- 6/19/2025
For educational purposes
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF).
Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft with over 4,600 built since 1976.
The U.S. Air Force, including the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, flew the F-16 in combat during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and in the Balkans later in the mid 1990s.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF).
Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft with over 4,600 built since 1976.
The U.S. Air Force, including the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, flew the F-16 in combat during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and in the Balkans later in the mid 1990s.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Thank you for listening.
00:30January 17, 1991. F-16 streak toward Iraq.
00:40I kept thinking, I just kept saying this, any minute now there'd be a terminate Wolfpack, terminate Wolfpack.
00:45This is not happening. Somebody's going to stop this.
00:51The closer and closer and closer we got to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, I kept saying, nobody's going to stop this.
01:00The troops from Iraq's regular army are deployed in tiers north of the Saudi border, while at least 1,600 tanks, backed by 40,000 troops, face the coast.
01:18They raped the woman and the child, then they shot the man in the head.
01:31These tortures went on daily.
01:33Yesterday, the noon deadline passed without the agreement of the government of Iraq to meet demands of United Nations Security Council Resolution 660,
01:46as set forth in the specific terms spelled out by the coalition, to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait.
01:53The liberation of Kuwait has now entered a final phase.
01:59I have complete confidence in the ability of the coalition forces, swiftly and decisively, to accomplish their mission.
02:10January 1991, American commanders returned to Saudi Arabia after briefing President George Bush on their battle plan to liberate the tiny Gulf Kingdom of Kuwait.
02:27Nearly all of the generals leading American forces in the Gulf are veterans of the defeat in Vietnam.
02:33Every decision made reflects this, and is the antithesis of the way the war in Southeast Asia was fought.
02:46In Vietnam, American air power was applied with intermittent bombing halts, meant to encourage concessions.
02:53Here in the Gulf, there will be no such compromises.
02:56158 civilian airliners are commandeered in what becomes the largest airlift in history.
03:06In the first six weeks alone, more men and machines are flown into the theater than transported over the entire 18-month span of the Berlin airlift.
03:16Unlike Vietnam, a quarter million reservists are called up for the first time since World War II.
03:22A total of 25 squadrons, or nearly half of all Air Force combat units in the U.S., fly non-stop to Saudi Arabia.
03:37Is that a single ship?
03:39No, I've got three of them. Two on the coast side, one in the middle.
03:43Among these are 140 F-16 Fighting Falcons.
03:47The Falcon will be the workhorse of an Allied air assault that will mark a turning point in combat aviation history.
03:57The F-16 Fighting Falcon, initially designed as a lightweight, short-range day fighter meant to oppose Soviet aircraft in Europe,
04:06has evolved into one of the most effective fighter aircraft the world has ever seen.
04:11Vulcans are capable of pulling 9 Gs, meaning that in high-speed combat turns, a pilot weighing 200 pounds can suddenly weigh 1,800.
04:23The cockpit seat is reclined at a sharper angle than in any other fighter, which keeps blood from pooling down into the pilot's legs,
04:31and makes it less likely that he'll black out while flying as fast as 1,400 miles an hour.
04:36January 16th, by the eve of battle, nearly 250 F-16 stand poised in the Gulf to take on the fourth-largest army in the world.
04:52I have pledged that this will not be another Vietnam, and let me reassure you here today, it won't be another Vietnam.
05:04We've had a policy in Vietnam of gradual escalation.
05:08A lot of targets off-limits gradually put on the target list,
05:12but never really were given the opportunity to use air power to its maximum effectiveness to take out the opposition.
05:21In the Gulf, I asked for, from the president, got his permission to give him the whole load the first night.
05:27And as I say, we put together a comprehensive target list,
05:29and we let basically our commanders in the field decide what ought to go on that target list.
05:34I personally approved, together with General Powell, the categories of targets we would have hit.
05:39We took that to the president for his approval, too, but we didn't pull any punches.
05:42We went after everything from the very beginning
05:45in order to deliver the most devastating strike possible in terms of maximum impact of air power.
05:51So those were, I think, direct lessons that we derived from the Vietnam experience,
05:55and we tried hard in the Gulf to benefit from those lessons.
05:59The deadline has passed for the Iraqi military to leave Kuwait.
06:22At midnight on January 17th, the American war machine is set into motion.
06:27In the U.S. command bunker near Riyadh, American leaders wait nervously
06:33after launching the largest single air assault in history.
06:42In Vietnam, aviation assets were divided under separate commands.
06:48In the Gulf, they're united under the supervision of a tough fighter jock named Chuck Horner.
06:53Waiting for the war to start that first night was a real downer.
06:57And not only did we know we were going to lose our guys, we didn't know how many, but we knew some would be killed.
