My Father About The Persian Gulf War example essay topic

My junior project is on the Gulf War; also known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm. "The liberation of Kuwait has begun", and with this announcement by White House Press Secretary, Marlin Fitz water, the news was broke to the American public that war against Iraq had been launched by armed forces of the United Nations. The date was Jan. 16, 1991, and the war began about 2: 40 a.m. on January 17 Iraqi time, or 6: 40 p.m. EST. On January 16 in the United States. It was time to start the war.

I Interviewed my father. My father was willing to be interviewed by me for this project. The event my father lived though was the gulf war. My father was born in Ft.

Stewart hospital in Georgia April 8, 1965. He has one sister who currently lives in Atlanta, and a father who was in the military and now is retired and is now living in Germany. His mother lives in Darien. He has a wife, is my mother, and three children, my sister (14), brother (12) and myself (17). He is still in the army.

His ranks have changed from a staff sergeant (SSgt) in the time of the war to a CW 3. He has over 20 years in the army. I learned alot, but I think the ideal of huge giant tanks roaming the big vast sand covered land is pretty scary. For five and a half months, ever since Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, the United States had mobilized and led a defensive coalition of United Nations (UN) allied forces in a military action called Operation Desert Shield to protect Saudi Arabia. United States President George Bush had declared that the occupation of Kuwait would not be allowed to stand, and he dispatched land, sea, and air forces of the United States to Persian Gulf bases, mostly in Saudi Arabia. The coalition forces were from Great Britain, France, Canada, Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and other nations.

Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, was finally given a deadline of Jan. 15, 1991, to get out of Kuwait. He didn't show any inclination to meet the deadline, so Operation Desert Shield turned into the military offensive Operation Desert Storm. For the first 37 days, Desert Storm was almost entirely a war of air bombardment. Iraq's response was remarkably feeble.

It launched scud missiles against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Most of these were intercepted and destroyed by American patriot antimissile rockets, though there was some loss of life. Sometime in January, Iraq released oil into the Persian Gulf, creating a huge pollution problem. As the war was ending, Iraqi forces set fire to more than 600 Kuwaiti oil wells.

It would take more than a year to extinguish the fires, which caused severe air pollution. The ground offensive, called Desert Saber, was launched late in the day on February 23 (about 4 a.m. on the 24th in Iraq). It lasted only four days. By that time, nearly the whole infrastructure of Iraq had been destroyed -- specifically bridges, highways, electric power systems, water filtration plants, and airports. At the same time, Iraq's ground forces had been terribly battered by the bombing. With uncounted thousands already killed -- the number of military fatalities was unofficially put at 150,000 -- surviving Iraqi troops surrendered by the tens of thousands, and those who stood to fight were quickly and decisively defeated.

By February 27, President Bush was able to announce that he had ordered a cease-fire. Iraq was beaten and Kuwait was liberated. It had been the most massive air bombardment and land offensive since World War II. Links Sadden Hussein attacked the people of Kuwait.

President Bush used the military of the United States to stop Hussein because of a nuclear situation. Most of the general reaction at the time was fear. The reaction that I have found states that many people in the United States were afraid of the nuclear attempts. Operation Desert Shield and Desert Strom, also known as the Gulf War told by my father from a point of view on the field during the time of war. I think it was mainly fear of the unknown.

I was a staff sergeant in the United States army assigned the senior maintenance supervisor in a line haul transportation company. I was 25 years old. I was married with a son, a daughter, and my wife was pregnant with my second son. I knew that Kuwait was a small country that provided oil to the U.S. I had to remember the war between Iraq and Iran. I knew the Iraqi president had used chemical weapons on his own people.

I had felt that the U.S. would not stand by and watch Saddam Hussein take over a country that we were friends with. I was stationed in Kaiserslautern (k-town), Germany with my wife and children. The transportation company I was assigned to had 190 soldiers in the unit. I was the senior maintenance supervisor in a line haul transportation company. The unit's mission was to transport classes of supply. I was still 25 years old as a staff sergeant, and it was very difficult at the age of 25 to have these duties.

I was surprised when I first heard the news. I told a friend of mine that " the U.S. should go take out Iraq". I am still in the U.S. army. I am a Chief Warrant Officer three (CW 3) and a maintenance technician. The Gulf War in my mind was a success for the U.S. and coalition of forces that fought the war. I only wish that we had taken care of Saddam Hussein.

He should not be the president of Iraq today and that's my option. Yes, my life has changed. I learned to live life to the fullest. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. Today could be normal, quiet day, and 24 hours later we could be at war with another country. In August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the U.S. had to step in and stop Saddam Hussein, before he invaded Saudi Arabia.

Saddam Hussein wanted to control all of the oil in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. relied a great deal on oil imported from Sandi Arabia and Kuwait. The U.S. started deploying soldiers in August shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait. My unit deployed the beginning of December 1990. The deployment caused my family and me not to celebrate Christmas that year.

My wife was pregnant with our fourth child and was due to have the baby in March. You can only imagine all of the uncertain thoughts going through my mind, like, would we make it back from the gulf. We were aware that Iraq might use chemical weapons. My unit transported some of everything from the port in Sandi Arabia to unit locations in the desert. When the air war started, we knew it would be just a matter of time before the ground attack started. We had the Iraqi forces on the run.

The objective was to liberate Kuwait to the way it was. My unit re-deployed back to Germany in May and June of 1991, and my second son was born on March 1st. Yes, I do understand why the U.S. and the coalition forces went to aid Kuwait and Saudi Arabia: oil. If the U.S. did not go to the Persian Gulf, who knows what the price of gas and oil would be.

It taught me what the army was designed to do. It was my first deployment into harm's way. I did not know if I was going to return home. There is always that risk or chance that a person might not make it back. When you are responsible for other soldier, you have to ensure that they are trained to react to various situations. Training and practicing on your skills could save your life.

I prayed several times a day to cope with the deployment. I had to adapt to a lot of the worst living conditions ever. I think this interview went will. I have learned alot by talking to my father about the Persian Gulf War. It was exciting taking down notes on this event that my father was involved in. The interview went as easy as I predicted it would.

It wasn't that difficult to get the information from him and out of encyclopedias and off the Internet.