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The day began much as the days before it had, a voice rough from a night of sleep and not yet having had his morning coffee saying, “Get up, get shaved and get ready, formation in 30 minutes.” The tent was dark and it was chilly in the mornings, just south of Riyadh
PATRIOT’s role in this conflict had honored us, but was also a reason for concern. The fact that a weapon the Iraqis deemed important (their SCUD missiles) had been neutralized by the PATRIOT brought home the fact that, if there were covert Iraqi forces in Saudi Arabia
Please indulge me while I break from the story to clear up a few things. First, PARTIOT is Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept On Target. The phased array part means that the radar does not rotate, like most people think of a radar, it electronically shifts the beam. The entire body of the radar can turn to adjust to a primary target. When it is turning, there is a small horn just loud enough to let anyone standing near know to be aware. PATRIOT was designed as an anti-aircraft system, and when we arrived in Saudi Arabia was not capable of shooting at targets coming at a near vertical descent. The control systems received software upgrades after we were in Saudi. Trying to bend a radar beam that much was problematic. It greatly decreased the range and stability of the beam.
The next thing I need to explain is the Scud. It is 40 feet long and the front 5 feet contains the warhead. It is a ballistic missile that, at the peak of its trajectory, is above the atmosphere. Its downward path consists of falling back into the atmosphere at speeds above mach 5. The Scud is not a weapon that allows you to select an important building and target that building. You can, however, target a city the size of Fort Worth and expect it to land within the city limits. This means that a Scud is not a Tactical weapon but a Terrorist weapon; it is used to invoke fear in large population areas.
Finally, how effective was PATRIOT? PATRIOT was completely successful at its mission. Did we shoot down every Scud? No. Did we destroy most of the incoming warheads? No. We did hit several Scuds, which had never been done in combat. That is the equivalent of shooting a bullet with a smaller bullet. Think about it.
The Scud was a terrorist weapon, not a tactical weapon. If we had been shooting at tactical missiles, you would not have to destroy them all. You have to keep them from reaching their target. For a Scud the target is the ground. PATRIOT was being used as an antiterrorist weapon, to make the people in the cities feel safe, at which it was completely successful. So successful, in fact, that it kept the Israelis out of the conflict.
Now back to the story of that day. Shaved and ready, I headed to formation. Opening the tent flap, the first thing I noticed was that the back door to the radar was open, which is pretty much the same thing as the hood being up on a car. It is broken. The radar had been down for three days, which was enough time to have called in Raytheon techs to come fix it. In formation, we were informed that some other troops from a different branch of the military were coming that day to help with perimeter security. Having been released from formation, Gildeon and I went to check the reload equipment and stay out of sight till lunch.
In line for lunch, one of the the troops in to help with perimeter security was behind me. I introduced myself, greeted him, and told him that he had never seen anything like a PATRIOT launch at night from only about 150 meters away. Imagine a one ton round accelerating to mach 3 in the time it took it to travel only 17 feet!
I left the conversation there, got my lunch and continued on with my day. I remember as it got dark heading into the tent and glancing over at the radar, the back door was still open.
Our unit used a lot of electricity, and we had a TV and a Nintendo in the tent. All the visiting troops were to stay in our tent. They had settled in around the Nintendo in the front of the tent while all the PATRIOT soldiers headed to the back of the tent to their cots, to go to sleep. I know that I had fallen asleep, because I awoke with a start. The small horn on the radar was beeping little short beeps; this meant that the radar was adjusting itself to a target azimuth. As I sat up on my cot and put my boots on, all the other PATRIOT people were doing the same thing. The visiting troops were still in the front of the tent playing Mario, but had all noticed as we sat up in unison. They asked “What’s going on?”
We replied, “Scud Alert!”
No sooner had the words left our mouths than the air raid siren began to scream, and over the P.A. we heard, “Scud Alert, Scud Alert.”
We headed for the bunker, passing the "new guys" putting on their boots. One of them asked me, “How did you know?”
I responded “I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.”
Exiting the tent, we checked to see that the door was indeed closed. We all rushed to the bunker, not really for cover but to have a good view if we launched. The bunker was built out of two six foot culverts about six feet apart with a couple of Air Force pallets spanning the gap and all of it was covered with dirt. I noticed that the PATRIOT people were all pressing to the front, while the visiting troops were filtering into the culverts.
The first warning in this scenario is, “Scud Alert, Scud Alert!” This means that a high energy burst was detected in Iraq by satellite. The next warning is, “Scud Launch, Scud Launch!” this means that AWACS has picked up the Scud on radar, normally about 2 to 3 minutes after the satellite detection. The next warning is “Inbound! Inbound!” This is given when the AWACS determines that your location is the one to engage the Scud. Our missiles launch within seconds of this warning. Finally, “Incoming, Incoming!” This is from our own radar operators. The Scud is on our radar, and before this announcement is finished PATRIOT missiles have exploded out of their transport/launch canisters. The site turns to daylight and a double sonic boom smashes into you, from each missile launched.
I was standing at the front leaning on the culvert to the right of the bunker, as you looked out of it. As the warnings progressed, I noticed the PATRIOT people pressing forward and the new guys moving further into the culverts. They didn't understand what we already knew about the PATRIOT defense system. The “Inbound!” and “Incoming!” warnings were one behind the other. The “Incoming” warning was repeated as a shout by the visiting troops as they hit the deck.
As the PATRIOT missiles streaked down range, the light began to fade and the rumble of the missiles died away, the sound of cheering echoed through the bunker as I watched high-fives and smiles break across faces.
I looked down and at my feet was the soldier who had spoken to me at lunch earlier in the day. As I reached down and offered him a hand up, I said, “You still have never seen anything like a PATRIOT launch.”
He responded, “You guys are crazy!”
Gildeon and I, as well as most of launcher platoon headed down range to replace the missiles that had been fired and returned to our cots, not without first noticing that the back door to the radar was again open.
The next morning, while we were in formation we learned that what we had only perceived as an incredible light show was, in fact, nothing short of a miracle. The PATRIOT system requires about seven minutes to power up. The techs working on repairing them had just shut the door to the radar when the Scud Alert was given. It only takes a Scud about seven minutes to go from Iraq to Riyadh . The radar screens that the operator use had not even powered up when the missiles went “down range.”
The operator ordered a printout from the computer.
It revealed that the Scud had been traveling at mach 5.4 and that there had been less than 10 seconds left to engage the Scud before impact, into an area heavily populated with U.S. soldiers and some of the top brass. The radar stayed functional just long enough to guide the PATRIOT missile to its target and then went down for another two days! During those previous 5 days, the radar was up for less than 9 minutes!
There is no way of knowing how many lives were saved that day.
My God is the God of EVERYTHING!
Psalm 91
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
Now it's your turn! Tell us how the Lord has shown His Faithfulness to you. It may not be as dramatic as this story from the life of my brother. But even the smallest details in our lives reveal to us His Faithfulness. I am compelled to praise Him constantly for the ways He shows me a wrong motive of my heart, or how to respond exactly to a situation with words that glorify Him.
Every moment of our lives, His Faithfulness is on view, if we are paying attention. Sometimes, it means even more when we see it in the "small things" of life because we know then that He does indeed have the hairs on our heads numbered and he notices when a single sparrow falls.
Write down your stories! Testify to the world what He has done for you. And share them with us. Imagine, years from now, if you are faithful in this discipline to "write it down," what an incredible treasure you will have compiled! What a wonderful tool it will be to strengthen the faith of the future generations of your family!
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