07:06But we also knew that we were going to embark on the taking of a lot of lives, a lot of Iraqi lives.
07:10And I don't know of any military person who takes joy in war, certainly we didn't that first night.
07:16I had great confidence in our ability of our forces to do what they said they were going to do.
07:22What we didn't know, what nobody knew, was how costly it would be.
07:25And we always assumed the first night of the air war would be the most dangerous and the most difficult,
07:29that we'd lose our most largest number of pilots that night because the air defenses and the air force on the Iraqi side
07:36would be at its maximum level of capabilities.
07:38And I spent that night in the office.
07:432.30 a.m.
07:45F-117 stealth fighters pave the way for a furious assault that will leave no region of enemy territory untouched.
07:54In the span of 45 minutes, nearly 700 coalition aircraft streak into Iraq.
07:59The strike force is timed to hit over 100 vital targets simultaneously.
08:05The secret to success in Desert Storm and the air campaign side were the tasks we accomplished in the early days of the war.
08:16The first thing we did was seize control of the air.
08:18That was fundamental to everything else.
08:20Gaining control of the air means eliminating Iraq's formidable SAM, or surface-to-air missile threat.
08:38Of the enemy's 15,000 heat-seeking and radar-guided SAMs,
08:42some of the most troublesome are those based in occupied Kuwait.
08:46Here, the F-16 fighting Falcon will play a crucial role.
08:52To defeat Iraq's SAMs, this modern warplane will rely on surplus munitions from the Vietnam War.
08:59American pilots will use this combination of dated and modern weaponry
09:03to face down an Iraqi air defense system known as CARRY.
09:08Designed by the French, it is an elaborate system of early warning radars,
09:12SAM missile sites, and ground-controlled bunkers,
09:15which will direct 275 Iraqi fighters onto incoming Allied aircraft.
09:23As the first night of war gives way to mourning,
09:27the Falcon pilots of the South Carolina Air National Guard
09:30set out to destroy the 10 enemy SAM sites covering occupied Kuwait.
09:35I had been selected to be the mission commander to lead the 20 aircraft into Kuwait and knock out these SAMs,
09:44and so I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility since the success or failure of the mission
09:50and the survivability of our aircraft would depend a great deal on how effective the plan I had developed turned out to be.
09:57If unsuccessful, the skies of Kuwait will remain a deathtrap for the second wave of American airmen set to follow.
10:10We launched very early that morning, and I'll never forget that.
10:15It was a beautiful day, gorgeous.
10:18Coming from where we were, we had over three hours of flying to do just to get to our target.
10:32During that time, we had to air refuel a couple of times.
10:35It seemed like another training sortie, like we had flown hundreds of times before.
10:52Except this time, you look out on your wings, and no kidding, those are live bombs out there,
10:57and here's seven other F-16s flying with you in formation going in to bomb this target.
11:03Yeah, it looks real dandy up through the north.
11:09As I said, we'll be able to bomb, but it won't be pretty.
11:23Jernigan's plan is for himself, his wingman, and another flight of two
11:27to enter enemy airspace well ahead of the rest of the squadron.
11:30This small vanguard will then take out the two most forward Iraqi SAM sites in Kuwait.
11:37With enemy defenses awakened, the survivors will then push deeper into enemy territory
11:43and act as decoys, drawing Iraqi radars with them.
11:47The 16 undetected falcons trailing behind will then blast the eight remaining missile sites.
11:54As we hit the Kuwaiti border, I remember thinking at the time that this doesn't seem too bad.
12:06So far, nothing was shooting at us, and none of us had any indication of enemy radar activity
12:12on our radar warning receiver.
12:14And so I thought to myself that they didn't know we were coming.
12:18You go in, and all this anticipation, all this buildup, you're ready to do it.
12:22The pressure's on, the heat's on, and your fingers are working a little faster,
12:25and the radars will move a little faster because you're making it go too fast,
12:29and all this kind of stuff.
12:29And you get in there, and you get so busy, the butterflies go away.
12:33Just seconds after crossing the border, the first two Iraqi SAM sites are destroyed.
12:57It is the only part of the mission that goes as planned.
13:01The Iraqi SAM crews quickly spot the main Falcon strike force trailing behind.
13:08We pulled off of the target and headed to the north, climbed back to the mid-20 altitude.
13:15I'm on the western side of Kuwait.
13:16My individual two ships have now split and going towards their targets.
13:21At 220. At 220.
13:23220. At 220.
13:27Sorry.
13:28Sorry.
13:28Stop me to the target area.
13:30Simultaneously, almost every one of my 20 F-16s was engaged by SAMs.
13:37You guys are screaming on the radio for the SAM brakes,
13:45and with one turn on my head, I see about 30 or 40 smoke trails crisscrossing the sky.
