It’s been 35 years since U.S. troops fought Iraqi annexation of Kuwait in the Gulf War’s Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In honor of those veterans, a new memorial was dedicated in Washington Oct. 24. This Veterans Day, Catholic vets who served in the conflict reflect on the memorial and their experiences.
“It’s important that people realize the sacrifice and that the conflict occurred,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Doug Morrison, a parishioner of Holy Trinity Church in Gainesville. “Desert Storm tends to get tucked in between the end of the Cold War … and 9/11, and there was a lot that happened in between.”
Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm were ground and air campaigns in the Gulf War, an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the U.S. The war began after Iraq invaded and annexed the small country of Kuwait Aug. 2, 1990. After the invasion, the U.S. launched Operation Desert Shield, a military buildup in the region, followed by the Jan. 17, 1991, air campaign Operation Desert Storm, which focused on bombing Iraq’s airfields and radar. The operations concluded a month later after the Feb. 28 liberation of Kuwait.
Located adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial, the National Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial features desert-like flora, with a large fountain located near the center of the memorial. Inscribed along the base of the fountain are the names of the countries that participated in the 42-nation coalition. On one side of the circular memorial, an engraving lists the U.S. branches that served in the conflict. On the other side, a large, semicircular relief depicts U.S. troops running into battle, with tanks, aircraft and an aircraft carrier following. Two eagle statues soar out of the relief. A quote from Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. inscribed at the bottom of the reads, “My confidence in you is total. Our cause is just. Now you must be the thunder and lightning of Desert Storm.”
In the lead-up to the Gulf War, Morrison was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas. When he heard that Iraq had invaded Kuwait, “that caught at least most of us in Kansas by surprise,” he said. “By September, early October, we were painting vehicles and ordering parts and equipment and doing all sorts of preparations.”
In December, Morrison and his squadron were transported to the Middle East, where he served as a troop commander in Desert Shield. “When we landed, of course, you’re coming from snow and wind at Fort Riley, and we land, and it’s probably 90 degrees out in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia,” he said. As soon as their plane landed, “we were issued mission-oriented protective posture equipment in case there was a chemical or biological attack.”
St. Leo the Great parishioner and former Lt. Cmdr. Jerry Lenaburg said he was already across the Atlantic in Europe on his first deployment when he learned that Kuwait had been attacked. “We suspected pretty soon that we would be going to war at some point,” he said.
As part of Desert Shield, Lenaburg and his squadron flew over the Mediterranean Sea, “looking for wayward merchant ships and other ships trying to smuggle war material into Iraq.” After they were deployed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, they continued similar operations, flying over the Red Sea for 12 hours a day in search of suspicious shop activity. On one occasion, they identified a merchant ship that refused to stop, and an advancing U.S. destroyer fired several warning shots. “That particular ship was indeed carrying war material to Saddam (Hussein) and was boarded and taken over by the crew of the destroyer,” Lenaburg said.
Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Clemente, a parishioner of St. John the Beloved Church in McLean, flew an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet in Desert Storm, and was stationed on the USS John F. Kennedy.
“I was on actually the first strike of Desert Storm,” Clemente said. Jan. 17 at 1:20 a.m., Clemente and a fellow pilot took off on their twin-seater F-14, guiding several EA-6 Prowler electronic-warfare planes. “We were going after an airfield in Western Iraq,” he said. “We flew all the way from the Red Sea across Saudi Arabia.”
Meanwhile, Morrison and his squadron gathered in a warehouse near the Port of Dammam. “We were told to go to the highest mission-oriented protective posture,” which involved donning protective gear and “taking nerve agent antidote pills,” according to Morrison. “Then the announcement was made that the air war had started.”
As Clemente flew across Iraq, they came under fire from below. The jets soared upward, out of range of the ammunition. “They were shooting at us, you know, missiles and bullets were coming at our airplanes,” he said. “It looked like Christmas lights.”
Some missiles launched vertically, which were easier to dodge, but others would “guide” toward the aircraft, Clemente said. “These were Soviet-built surface-to-air missiles; they would actually come up and get above your airplane,” reaching 28,000 feet, he said. But as the EA-6s began bombing the Iraqi airfield and jamming the radar, the missiles diverted. “We took out their ability to communicate, we took out their ability to see us and then we started taking out their military capabilities,” Clemente said.
Several days later Jan. 24, Morrison and his squadron established a “screen line” west of the Wadi al-Batin river valley in western Saudi Arabia, protecting against an Iraqi advance. A month later Feb. 27-28, they cut off the Kuwait City Basra Highway, also known as the “Highway of Death,” where they captured more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers.
Morrison said he witnessed compassion on the part of the U.S. military. “Our medics treated those wounded Iraqi soldiers just like they would have treated any wounded soldier,” he said. “We provided them food as best we could, water. I think that’s a tribute to our nation.”
When it came to the ethics of warfare, Clemente said the military was careful to avoid civilian casualties, even bombing military targets during the night to spare as many as possible. “We wouldn’t hit churches. We wouldn’t hit mosques,” he said.
All three vets said they clung to their faith during the war. Clemente said he often attended daily Mass on board the USS John F. Kennedy. In the midst of war, “your faith becomes even more important,” he said. Lenaburg had not yet converted to Catholicism, but “there is no such thing as an atheist in foxholes — or in an aircraft,” he said. “I prayed that God was keeping my family safe and that God would keep my crew safe.”
But it wasn’t without struggles. Morrison served as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion, but without a Catholic chaplain on the ground, he was sometimes put into difficult scenarios. One time, as he was distributing Communion to the Catholic service members, “I remember having a soldier ask me, ‘Can you do confession?’ ” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m in the same boat as you are.’ You kind of make peace as best you can and trust in mercy.”
The vets said they appreciate the new memorial in Washington. “I’m thankful that the memorial is there,” said Morrison. “It’s not just casualties during the war; it’s casualties after the war” from chronic illness, Lenaburg said. “Their service should be honored.” Both said that many in the U.S. today dismiss the Gulf War, since the air campaign of Desert Storm was relatively brief.
“It was longer than that,” Morrison said. “In many ways, what became the war on terrorism … was really an extension of that first conflict.”
Donofrio can be reached at anna.donofrio@catholicherald.com.
