30 Years On, Veterans Recall the Desert Storm Air War – By Kelly Kennedy (The War Horse) / Feb 6 2021
During the first daytime airstrike of Desert Storm, Mark Fox flew out with about 30 airplanes that launched at once from an aircraft carrier, looking for the Scuds used to terrorize U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
It was a brilliantly blue day, sun glancing off sea and sand, and Fox flew alongside planes that would keep his F/A-18 Hornet—and the bombs he carried—safe.
“The tactics we used were pretty darn good,” said Fox, now a retired Navy vice admiral.
But the Iraqi pilots weren’t bad, either.
“We were a lot better trained, and we had better equipment,” Fox said. “But we respected them—there was no question about it.”
Fox had reason to. In the early hours of that day—Jan. 17, 1991— another pilot from Fox’s squadron, Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, had been shot down by an Iraqi warplane.
“I think it’s pretty certain that it was an Iraqi MiG-25 that shot him down that night,” Fox said. “And it was a pretty confusing melee in the air.”