13:50And off in the distance, there was a big black pulse of smoke,
13:53and I, at the time, did not know whether each one of those represented a lost F-16.
13:58I had a frequency pre-planned for all the fighters to come up once we were back in friendly territory.
14:07And as I pushed over to that freak, I couldn't bring myself to check the flight in.
14:12I had a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat.
14:14I was very concerned about what I would find because I was not sure how many of my fellow aviators were down in Kuwaiti airspace.
14:21It remains one of the more special moments in my life when I gave the command to check in,
14:28and one at a time, 20 F-16s checked in.
14:30You come back across the border, and there's just, like, this tremendous release of all this energy that's been built up,
14:44and you just kind of, you drop your shoulders, and you take a breath, and then you're back to business again,
14:49and you start looking around, okay, all the pieces are still on my airplane,
14:53and, okay, there's my buddies, they're all here.
14:56We start checking in on the radios and making sure nobody has any damage.
14:59We do a battle damage check on each other to make sure nobody's been hit.
15:06Prior to the war, the South Carolinians were rated in international competition as the world's best ground attack unit.
15:16Above Kuwait, they prove why, knocking out all 10 Iraqi SAM sites with no losses.
15:29I will tell you, as soon as you come back across the border, is actually the times I was scared the most,
15:35because then you would kind of go, oh, my God, what did I just fly through?
15:38And all those missiles and all those bullets, the 57-millimeter AAA, the anti-aircraft artillery was just enormous.
15:44You could see the stuff on CNN, well, we were looking at it from a different direction.
15:49We're coming in from the top of it, and y'all were seeing it from the bottom side of it.
15:53When I got up the next morning, they brought in the results, and by then all the planes had returned except one.
15:59We'd only lost one aircraft in that first night's raid.
16:02Remember, we were also products of the Vietnam press.
16:05We had the attitudes that maybe we weren't as good as anybody else, so on and so forth.
16:11So when the missions were successful and the airplanes returned safely,
16:16there was a great deal of euphoria broke out in our command headquarters,
16:19and people were talking and joking and carrying on.
16:23I did my best to put a squash on that,
16:26because I knew that war isn't its highs and lows, its ups and downs emotionally,
16:32but most of all, it's hard work.
16:34You don't know what goes on in the mind of a man like that.
16:38I do believe we'll be unrelenting until they get out of Kuwait.
16:43So continue.
16:45Let's be careful about complacency.
16:50Yeah, we had a lot of euphoria right at first,
16:53but then it settled down into a routine of going to work every day and getting the job done.
16:58But there's no reason to have somebody be a POW killed.
17:04In the course of less than a day,
17:31over 500 targets throughout Iraq and Kuwait are damaged or eliminated.
17:36F-117 stealth bombers, precision-guided munitions,
17:41and cruise missiles form the backbone of an assault
17:44that simultaneously takes out command bunkers, power stations,
17:49radar defenses, telephone exchanges, bridges, and fuel dumps throughout the region.
17:55Despite this, Saddam Hussein escapes attacks on his bunker.
18:02Still, the intensity and speed of the onslaught sends Iraq reeling.
18:06The comparison, if you will, with the paralysis with shock
18:18is to think about what happens to the human body
18:21when it takes a whole series of wounds across the entire body.
18:27Any one of the wounds may not in itself be particularly a problem,
18:31but if they happen in a time-compressed manner,
18:35then they have a tendency to produce shock.
18:37And that shock can either lead to paralysis,
18:40or in many cases it will lead to death,
18:42even though the individual wounds in themselves are far from being fatal.
18:46And that's basically what we did to Iraq.
18:47The professionalism of the American Air Force
19:01is born out of the massive defense buildup of the Reagan years.
19:05It marks an incredible turnaround for an organization
19:08that found itself broken and discredited following the debacle in Vietnam.
19:13The 80s allowed us to train every day.
19:19You know, every Monday we came back and got back on those jets
19:22and went back out and flew again.
19:24We have a saying in this business, and I didn't make it up,
19:26and it goes way, way back,
19:27but there's no replacement for air under your butt.
19:33No academic classrooms can replace air under your butt.
19:37And you get these young guys out there flying 18 to 21 times a month,
19:42and they get good, and they get good in a hurry,
19:45and they get competent, and they get capable,
19:47and they become flight leads, they become instructor pilots.
19:52Getting shot at was not near as much fun as I had thought it was going to be.
20:01We landed at our base, and as I pulled in,
20:04I pulled into the hot pits, and they pumped gas and filled the airplane back up,
20:08and as I went to my parking spot, before I turned the motor off,
20:11I felt the airplane start rocking, and I looked out the window,
20:14and they were slapping bombs on it.
20:16As I climbed down the ladder, told the crew chief the jet was code one,
20:19and started to walk to the tent, the next pilot was passing me, going back north.
