THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160273
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: THE GULF WAR: FIVE YEARS LATER
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Five years ago tonight, riding a bus back to his quarters following an eight-hour shift in Central Command's headquarters at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Air Force Maj. Richard McSpadden had a feeling the war would begin.
``I thought, `You know, tonight just feels like the night,' '' McSpadden recalled saying to a friend on the bus.
``He agreed. So we actually went back at about 1 or 2 in the morning Riyadh time. The place was abuzz.''
It had started.
McSpadden, then a captain, unmarried and an instructor pilot in the F-15 Eagle, had been technically assigned to the 49th Fighter Wing out of Holloman, N.M., when he was tapped to join Lt. Gen. Charles Horner's staff and plan the Air Force's role in the Middle East conflict.
Today he is married, assigned to the 94th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, and is preparing to return to Saudi Arabia next fall to enforce the United Nations' continuing ``no-fly'' zone sanctions against Iraq.
It is a lasting impact of the war: Langley pilots and maintenance personnel rotate into Saudi Arabia every 90 days to support the mission.
``It seems like a long time ago,'' McSpadden said. ``A lot passes in five years, especially in a dynamic career such as this one.''
Yet he reeled off the memories as if they were yesterday's events.
``At the time everybody was a little bit anxious because we really hadn't been tested in quite a long time. We had this philosophy in the U.S. military that we were going to go with technology over numerical superiority,'' he said.
It worked. During the first 14 hours of the air war more than 1,100 flights were directed at Iraq and 18,000 tons of explosives were dropped; 80 percent were considered successful. More than 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles, never before fired in anger, blasted off from warships.
``Everyone was in sort of a euphoric state for a while,'' said McSpadden. ``Nobody believed it was really happening. There were real missiles coming off the rails, real bombs being dropped.''
They paced themselves, just as Gen. Horner said. ``He relayed to us, through his actions, to be calm, collective and do what we were trained to do,'' said McSpadden.
Facing the unknown from Iraq's 700-plane air force was the biggest question, he said. But that was soon answered when their air force seemed to disappear.
``It was the use of overwhelming firepower'' that got the job done, said McSpadden. ``To get in, get the job done and get out. We learned that lesson from Vietnam and it validated that thinking.''
There was initial fear from the Iraqi Scud missiles.
``It was funny after awhile. When we first got over there, we lived in a compound, or apartment complex. The first night when a Scud went off we did what we were supposed to do: Jump out of bed, put the chem (chemical warfare protection) suits on and hide under the furniture.
``As it went on and the Patriot missiles became more effective, we'd jumped out bed and just put our chem suits on. But we didn't hide.
``After a while we didn't put the chem suits on. We'd lie in bed.
``Then, toward the end, we'd actually run up on the roof to watch the Patriots hit the Scuds because it became quite a fireworks display.'' ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA
The Virginian-Pilot
``It was the use of overwhelming firepower'' that got the job done,
said Air Force Maj. Richard McSpadden. ``To get in, get the job done
and get out.''
KEYWORDS: GULF WAR ANNIVERSARY by CNB