Operation Desert Storm—30 Years Later: My View from the Joint Staff

I retired on 31 July 88. As Desert Shield was being formed, I began receiving postcards from the Dept of the Army inquiring about my health and announcing the possibility of a recall to active duty - at Walter Reed. I thought that was pretty strange as I was living in San Antonio at the time. One postcard each week during Desert Shield / Desert Storm.

I was on the Rock. On a 1 yr unaccompanied tour. Plus PI and Korea. We got extended 3 months. II MEF rolled out before I got home. Spoke with Group G1, she advised me to enjoy leave without much detail, due to being unsecure line. CLNC was a ghost town. Outstanding job by all that were there. It will be forever studied. I saw the damage later with a MEU over there, the trail of death. JSTARS had them dialed in.

I was a Department of the Army Civilian working in G3 Plans at Third US Army (USARCENT) at the time. I had my gall bladder surgery on Tuesday that week and on Saturday, spent 20 hours helping develop the deployment data for Army forces scheduled for movement to the AO. It didn't show for the next six months. I was then deployed to Saudi Arabia to manage the redeployment of Army forces back to their home stations. It was not the smoothest of operations because there was no real concept of redeployment at that time. A manual was written later to formalize the process.