I have written a couple of these, and found it not to be as troublesome as I had

thought it would be. It has made me change my mind about discussing some of

this stuff in more detail with my therapist and psychiatrist. I know they are long,

I may not be able to get around anymore but I can type like the Flash. Just a

quick follow up, we had HALO dove just on the outskirts of Baghdad at the

beginning of Operation Desert Storm, and the drops were successful. No injuries

or casualties, at this point time is of the essence. Above us a very short battle is

being carried out as the combined coalition Air Forces and American Naval

Aviators were making quick work of any of the few jets that the Iraqi military had

gotten into the air, or any Russian made Hind Helicopters they had gotten up

into the air. In the total operation the USAF ended up losing 14 aircraft having

flown some 29,300 combat sorties, that is what one calls being decimated. To

any of those brave pilots that were lost, my heart goes out to your families. It was

not long before the coalition Naval and Air Force aviators ruled the night. Time

was of the essence for us, as the targets being hit, were mostly radar

installations, communication's hubs, aircraft not in the air yet and airports used

for military application. Targeting was very selective and unlike this junk going

on now in the world, we were there for military targets. Every gear in our all

domain combined armed machine was working well. We quickly lost our HALO

gear, hid it well, got equipped and had a quick meeting as all the teams located

each other rapidly. We all had orders, and a list or targets to surveil, my group

and a few others would also be meeting up with other groups to do some last

minute on the job training. We knew as we entered the city, that first night,

random encounters with enemy troops would be unavoidable. We would

quickly deal with them and call for air or artillery support as needed. Two

distinct operations were taking place. The moment the attacks began on

Baghdad, they tried to call for reinforcements from all the stuff they had sitting

in Kuwait. That was not our job, other groups were taking care of that, and boy

did they ever. The brunt of the Iraqi military as far as soldiers were concerned.

They had taken up position in the desert between the staging grounds in

Riyadh. At the appropriate time, the main land forces in Riyadh simply went

around them quickly in tanks, hum-v's and various other and various other

armored troop carrying vehicles. For those that follow football, had this been a

play drawn up on a board, it would have been a classic Hail Mary Pass, which at

the time would work to perfection. Key elements had to be taken out, hit first

and that is what we were there for. As mentioned, I will be changing the names

of the men in my unit to pseudonyms, this is just for my privacy. We were all

equipped with state of the art night vision gear and moved quickly into the city.

My Sargeant, Harold Gunner was in the lead with me right behind and we

stayed low and went through back alleys. We had a small unit kind of like an

iPad, not sure if I can identify them or not, so I won't. They would lead us directly

everyplace we needed to go. From time to time we encountered Iraqi citizens

who were looking out at all the fireworks happening above, we simply went by

them as quickly as possible. We knew they were scared, these were just the

people that lived there and definitely not our targets. Me and some of the others

had been given a crash course in speaking Mesopotamian Arabic, the most

widely spoken language in Iraq. If anyone tried to communicate with us too

loudly, we told them to please return the the safety of the indoors and quickly

went on. I am sure they were alarmed at out presence, they had no reason to be.

As fast as we were moving, if some tried to call and report our position, we

would simply not be there anymore. Plainly put they were not a threat and were

much more afraid of us than we were them. If anyone on this site was in that city

on the night we attacked it, I am very sorry we had to be there or caused you to

be frightened. The civilians were not our purpose for being there. We huffed it

along for a good bit, Baghdad is a large city plus we were carrying a great deal

of gear on us and heavy body armor. We had been going for about 15 - 20

minutes before having our first encounter. Sergeant Gunner was still in the leed

and came to the end of an alley that fed out onto a road and stopped and held

his hand up signaling all stop. I came up beside him and he handed me a tiny

scope with a mirror in it used to look around corners that is very hard to see by

others. He indicated the direction and I eased to the corner and put he scope

around it and looked. Didn't take long to ascertain what he had stopped for. A

couple of hundred yards away, was a Russian made T-72 tank, and a hand full of

Republican guard soldiers on the ground looking up and the fireworks show. I

quickly pulled the scope back, and flattened my back against the wall. I thought

, 'That is a friggin' tank', and no one wants shooting at you or your men. I am

honest, this temporarily vapor locked my decision making process. Remember I

was young for that position, and this was the first real action I had ever seen.My

training was working, there are three options here; 1.) Maneuver around another

way, 2.)Call for air support, as we had plenty to neutralize the threat, or 3.)Two of

my men were hauling Javelin FMG-148's. These are an awesome weapons took

and Russian made tanks are particularly vulnerable to them as they have top

loading shells and store their ammunition close to the top of the turret. It took

me a couple of minutes to think through this, time was a factor so option 1 was

not optimal. The air strike was okay, but I didn't know how the battle in the skies

was going. There in an aircraft called an a 10 Warthog, which would likely be

used at this point. Yet that would put the aircraft in unnecessary danger and

they pack a Wallop. This was a civilian neighborhood, so it would possibly also

place civilians in danger that did not need to be. This is when the good Sgt.

Gunner began to show me the ropes. He motioned for one of the men carrying

a Javelin up. I would later get a chewing out over this when I filed my After

Action Report, followed by a pat on the back. I am a firm believer, that if one is

going to leed, you never ask someone to do what you are unwilling to do

. Command's thinking on this is, I am not supposed to place myself in

unnecessary danger, So

Joker, one of the guys who had been huffing it with the Javelin made his way up

to us, and I reached and got it and he let me have it. I moved to the end of the

alley again, and used the small control panel on it and made it hot (ready to

use). I leaned down on one knee, placed it how it needed to be and held up a

hand for my men to see, I was indicating five seconds. Everyone began to ready

their weapons, once that fifth finger dropped, I held the Javelin firmly and

leaned around the corner. These are the best in anti tank systems for infantry. It

did not take the onboard electronics a few seconds to identity the T-72 and I got

a green light on the end. I fired the weapon and it was the first time I had ever

done so at other human beings. When the anti tank missile came out, it arcs

straight up in the air and will strike a tank on the top of its turret. I watched this

happen almost as it was happening in slow motion. Then <BLAM!> it hit the

Russian made tank almost perfectly, right where it needed to. When a Javelin

(ATM) hits a tank, it penetrates it easily, as it has round has a depleted uranium

tip on it, and disperses something called thermite plasma. The situation gets

worse if you are in the tank, as this will cause your own tank rounds to explode

as well. There is a saying that was popular in the army we used, I absolutely

cratered that tank. Several of the Republican Guardsmen outside the tank, were

knocked down by the concussion of the explosion. I had expected a small

exchange of machine gun fire, but it didn't happen. The Republican Guard

helped their comrades to their feet and ran. I would like to think the tank crew

was outside of that tank, this I will never know. I handed the Javelin back to

Joker and we crossed the street quickly and ran towards our first rendezvous. It

would nice to say I had an adrenaline high, or felt good at taking an enemy tank

out. All I thought about is was I hoped that was part of the crew standing beside

it. So, we ran on into the night, and I as no longer a greenhorn.