20:23We continued that for 39 straight days.
20:26And Reno, just confirmed.
20:43Is your contact target?
20:45Affirmative to Reno 1.
20:46Confirm there's a white building in the middle of the target.
20:49Good bombs lead, 2.
20:512's off.
20:52The pace of the air campaign never lets up.
21:01Jernigan's unit alone drops over 4 million pounds of ordnance on the Iraqis below.
21:09By war's end, men in Falcon cockpits complete more missions
21:13and dropped more bombs than any other pilots of the war.
21:24Before the war began, Saddam Hussein talked about air power,
21:28and he said that Iraq had experience with air power,
21:32and they had experience with American air power, I guess,
21:34because they figured Iran flew some American planes,
21:36and that they would ride out the air campaign,
21:39and then he anticipated there would be a grisly ground war.
21:44And Iraq's strategy was to ride out the air campaign, engage in a ground war,
21:49rack up a sufficient number of American casualties
21:52that the American public would become discontent and unhappy with the ground war
21:57and a political compromise would be reached.
21:59And you think about the willingness and the ability of, say,
22:03both the French, the British, and the Germans in World War I
22:07to accept 50, 60, 100,000 casualties on a single day
22:11that led to nothing more than a change of a few hundred yards
22:14or a mile or something on a line on the ground.
22:17Anything that was even remotely like that today would cause a government to fall.
22:21People simply are not willing to make those kinds of human blood investments
22:26unless their very lives depend on it.
22:29The only bloodbath is the one that drowns the Iraqis themselves.
22:39The Iraqis expect the bombing campaign to last days.
22:44Instead, it goes on for five weeks.
22:52And this is my counterpart's headquarters in Baghdad.
22:55This is the headquarters of the Air Force.
23:01And keep your eye on all sides of the building
23:03as the airplane overflies the building
23:05and drops the bomb down through the center of the building.
23:09Air Force briefers inoculate the American public
23:12with an antiseptic show of smart bombs, stealth planes, and precision-guided munitions.
23:18To the people at home, the war becomes a bloodless video game.
23:23But the CIA estimates that as many as 150,000 enemy troops
23:28die on the desert floor below.
23:34Airmen fly three and four missions a day,
23:37maintaining an intensity unmatched since Vietnam.
23:40The strain is expected to create a maintenance nightmare.
23:44Instead, Falcon ground crews keep 95% of their aircraft
23:49combat-ready for the duration of the conflict.
23:52It is an incredible feat for an Air Force
23:55that hasn't fought a major war in 20 years.
23:58Some of the things that I told them, you know,
24:01we can make some mistakes back down in Georgia and South Carolina
24:03when, you know, you're out of formation.
24:05But if you make a mistake here, you might not be coming back.
24:08Or I might not be coming back.
24:10We started out the first couple days of the war,
24:12and we pretty much said,
24:14let's go with our heavy hitters on the first couple missions.
24:18You know, before we go dragging these guys,
24:20I mean, some of these guys have more combat time
24:22than they've got peacetime flying.
24:23They came right out of school, right out of the training unit,
24:26and boom, they're in the squadron.
24:28We stamp a mission-ready certificate on them
24:30after about 12 flights, and they're in a war.
24:32The next week, they're in a war.
24:41No amount of training can prepare young men
24:43for a job that often calls for the destruction
24:46of civilian industrial targets.
24:50I can see my target.
24:52I can see my specific area that I'm responsible for hitting.
24:56Rolling in, releasing the bombs, and coming off target.
25:00And then you stop to think, well, you know,
25:04here's this factory, this oil refinery down there.
25:07And you know, you know, unfortunately,
25:09one of the inevitabilities of war,
25:10people are going to get killed.
25:11I can remember seeing all those bombs going off,
25:14the first ones, leads bombs hitting the ground,
25:16and things beginning to explode and the target crumbling.
25:19And there's a parking lot full of cars there,
25:21and you know the place has got people in it,
25:23but, you know, you've got a mission to do.
25:25That was our specific target,
25:26and that's what we were fragged to destroy.
25:30But you couldn't help but wonder,
25:32you know, for those people stuck inside.
25:34Good intentions seldom hold up in the chaos of war.
25:42Early in the conflict,
25:43faulty intelligence leads to the destruction
25:45of a bunker sheltering civilians.
25:48An F-117's 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb
25:52takes the lives of nearly 400 Iraqi men, women, and children.
25:57These images pose a public relations nightmare
26:00to American leaders.
26:03Over the course of the struggle,
26:04the rules of engagement are clear.
26:06Excessive civilian deaths are to be avoided.
26:09By and large, this edict holds.
26:12At war's end, the huge amount of ordnance dropped
26:15accounts for 2,700 civilian deaths.
