Echoes of Desert Storm reverberate in Fort Worth Published Jan. 15, 2016 By Staff Sgt. Samantha Mathison 301st Fighter Wing NAVAL AIR STATION FORT WORTH JOINT RESERVE BASE, Texas -- This year marks the 25th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm and the 301st Fighter Wing, known in the early 1990s as the 301st Tactical Fighter Wing, could not deploy its aircraft, but sent forth its Airmen. "To train and deploy combat-ready Airmen" is the 301 FW mission now, but from the Fall of 1990 to the end of Spring in 1991, the wing converted from the F-4E Phantom jets to the relatively new F-16 Fighting Falcons. This made the wing's aircraft ineligible to provide air combat support during the conflict. Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Hurley, 301st Maintenance Squadron fabrication flight chief, was a staff sergeant at the time of the conversion and was a member of the 301st Equipment Management Branch working as an aircraft inspector. "I know a lot of people were upset that we couldn't go and a lot of us were trying to volunteer to go with other units. The supervision here, my boss in particular, told me it was just as important to get our unit combat ready as it was to go help another unit fight the war," Hurley said. "And now, 25 years later, I see the wisdom in his words, though at the time I didn't." While certain personnel had to stay behind to get the wing back to air combat readiness, the wing could still support Operation Desert Storm by providing security. Maj. Kevin Clinton, 301 FW equal opportunity officer, was an Airman 1st Class assigned to the 301st Security Police Squadron and he was one of 50 members in his unit who deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm, Jan. 1, 1991. "We were literally packed in on a C-141, and because we were carrying pallets of cargo we were in troop seats, scrunched in, and the person sitting across from you, his knee was between your legs," Clinton said. "To go to the bathroom, you either walked on people or you went up on the center rail above people's heads. It was the most uncomfortable ride ever." The discomfort did not diminish the Airmen's pride, though. Lee Greenwood's song "I'm Proud to be an American" played repeatedly every night while they were deployed, according to Clinton. The security police were assigned to provide security for a tanker unit in Southwest Asia. Working on or near the flight line, every member could hear when aircraft took off and landed. "When our aircraft went out, we counted them. We knew how many planes were going out on a mission and we could emotionally feel it. I knew everyone was counting those planes when they came back, and when the final plane came back, I could hear people cheering," he said. The pride and comradery was not limited to deployed military members in the Middle East. Chief Master Sgt. Terry Goines, 301 FW command chief master sergeant, deployed as a young Airman 1st Class to Southwest Asia in August 1990. The coworkers and supervisors he left behind did not forget about him. "I ended up getting promoted below the zone to senior airman while I was there. My flight chief didn't deploy with us, but he was thinking of me and the quality of my work," Goines said. Goines served as a weapons load crewmember for the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, which was the first unit in the United States Air Forces in Europe to deploy in support of Operation Desert Shield. In Operation Desert Storm, his unit's F-111 Aardvarks flew 2,500 combat sorties without one combat loss of a pilot or aircraft. "The air campaign was very effective; it was a pretty quick and decisive war. Looking back on it and comparing it to the conflicts that we're in right now... total different war," he said. Operation Desert Storm began in January of 1991 with more than 1,000 air sorties per day and the air campaign lasted for about a month before the ground attack began. Col. Bruce "Baghdad" Cox, 307th Bomb Wing commander, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., was an F-16 pilot with the 614th Tactical Fighter Wing, Torrejon Air Base, Spain, and deployed with his unit to Southwest Asia in August 1990. Cox flew in the first daylight raid over Baghdad in January 1991. "It just so happened, the way the mission worked out, all of our air escorts were out of gas or ordnance before we got to the target. So, they were going home, which resulted in our F-16s pressing to our targets unescorted, with no air-to-air or air-to-surface support. The end result was two guys got shot down," Cox said. "One guy was hit and his aircraft was blown in half right over downtown Baghdad. After being hit by another surface-to-air missile, the second F-16 had his engine catch on fire. He was able to limp out, so I pitched back to help him. I stayed with him as long as I could and, in the process, a MiG came up and tried to shoot him down. As I turned to engage the MiG, he turned and ran, electing to live for at least one more day." "Bottom line, out of all that, I was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for that mission," he said. The two pilots who were shot down survived their ordeal and came home after the war ended. Following this assignment, Cox was reassigned here to the 457th Fighter Squadron, known as the Spads, in November 1991. He was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross here at his first unit training assembly. When the citation was read aloud, the city of Baghdad was mentioned so many times that the legendary Spad, Duke Slover, decided it should be his call-sign, Cox said. Earned in Operation Desert Storm and dubbed here at the 301st, "Baghdad" became the call-sign Cox has carried throughout his career. "Desert Storm was the beginning of great times for the United States Air Force. Now, we are challenged by our own success. We're so successful people think we're going to always deliver and we keep delivering. That's what we do as Airmen," he said. Air superiority was the Air Force's goal in Operation Desert Storm and as a result, the air campaign lasted only six weeks while the ground attack was measured in hours. Overall, the Air Force Reserve was able to mobilize more than 23,000 reservists with another 15,000 serving in a volunteer capacity for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. "You can see what happened after Desert Storm with our Reserve component fighter forces. They became much better, much more relevant, to the point now the United States Air Force cannot exist without the air power in the Reserve component," he said. Operation Desert Storm gave the Air Force Reserve the chance to prove itself and 25 years later, the 301st Fighter Wing continues, "to train and deploy combat ready Airmen."