SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – February 28 marked the 34th anniversary of the end of Desert Storm.
Desert Storm was known as the 100-hour ground war, in which coalition forces defeated the Iraqi Army, the fourth largest military in the world, and liberated Kuwait.
Illinois Army National Guard Lt. Col. Michael Barton, of Greenview, was 12 years old when the Persian Gulf War, known as Operation Desert Storm, started in 1991.
“I remember when the conflict broke out, I bought a copy of each edition of newspaper our gas station had,” said Barton, who delivered the keynote address during the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs’ annual Desert Storm Remembrance Ceremony Feb. 28 at the Illinois State Military Museum. “I still have those newspapers today.”
Barton, the Illinois Army National Guard’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, said that while 43 days is a small amount of time when compared to other military operations, “Desert Storm demonstrated our vast military strengths, the methods used to build up power in the Persian Gulf region wasn’t something quite seen since World War II.”
“The rally of the international community to enlist the service of 38 other nations as one united coalition has become the standard we strive for today,” he said.
More than 600,000 American service members deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield, including approximately 1,370 Illinois National Guard Soldiers and Airmen.
“Eleven Army units and Air Wings were sent to support Desert Storm,” Barton said. “The fathers of two of my classmates serving in the Illinois National guard were sent ‘over there.’ We shared that experience. Then just five years and one day later, Feb. 29, 1996, I enlisted into the same unit and served with their dads.”
Barton said growing up in a rural community in the late 1980s and early 1990s, cable television was not as widely available as it is today. As cable television made its way into rural communities, people were able to watch Desert Storm play out on international television.
“I remember my family had just recently gotten cable television,” he said. “Living in a rural community at that time, it really wasn’t a thing. During that time, the relative new concept of the 24-hour news cycle came to be with networks like CNN broadcasting Desert Storm in real time. The entire world witnessed our strength in action.”
Barton said he would come home after school and get the latest updates.
“I would immediately switch on the cable news to receive the latest updates,” he said. “My family would eat around the television, just watching. We watched strike after strike, the Patriot missiles intercepting Iraqi SCUD missiles. It consumed my afternoon and evenings until bedtime.”
Barton said it was watching Desert Storm unfold on television which inspired him to enlist.
“The dedication and eagerness of the men and women serving then to defend freedom and represent the United States against a tyrant and his Army, inspired me and countless others and continues to inspire us today,” he said. “Our forces made quick work of Iraqi forces, and we demonstrated our technological might to the rest of the world.”
Barton said as Americans we must continue to celebrate the effort and achievements of those who served and sacrificed to bring liberation and victory during Desert Storm.
“We must honor the families who lost loved ones in service to our nation and whose lives were forever changed,” he said. “It is our duty as President Lincoln prompted us to ‘care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan’.”
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