26:18Prior to the war,
26:23our commanders, all the way up to CENTAF headquarters,
26:27reiterated to us that
26:29without positively identifying
26:31the target we were going after
26:34or the airborne aircraft we were going after
26:37as a military target,
26:40they would rather we bring our bombs home
26:42rather than cause collateral civilian damages.
26:44I take an oath to defend my nation
26:47and to fight for my nation.
26:49I assume I grant the enemy that we're facing
26:54no less than that same oath.
26:57And so if he takes my life or I take his,
27:01then that is a decision each of us can live with.
27:04Being relieved of the responsibility
27:06of having to go in and possibly live
27:09with large-scale civilian casualties,
27:11I was very grateful for.
27:12U.S. commanders are intent on denying Saddam
27:40this kind of political leverage.
27:42Orders are issued that keep the Falcon above 10,000 feet.
27:46At such height, the pilot is safe,
27:49but the plane nearly impotent.
27:52When we were doing the initial planning,
27:54we had assumed that airplanes like the F-16 airplanes,
27:57smart airplanes dropping dumb bombs,
27:59would have better success than they were able to have.
28:01As it turned out, though,
28:03trying to drop bombs from 15,000, 20,000 feet
28:07as the tactical situation really demanded for the F-16s
28:11turned out to be a very, very difficult problem.
28:14And a good illustration of why it was a problem
28:17comes in something that nobody in the past
28:19had worried about particularly,
28:20and that is the ballistics of the bomb itself.
28:23The bomb itself has a 6-mil built-in random air.
28:28That means that for every 1,000 feet of distance from the target,
28:32that the bomb, from pure aerodynamic reasons,
28:35may wander off 6 feet from where it's going.
28:38So at 10,000 feet, that's 60 feet.
28:40At 20,000 feet, that's 120 feet.
28:42And the pilot has absolutely no control over that.
28:53Eight out of every 10 Falcon bombs
28:56fail to strike on target.
28:58As the ground war approaches,
29:00U.S. commanders begin to demand greater accuracy.
29:04Falcon pilots are forced into bombing runs
29:06that take them closer to the deck than ever before.
29:08Later, the enemy ignites countless oil wells
29:12to obscure his movement below.
29:14And 16s must dive into approaches
29:17that take them beneath the black clouds of smoke.
29:21You felt very vulnerable.
29:23It was just a vulnerable feeling.
29:25And you could look down,
29:25you could see these AAA pieces,
29:27you see the muzzle flashes,
29:28and I'd look up as we're coming off target
29:30and notice a lot of these ground bursts,
29:33explosions were going off above us.
29:36I couldn't help but think of just one lucky aim
29:38or one lucky bullet is all it would take
29:39to bring you down.
29:42Back in the control bunker in Riyadh,
29:45Air Force leaders steel themselves
29:47for the losses that will surely follow
29:49these new tactics.
29:52I think all of us who are involved
29:53in command and desert storm
29:55carry a real fear.
29:58We have to make decisions
29:59that can lead to the loss of lives.
30:01And if we make the wrong decisions,
30:03more lives are lost
30:04than if we'd made the right decision.
30:05Military guys,
30:09particularly fighter pilots,
30:11they've learned very early in their lives
30:14that they're not in control of their lives,
30:16that there's higher powers at work.
30:18And all you do is do the best you can,
30:21know that you're going to make mistakes,
30:23but if you don't try the best you can,
30:26somebody else has to.
30:27So you got the stick,
30:28you fly the jet,
30:29you do the job.
30:30And afterwards,
30:33you feel very badly
30:33about the things you did wrong.
30:36When you make mistakes as a commander,
30:39people can second guess you,
30:41but that's nothing compared
30:42to what you do to yourself.
30:47But the loss rate in the Gulf
30:48is the lowest in modern history.
30:50Less than 2% of Allied combat aircraft
30:54fall to Iraqi gunners,
30:56a statistic of little comfort
30:57to the men downed over enemy territory.
31:00Five Falcons are lost over Iraq
31:03and three F-16 pilots
31:05fall into enemy hands.
31:07In February,
31:08while on a routine recce mission,
31:10Captain Bill Andrews
31:11embarks on a mission
31:12that would last the duration of the war.
31:16On my mission on 27 February,
31:20my flight was designated
31:22to provide close air support
31:24for the 18th Airborne Corps.
31:26We dropped down
31:28underneath a 10,000-foot ceiling
31:31looking for the targets
31:32that had been called out to us.
31:36And as we circled over the area,
31:40I think I made about a,
31:42I don't know,
31:43about a 270 degrees worth of turn.
31:45When my wingman called back,
31:47hey, I think I see something,
31:48I circled back around
31:50to take a look at it.
