Members of top secret Gulf War mission honored at Radiance … – KTBS
Members of the “Secret Squirrels” who flew the first mission at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War are honored on the field at the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.
Members of the “Secret Squirrels” who flew the first mission at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War are honored on the field at the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.
Shreveport, La — it was the mission that opened the Gulf War after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.
In January 1991, 7 B-52 bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base, armed with cruise missiles, flew halfway around the world without stopping, launching their payload at Iraqi targets. The mission was a success that led to a rout of Iraqi troops, pushing them out from their occupation of Kuwait. The mission was known as Secret Squirrel. Friday, the pilots who flew that operation were honored at the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.
“We’ve been put in that position by honor and by providence,” said Steve Hess who was a radar navigator on the mission. “So, I can’t be thankful enough to even be here and be a part of this. It’s beyond me to even consider it. It’s truly an honor.”
Hess said it was a mission of ordinary men doing extraordinary things. The Secret Squirrel alumni and others at the Independence Bowl were treated to a B-52 flyover at the conclusion of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Part of their tradition is inherited from Doolittle’s Raiders, the B-25 pilots in World War II who took off from a carrier deck and dropped the first American bombs of the war on Tokyo, in a response just a few months after Pearl Harbor.
“The Doolittle Raiders, to be associated with that bunch of people is truly an honor for us and we thank the Independence Bowl Committee folks for selecting us for that honor,” said mission commander Jay Beard.
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