. Both of these objectives required chemical protective suits. They do not work very well in the desert. You get hot. There is just so much you can take of Chemical Protection in the desert, so it was a great fear that we were going to be engaged decisively by an opponent that was using chemical weapons. Secretary of state baker, i am convinced, i do not know this to be the truth, but when he was meeting privately in geneva, i iraq that weinced would use weapons against them if they used chemical weapons against us. That is just steve saying. That is just me. I do not know if that is for sure, but that is my gut feeling , that we had leadership that stood against the enemy even in those negotiations that would say, we are not going to let you do it. Youre not going to let poor chemical weapons on our troops. We were very fortunate that when we went in on it g day, fabric 24th, that we did not have to go striker. Another thing about g day, if ve ofan capture the ea it g day, and im not trying to put myself on equals with world war ii veterans of the 101st Airborne Division, our brothers and fathers, but they went on g by and were standing colocating. Cating next to our blackhawk helicopters in the desert. Anything other than helicopters, 66 blackhawk helicopters, 30 should knocks colocatinglc the night before. I have a picture of that code location. With not able to reconnect my helicopter pilots until after the book was written. We had the first female pilot on gday. I have reconnected with them via facebook. Facebook helped me write the book and reconnect with soldiers i had never, hadnt seen over years. Just diving off looking for friends, i found a lot of friends and im thankful for that connection. Im thankful we did it. So, when we went in on gday, if you can picture all of these helicopters in the air at one time and turning to the north and racing into fort oppearating base cobra, it sends chills up your spine to be a part of that. To have been a part of the first lift into operating base cobra was exhilarating. I was thinking again, this is probably going to be the last time i will going to live, this is going to be my last day, but but wow. What an exhilarating moment to set up this Forward Operating base cobra in iraq. Forward operating base of viper. The war started moving quickly. It started accelerating. We were taking the advantage. We werent engaging the national guard. We were engaging the Republican Guard. We were cutting them off from coming back into baghdad. They were having a bad day. Why were they having a bad day . Because of leadership. Because of general schwarzkopf. Talked to his war planners, general schwarzkopf said, dont give me a meat grinder, meaning dont set me up for failure. Dont set us up where we are going to get a lot of our People Killed during this operation. Day, make them have a bad not us. , great schwarzkopf general. President bush, fantastic president. He allowed his generals to do their job. He allowed them to do their job. He allowed them to succeed. He did not get in their way. He built that 34 coalition. 34 member coalition. That has never happened before. It has not happened since. Very, very impressive leadership. I was impressed with the leaders that they would write me a letter, that i would have to this day. Unbelievable. So what do i remember from desert storm . Mainly leadership. I remember the good times and i remember the times i felt like it was going to be my last time on earth. If i can, im going to talk to you about one more lift, viper which is where we cut off the enemy, cut off highway eight and actually squeezed them. Fort operating base viper, we were put on a cluster bomb munition minefield. We were put in a wrong position. We were tiptoeing our way out of this area, trying to get to an objective. The objective was Fort Operating base fiber. With 100 pounds on your back, its like taking one step forward and two back. You do not move very fast in loose sand if you are carrying a lot of weight. So we had probably five miles to get to our objective. It we werent making it very quickly. It was really hot and heavy conditions and we thought we were going, probably, according to intel, we were in a cluster bomb minefield. Not of our own, but of the iraqi. So we went tiptoeing through this area and we took a break, took off our rucksack and the hair on the back of my neck started standing up, call it observer intuition, call it whatever you want, but the hair was standing up on the back of my neck and i started surveying the battlefield and i started surveying the horizon and i saw andof our own abrams tanks it was following us, so i stood up so he could see my uniform. I did not want there to be a mistake with an abrams tank. I might be dumb, but im not stupid. Here i am. I did this. With no weapon. He immediately turned his turret to the east, telling me he saw me. You see the smoke coming up from his engine and off he goes. We put on our rucksacks and we start walking, marching to our objective at Forward Operating base viper. When we get there, we finally take off our rucksacks, it was a relief. We start digging, digging. About the size of a casket. , thatthe size of a casket is what we are digging, digging a hole in the ground just enough to get under the terrain, and about then, the sound of a tank went off, just