31:51There was a few Iraqi vehicles
31:53moving along the road.
31:56I was getting ready
31:57to call for permission
31:59to hit those vehicles
32:00when my F-16 was hit
32:04by what I believe
32:05to be a surface-to-air missile,
32:07probably an infrared-guided one
32:08because I didn't get any warning.
32:10When the missile hit my airplane,
32:15it was just such a shock.
32:17I couldn't even understand
32:18what was happening.
32:20One minute,
32:21I was looking over the edge
32:22of my canopy at the ground
32:24looking at some Iraqi vehicles.
32:27The next second,
32:29there was just a tremendous explosion
32:31and a huge impact from behind me.
32:35The canopy went
32:36and I was kicked right out
32:39of the airplane
32:40by the ejection seat.
32:43And as I was looking down,
32:46I saw tracers coming by my side.
32:50I looked over my shoulder
32:52and somebody was firing
32:54a 23-millimeter
32:55in the aircraft gun
32:56in my direction.
32:59Luckily,
32:59they weren't much of a shot that day.
33:02I think I started yelling
33:03on my radio,
33:04hey, they're shooting at me.
33:05I had about a five- or six-minute
33:08parachute descent
33:09down to the ground
33:10and I could see Iraqis
33:12coming towards me
33:13a few hundred yards away
33:14and I hit pretty hard.
33:19When I hit the ground,
33:21I tried to get up
33:22and I immediately flopped over.
33:24It turned out
33:25my leg had been broken
33:27just above the boot.
33:30Andrews soon finds himself
33:32headed for Baghdad
33:33with other captured Allied pilots.
33:35Today,
33:41American pilots fly an aircraft
33:43that retains the strengths
33:45which have made it
33:45one of the best fighters
33:47the world has ever seen.
33:50Externally,
33:50the F-16C
33:51is very similar
33:52to the older A model
33:53that preceded it.
33:55A limited number of these
33:56served in the Gulf
33:57and were the only falcons
33:59capable of operating at night
34:00or delivering laser-guided munitions
34:02munitions on their own.
34:05The canopy hits the pilot
34:06at waist level,
34:07seating him higher
34:08than in most fighters
34:09and providing an unsurpassed
34:11field of vision
34:12in every direction.
34:15Older falcons relied mainly
34:16on the pilot's eyes
34:18to spot threats.
34:19The F-16C marks a quantum leap
34:22in B-V-R
34:23or beyond-visual-range technology.
34:26Inside the cockpit,
34:28pilots use a wide-angle
34:29heads-up display
34:30or HUD
34:31that provides four times
34:33the viewing area
34:34of earlier models.
34:37The most vital aspect
34:39of the jet, however,
34:40is its single engine.
34:41The Pratt & Whitney F-100
34:43is the same as those
34:45employed by the F-15.
34:47Nearly smokeless,
34:48the power plant
34:49provides the pilot
34:50with over 25,000 pounds
34:52of thrust.
34:53On full afterburner,
34:55the Falcon can burn
34:56the 4,000 pounds of fuel
34:57carried in its drop tanks
34:59in just 35 seconds.
35:01Two multifunction video screens
35:11display avionics data
35:12and FLIR imagery
35:14that enable the F-16C
35:16to operate day,
35:18night,
35:18or in bad weather.
35:25In a dogfight,
35:27pilots rely on the radar-guided
35:29AIM-7 Sparrow missile.
35:37The missile follows
35:38the energy signal
35:39reflected off the target
35:41and can kill
35:42from over 45 miles away.
35:46At shorter range,
35:48Falcon pilots depend
35:49on the heat-seeking
35:50AIM-9 Sidewinder.
35:54This is the AIM-9
35:55Sidewinder missile
35:56and a few key items
35:57about this heat-seeker missile
35:58up here located
35:59on the nose of the missile
36:00is a cavity.
36:01Inside here,
36:02we put an argon bottle.
36:03Argon is an inert gas.
36:05The bottle is pressurized
36:06to 5,000 PSI
36:07and it is used during flight
36:08to cool off
36:09the electronic systems
36:10in the missile
36:11and provide a better
36:12heat lock-on
36:12for the target detector.
36:15Located just in this section
36:16here would be the warhead.
36:17The warhead is about
36:1821 pounds of high explosives.
36:20It uses what they call
36:21an expanding metal rod.
36:23The warhead can be detonated
36:24in two methods,
36:24either by direct impact
36:26on the target
36:27or the second method
36:28underneath this protective cover
36:29is by proximity.
36:31And what it'll do
36:31is send out a sense
36:32of a target flying nearby
36:34and if it's close enough,
36:35it'll actually detonate
36:36the missile automatically.
36:37Another area of interest
36:38on the aft end
36:39of the missile
36:39are the roller-on assemblies.
