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JANUARY 2016 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | NEVER STOP SERVING®
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25 Years Later STORM
DESERT Gen. Colin Powell looks back 62 “
Has [General Powell]
… Sealift is still vital for the
85-percent of his dry cargo and almost all [petroleum products] came by sea?
forgotten
three essential B’s: bullets, beans, and black oil (not to mention tanks).
—Capt. Don Colley, USN (Ret)
”
Desert Storm Reminiscences I enjoyed your 25-year retrospective inter- view with Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret) [“Colin Powell Remembers Desert Storm,” January 2016]. The pictures included with the article were excellent, but I think you missed an important aspect of the confl ict with the uninformative caption on the pic- ture on page 67. The “military equipment” that the media are looking at is a remnant of a Scud missile that was shot down by a Patriot missile. As the battalion commander of [3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia], I am the soldier in the picture, explaining how the Iraqis modifi ed their Soviet Scuds by adding to the propulsion section to increase range. As General Powell noted, the Patriot mis-
siles were one of the new systems that had a major impact in the war. Patriot was a tacti- cal system that had strategic consequences, as it reassured allied forces that the Scuds were not a major threat and helped keep Israel out of the war. My units in Riyadh fi red more than 50 missiles and prevented any signifi cant damage to the military assets that we protected. While the tactical ef- fectiveness of Patriot was debated after the war, for a relatively new and not fully tested capability to counter ballistic missiles, Patri- ot had an outsized impact on the war eff ort. — Col. Thomas E. Smith, USA (Ret) via email
I was the deputy commander of the De- fense Personnel Support Center (DPSC) during operations Desert Shield and Des- ert Storm. Our mission was to provide all subsistence, clothing and textiles, and medical supplies and equipment to the armed forces worldwide. With the rapid buildup and deployment
of almost 695,000 Americans, we faced unparalleled challenges. General Powell said he had the logistics genius of [Army] Lt. Gen. “Gus” Pagonis to get clothing, food,
14 MILITARY OFFICER MARCH 2016
and medicines where and when they were needed. At DPSC, we had the logistics ge- nius of outstanding military and civilian em- ployees who determined requirements and procured the commodities that got things rolling and fi lled the pipeline that allowed successful support to the troops. I will al- ways remember the innovation and dedica- tion of those proud employees answering the call during a hectic time of need. — Col. Bill Friel, USAF (Ret) Life Member via email
Having been closely involved in the mas- sive sealift eff ort in support of Desert Storm, I was disappointed [General Powell] did not credit sealift in response to your question about airlift and sealift. Has he forgotten 85 percent of his dry cargo and al- most all [petroleum products] came by sea, or did you edit that part out? That is one aspect of modern warfare which has not changed greatly: Sealift is still vital for the three essential B’s: bullets, beans, and black oil (not to mention tanks). — Capt. Don Colley, USN (Ret) Life Member via email
[“Colin Powell Remembers Desert Storm” was an] excellent article. … But on page 68, in the text, there’s [a] listing of the American armed services active in the theater. As is the case so often, the Coast Guard was notably left out. — Capt. Winston G. Churchill, USCG (Ret) Life Member, Halifax Area (Fla.) Chapter via email
Drought and Climate Change [“Water Scarcity/Security,” January 2016] strongly pushed the global warming alarmist agenda. (I’m sorry … it’s “climate change” now because there hasn’t been any global warming in the last 20 years.)
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