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0116packageq PDF
0116packageq PDF
Corkran
By Peter Grier
S
waying under his parachute, parachute, grabbed his rescue kit, and down by a radar guided surface-to-air
Maj. Jeffrey S. Tice broke out started to run. missile while participating in the Pack-
of cloud cover at about 3,000 “I got about three or four Jesse Owens- age Q air strike, a major US effort to hit
feet. He was descending toward style strides away before they shot up the strategic targets in downtown Baghdad.
marshland—a bad sign. In the Iraqi ground in front of me,” Tice says today. Package Q did not work out as US war
desert, water attracted people. He stopped and held up his hands. planners had expected. Small glitches
There were black rectangles about The shooters formed a rough circle. combined to make the overall results
two miles off. As he neared the ground There were about a dozen—Bedouin of the strike unsatisfactory, according
Tice realized they were tents. Was that tribesmen, not Iraqi police or the elite to the postwar Gulf War Air Power
campfire smoke rising from the encamp- Republican Guard. Survey. The Air Force lost two F-16s:
ment? No, it was automatic weapons “Most of them didn’t have teeth or Tice’s and an aircraft piloted by Capt.
fire. Somebody down there was shoot- shoes but they had brand-new AK-47s,” Harry M. “Mike” Roberts. Both men
ing at him. Tice says. were members of the 614th Tactical
Tice tried to collapse half his chute It was Jan. 19, 1991. For Jeffrey Tice Fighter Squadron, the “Lucky Devils,”
to turn away and present a more dif- the Gulf War was about to enter a new flying out of Qatar.
ficult target. That was hard, as it was and arduous phase: captivity. But these losses did not daunt those
not exactly maneuverable. He hit the Somewhere nearby, the wreckage of actually fighting the air war. If anything,
sand in perfect position, jettisoned the his F-16 was burning. Tice had been shot they energized them. Over the door
AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2016 61
leading out of the 614th TFS operations and its allies flew thousands of sorties, and environs. Planners intended it to
building, someone painted a sign, refer- destroying Iraqi early warning radars, level important government buildings,
ring to the two pilots. It read, “God Bless airfields, and other strategic targets. dealing a psychological blow to the Sad-
Tico and MR.” Before every mission for Iraqi aircraft were reluctant to rise to the dam Hussein regime and Iraqi populace,
the rest of Desert Storm, pilots leaving challenge and largely ceded control of while underscoring that coalition forces
reached up and slapped those words. their nation’s airspace to the opposition. could reach any target in Iraq.
“My guys didn’t back up one inch,” The central strike force was composed
says now-retired Air Force Lt. Gen. A COMPLEX OPERATION of 72 F-16s: 56 from the 388th Tactical
Bruce A. Wright, who in 1991 was a But these initial attacks did not tar- Fighter Wing, based at Al Minhad in
lieutenant colonel and 614th commander. get Baghdad in force. The Iraqi capital the United Arab Emirates, and 16 from
“Once their brothers were shot down, was protected by a Soviet-style air the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing, based
they were committed to take the fight defense system of overlapping anti- at Doha in Qatar. Each carried two
to Saddam Hussein like never before.” aircraft artillery and optical and radar 2,000-pound bombs. They were supported
Package Q, launched 25 years ago guided surface-to-air missiles. In the by eight F-15s to provide air cover and
this January, was the largest air strike of war’s opening hours the only coalition eight F-4G Wild Weasels and two EF-111s
the Gulf War. Though it involved many aircraft that ventured “downtown” was to jam and attack enemy radars.
different types of coalition aircraft, its the stealthy F-117 Nighthawk. This The plan’s operational challenges were
main force was composed of F-16s. It limited the immediate damage to critical evident from the beginning. The complex-
likely remains the largest operational Iraqi government buildings and other ity of the operation would require aircraft
F-16 mission of all time. command and control targets. from four different bases to take off at
It was born of success. The US air war Package Q was meant to change that. four different times before rendezvous-
against Iraq began on Jan. 17, 1991. Its Launched the third day of the war, its ing and refueling south of Iraq’s border,
first two days went very well. The US main targets were in downtown Baghdad over Saudi Arabia.