36:42There's one located
36:43on each wing area.
36:44The roller-on assembly
36:45acts as a,
36:46to stabilize the missile
36:47in the roll, pitch,
36:48and yaw during flight.
36:50A key design
36:51is this channel
36:52which funnels air
36:53down to the roller-on
36:54which spins at high rate
36:55and acts as a gyroscope
36:56to stabilize the missile
36:57during free flight.
36:58Upon launch from the aircraft,
37:00a small setback weight
37:01will come loose
37:02and allow the roller-on
37:03to move freely
37:04about its axis
37:05and is oil damped
37:06to prevent excess flutter
37:07during flight
37:08so it will not damage
37:09the missile.
37:09At 4 a.m.
37:14on February 24th,
37:16the ground assault begins.
37:18The attack is sudden
37:19and ferocious.
37:20The enemy is dug in
37:22behind a series
37:22of minefields,
37:24razor wire,
37:25and oil-filled ditches
37:26that they intend
37:27to set alight
37:27in the face
37:28of Allied troops.
37:30It is the same defense
37:32that blunted
37:32hundreds of human wave attacks
37:34launched by the Iranians
37:36over the course
37:37of eight years of war.
37:38But from the outset,
37:45the feared Iraqi army
37:46never materializes.
37:47In many places,
37:49the enemy response
37:50is uninspired
37:51or non-existent.
37:54After nearly a decade
37:56of struggle against Iran,
37:58Saddam's troops
37:58are tired of war.
38:00For five weeks,
38:01they have been pounded
38:02from above
38:03by an enemy
38:03they cannot touch.
38:10In the war against Iran,
38:12they slept in their tanks
38:13for safety.
38:15In this war,
38:16their tanks
38:17become coffins.
38:19In the two days
38:34following the ground assault,
38:35nearly 3,000 sorties
38:37are launched
38:38against enemy positions.
38:39That's our worst enemy.
38:43Thousands of Iraqi vehicles
38:44are destroyed,
38:45and in the first 24 hours,
38:47over 75,000 prisoners
38:49fall into American hands.
38:52Many are starving
38:53and shell-shocked.
38:54But some in allied ranks
39:03have little sympathy
39:04for the depleted condition
39:05of their captives.
39:07When you have privy
39:09to some of the intelligence reports
39:10of what they're doing
39:11to the Kuwaitis
39:12and the Kuwaiti people
39:13and the Kuwaiti women
39:14and children,
39:15I have no sympathy.
39:17I mean,
39:17these guys are really good
39:18at beating up
39:19on 18-year-old Iranians,
39:21okay,
39:21in a mud fight,
39:22but they'd never seen
39:23anything like this before,
39:24and they got their butts
39:25handed to them
39:26on a silver platter.
39:28And I was,
39:29to be honest with you,
39:30I was proud
39:31to be a part of it.
39:36By February 27,
39:38Saddam's strategy
39:39becomes one of flight.
39:40Nowhere is this
39:41more evident
39:42than on the road
39:43between Kuwait City
39:44and Basra.
39:45huge convoys
39:47of trucks,
39:47tanks,
39:48and stolen automobiles
39:49raced toward Iraq,
39:51only to be caught
39:52in a deadly bottleneck.
39:55When they finally
39:56made the run for us,
39:57there were a lot of us
39:59that were going,
40:00well,
40:00here's payback time.
40:02You know,
40:02you sorry rascals,
40:03if you hadn't done this
40:03to begin with,
40:04I wouldn't have been here
40:05to begin with.
40:06There was no doubt
40:07we had them pinned down.
40:08The army was bearing down
40:09on them from this side.
40:11They couldn't go that way
40:12because of Iran
40:13and in the ocean,
40:14so they pretty much
40:15had to make a beeline
40:16towards Basra and Holm.
40:25For the next two days,
40:27American F-16s
40:28pound the 40-mile
40:29stretch of asphalt
40:30with ruthless efficiency.
40:39It was a lot of flight.
40:41Our squadron was
40:42basically a two-ship
40:43every 20 minutes
40:44on that highway
40:45around the clock.
40:47Around the clock.
40:48We weren't the only
40:48squadron doing that.
40:49In fact,
40:50the airspace became
40:51a bit of a problem,
40:52you know,
40:52trying to get all these
40:53airplanes in there.
40:58To the newly liberated
40:59people of Kuwait,
41:01justice is finally served.
41:03What do you think
41:04when you see all of this?
41:06I think they got
41:07what they deserve.
41:07I still have humanity.
41:10I didn't like that
41:12they got what
41:13they have.
41:14No.
41:14But I think
41:15they got what
41:16they deserve.
41:16I have no regrets
41:28whatsoever about any
41:29bomb I dropped
41:30on that highway.
