Air Guard tests Total Force concept in Persian Gulf war

by Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke
National Guard Bureau

11/5/2010 - ARLINGTON, Va., (11/4/10) -- As the Air Force entered the Persian Gulf war, the capabilities it needed to go to war were spread throughout the active and reserve components.

"When it hit ... the Air Force had plenty of everything," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John B. Conaway, who was the chief of the National Guard Bureau at the time. "Except tankers to bridge the flights over there. They needed our tankers. They needed our C-130s, our mission support units and our search and rescue capability. Some of that capability was heavily in the Guard."

For example, 100 percent of the service's reconnaissance capability consisted of two Air National Guard units, the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing from Birmingham, Ala., and the 152nd from Reno, Nev.

"Starting in the late 70s, the Air Force made the decision to put brand new airplanes ... straight into the Guard," said Senior Master Sgt. Bruce Walters, a flight engineer with the 165th Airlift Wing from Savannah, Ga., who volunteered to serve in the Gulf. "This was an opportunity for us to validate that and to prove to the rest of the nation that this was a good investment.

"This was a chance to ... come in and participate and provide the men and materiel and training and airlift that we need right along with our active duty counterparts, which is what we still do today."

In the first three weeks of Operation Desert Shield, over 2,800 Air Guardsmen from 68 units in 40 states voluntarily served on active duty. That number peaked at 4,000, and a total of more than 8,000 Air Guardsmen entered active duty as volunteers during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Complete air crews volunteered for the mission, and "they were able to do a lot of missions without being mobilized," Conaway said.

Walters' air crew was preparing for an operational readiness inspection in Alpena, Mich., when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

"We volunteered because being a Guard member ... it was an opportunity to demonstrate to the active duty forces and the rest of the nation that the capabilities and the investment that they made in the National Guard ... was a good investment," Walters said. "Our nation was in need at that time, and we volunteered to answer the call. We all threw our hat in together."

When Kuwait was seized on Aug. 2, 1990, Maj. Gen. Philip G. Killey, a South Dakota Guardsman serving as director of the Air National Guard, formed an ad hoc contingency response planning cell in the Pentagon to coordinate with the Air Force operations center.

The next day, the Air Force notified the National Guard Bureau to be respond within 24 hours to any mission taskings.

The first came on Aug. 6: The Air Guard was asked to provide C-5 and C-141 airlift support, KC-135 tankers and airlift control element augmentation.

Tanker units from Maine, New Hampshire, Arizona and Kansas deployed to Moron Air Base, Spain in response to a Strategic Airlift Command requirement to prepare for the possible movement of American forces to the Middle East.

"They started on Day 1, moving troops over ... refueling, doing airlift and reconnaissance ... all with volunteers," said Conaway.

On Aug. 22, the emphasis had begun to shift from volunteerism to mobilization when President George H.W. Bush authorized the mobilization of 48,000 Guard and Reserve members to active duty for 90 days.

Two days later, the 183rd Military Airlift Squadron of Jackson, Miss., and the 137th MAS of Stewart Air National Guard Base, N.Y., became the first Air Guard units involuntarily recalled to active duty.

Both were strategic airlift units whose members as well as their C-141 and C-5A aircraft were already heavily involved as volunteers in Desert Shield.

Col. Paul Weaver, the commander of the 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart, who later became the director of the Air National Guard, said even though only one squadron (the 137th) was activated, the entire unit responded to the call-up.

"We are operating as if we are an active Air Force base on a 24-hour-a-day basis, seven days a week," he said at the time.

On Oct. 5, the Air Force mobilized two Air Guard C-130 units, the 130th Tactical Airlift Group of Charleston, W.V., and the 136th TAG of Dallas. They deployed their 16 C-130H aircraft and aircrews along with their maintenance and support organizations. They were joined by the 166th of Delaware and the 139th of Missouri in late December.

The Guard's airlifters flew some 40,000 hours, transporting 55,000 people and 115,000 tons of cargo, according to Guard documents.

Walters' C-130 crew was based in Al-Ain in the United Arab Emerits. "We were there basically at that point and time to ... building up to the invasion," he said. "Most of our airlift support was moving men and equipment material and supplies from places like Bahrain, which was a combination airfield and sea port."

During a 16-hour duty day, the crew would move cargo in four or five legs from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and surrounding bases.

"I came away with a pretty healthy respect for the effort that goes into an operation of that size," Walters said. "From a logistics standpoint, it was really impressive."

One load also made Walters think hard about what was about to happen in his area of operations. "We flew to Bahrain one day and one of our cargo load happened to be five pallets about 45 to 55 gallon drums of embalming fluid.

"We actually had five airplanes doing that mission that day, so there was that much," he said. "That kind of put things into perspective for me, because I don't think ... we really knew what casualties would be like," he said.

"It was a very sobering thought to think that we would have to even have to use that."

As pressure from Capitol Hill continued, the Pentagon announced on Nov. 4 that more Guard and Reserve combat units would be mobilized for the operation.

DoD opposed calling up reserve combat units, because they could only be mobilized for 180 days under the existing presidential executive orders and they said these units needed additional training to be deployable.

This training policy was driven by the Army's needs and perceptions, but it was inappropriate for air reserve flying units. They were held in a high state of readiness by the Air Force unless they were converting to new aircraft.

Rep. John D. Murtha of Pennsylvania inserted a 360-day extension into the 1991 defense spending bill. He said Congress had spent over $20 billion on the Guard and Reserves during the 1908s, and "the Gulf crisis offered the perfect opportunity to test the Total Force concept."

On Dec. 3, the 169 Tactical Fighter Group, based at McEntire ANGB in Columbia, S.C., and the 174th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hancock Field in Syracuse, N.Y., along with elements of the 152nd from Reno were alerted for mobilization.

The 169th, which had won the 1989 Gunsmoke competition, was considered the most experience F-16A unit in the Air Guard. The 174th had only recently converted to the F/A-16, which was armed with a 30-millimeter gun.

The Air Force was anxious to test the new system in the close air support role as the services' preferred successor to the A-10. It was the only F-16 unit in the entire Air Force configured for that mission.

When these units landed in Saudi Arabia, they found a bare base with tents and hangars but little else. They had to negotiate with active duty Air Force units to secure hangar and shop space on the flight line.

All 13 Air Guard KC-135 tanker units had been alerted for activation on Dec. 20, and members from all but one were mobilized along with 62 tankers. The Guard's aerial tankers pumped over 250 million pounds of fuel into more than 18,000 aircraft, according to Guard documents.

Conaway said the tanker support provided by the Air Guard was a success story. "The Navy and Marines will tell you," he said. "Air Guard tankers went up over Baghdad ... they were right there when (a fighter) was in trouble."

In the end, Killey said the total Air Force is a prime example of how a Total Force should work. "From the very beginning, we participated in every mission area," he said. In addition to the flying units, about 18,000 Guard members filled medical, firefighting and other support missions.

"That particular deployment for all that it held ... the uncertainty of what future events would be ... was still to this day was one of the most exciting deployments that I had ever been on and I had more fun doing it," Walters said. "It was just a privilege to go do that."

After all the hard work to get the Air Guard into the fight, the individuals and units that were sent forward didn't disappoint their commanders.

"I've always been very impressed with the Guard," said Gen. Merrill McPeak, then the Air Force chief of staff. "They are functionally indistinguishable from active duty squadrons ...."

(Editor's note: This story contains exerpts from "From Shield to Storm: The Air National Guard and the Persian Gulf Crisis" by Dr. Charles J. Gross of the National Guard Bureau.)