41:31Zero.
41:32They bought this war.
41:33They started it.
41:35They brought it on.
41:36And sometimes
41:36the only way
41:38in my mind
41:38you're ever going to
41:39keep this from
41:39happening again
41:40is you use
41:41extreme penalties
41:42and extreme force
41:44and that may
41:46prevent somebody
41:47from doing it again.
41:54Did we go too far?
41:56I don't think so.
41:57I say you get
41:58as much criticism
41:59on the other side
42:00that we should have
42:00gone farther
42:01or we should have
42:02gone to Baghdad
42:03or we should have
42:04kept the war going
42:04for another day or two.
42:06Those are judgment calls.
42:07I think we made
42:07the right call.
42:08We'd achieved our objectives.
42:09We did what we set out
42:10to do
42:10and we did it
42:12I think in an
42:13exemplary fashion
42:13and the Iraqis
42:15of course
42:16always had the option
42:17not to have invaded
42:17in the first place.
42:18They always had the option
42:19to have gotten out
42:20when we told them
42:20to get out.
42:22They had the option
42:23to surrender
42:23and back off
42:24before we actually
42:26launched the ground war.
42:27They didn't do
42:27any of that
42:28and in the end
42:29we did the only thing
42:31we could.
42:32We used military force
42:33to liberate Kuwait
42:34and to push the Iraqis
42:36back inside Iraq
42:37and that was
42:38the right thing to do.
42:40One hundred hours
42:41after the ground
42:42assault begins
42:43it is over.
42:44For the Americans
42:45captured in the conflict
42:47a brief nightmare
42:48comes to a close.
42:50Two Iraqis
42:51were standing
42:51over the top of me.
42:53I think we were all
42:53pretty surprised.
42:55They just stared at me
42:56didn't know what
42:57didn't know
42:58what to make of it.
42:59They said
43:00Amerikishi Piyosh
43:01American pilot.
43:03I said yes.
43:05They said
43:06the war
43:07it's over.
43:09I go
43:09peace?
43:10They go yes
43:11peace.
43:12The war
43:13was over
43:14at eight o'clock.
43:15The price
43:23of Kuwaiti
43:23liberation
43:24is high.
43:27Billions
43:28of dollars
43:28environmental
43:30disaster
43:30as many
43:31as 150,000
43:33Iraqi lives
43:34and those
43:35of 394
43:36Americans.
43:39Four months
43:40after fleeing
43:41its homeland
43:42the Kuwaiti
43:43monarchy
43:43is reinstated.
43:45It's oil
43:45again
43:46to flow
43:46freely
43:47to the west.
43:49To some
43:49the true nature
43:50of the Kuwaiti
43:51regime
43:51and the war's
43:52underlying goals
43:53taint a struggle
43:54that American
43:55leaders packaged
43:56as a crusade
43:57against tyranny.
43:59You can say
43:59it was about oil
44:00but that doesn't
44:01in any way
44:02lessen the significance
44:02of it
44:03or in any way
44:04reduce the morality
44:06of our cause.
44:07The fact of the matter
44:08is you could not
44:08afford to have
44:09somebody like
44:10Saddam Hussein
44:10sit astride
44:12the Persian Gulf
44:13control the world
44:14supply of oil
44:14and acquire
44:15nuclear weapons.
44:16And you can talk
44:18morality all you want
44:19but in my mind
44:20it's not immoral
44:21for us to oppose
44:22that kind of development.
44:24Whether the focal point
44:25is oil or isn't oil
44:26strikes me as
44:28not a moral judgment
44:30at all.
44:30It was a vital interest
44:31to the United States
44:32for us to deny him
44:33his conquest
44:34and we did it
44:36and we did it
44:37with the approval
44:38of the American people
44:38and we did it
44:39with the approval
44:39I think of the entire world.
44:40But the legacy
44:46of the Gulf War
44:47is not a political one.
44:49To most military historians
44:50the significance
44:51of Desert Storm
44:52is clear.
44:53F-16 Falcons
44:54formed the backbone
44:55of one of the most
44:56lopsided victories
44:57of all time.
44:59In less than two months
45:09the warplane accounts
45:11for over 13,500 soldiers
45:13for nearly a quarter
45:15of all the strike missions
45:16launched in the conflict.
45:18A conflict
45:19where for the first time
45:21in history
45:21air power
45:22is the primary instrument
45:24in bringing about
45:25the collapse
45:26of one of the largest
45:27standing armies
45:28in the world.
45:29coming up next
45:54see how you can ride
45:55the eternal wave
45:56on Next Step
45:57then computer designs
45:59help create
46:00futuristic bikes
46:01on Beyond 2000
46:02only on the
46:03Discovery Channel
46:04explore your world.
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