Op DESERT STORM from Air

[Levina]

Operation desert storm:
This operation was US's entry into middle east, the first time US tried to determine destiny of middle east.
The main objective of op. desert storm was to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
U.N. had put forth the deadline of Jan. 15 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, which was never adhered to. Consequently, America began an air campaign against Iraq, which was the beginning of the so called "Gulf war".
Operation Desert Storm had commenced with air strikes against Iraq and its military, launched by US F-117 stealth fighters and cruise missiles, two weapons particularly dreaded by the Iraqi forces.

I am posting a few of the incidents which took place during op. desert storm, the incidents which transformed the airwarfare in the fury of op. desert storm.

1) Jan 17th, 1991, early morning hours.
An EF-111A Ravern breached the Iraqi air space as it entered western Iraq.
EF-111A was designed specifically to fly stable, at high speeds and down low. Its job that day was to fly in the inky darkness, and blind the Iraqi radar emitters with the big jet's powerful jamming ears.

This EF-111A was at the tip of the spear, with a large strike force in toe, targeting missile sites between a pair of Iraqi air fields. If it succeeded, it will create way for F-15 strike eagles to put laser guided bombs on targets.

The F-15 E could fly at 30000 feet and gave an added cover.
The jammers of EF-111A successfully blinded the Iraqi radars. The strike eagles were cleared hot, and they began hitting their targets.
At that moment,EF-111A was crossing between 2 large airfields at 5000 feet.
Sometime later the Iraqis desperately tried to catch the intruders, one from H1 and the other from the direction of Baghdad,H3.
The crew of EF-111A got an unfriendly hit on their radar acquisition warning system, an Iraqi Mirage F-1 rolled in. But unfortunately for the crew of EF-111A, the ravern was never meant for a dogfight.

As shown, EF-111A was modified to accommodate a radome and ergo it carried no armament.

The Mirage F-1, on the other hand, had air superiority, and Iraqis had used it successfully against Iran during the Iraq-Iran war.

In a dogfight Mirage had every advantage, like

• Faster rate of climb
• Far greater agility
• And was heavily armed

EF-111A was a helpless prey!!!

To Mirage's amazement, EF-111A turned left to Mirage, hoping to put itself out of the line of fire of mirage's heat seeking missiles. But the Iraqi jet was already in radar missile range. The pilots of EF-111A could hear the menacing sound of a radar lock in their headset.

Copilot to pilot : Missile launch right side, break right (repeats frantically).

The pilot snaped the big ravern to the right. what he tried to perform was a dangerous maneuver. By breaking sharply into the threat the pilot tried to overwhelm the missile's electronic circuitry.

This is the maneuver.

EF-111A took 5G of abuse- max the aircraft could sustain. The tactic worked and they were safe for a moment. But the Mirage was still following them. At this point the cavalry arrived, an F-15 appeared on the scene and locked on to the mirage.
The pilot of the mirage, already target fixated on EF-111A, got distracted by the sound of missile lock in his headset. He got disoriented, and lost his situational awareness- a fatal mistake at 400 feet.
The mirage slammed into the ground.
RIP soldier!

An unarmed EF-111 had thus scored an air-air victory against a Dassault Mirage F1.

EF-111 A
Pilot- Jim Denton
Copilot- Captain Brandon
Both were awarded Flying Cross

F-15
Pilot- Robert Graeter, was credited with the kill.

to be continued...

sources:
Air engagements of the Gulf War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dogfight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The enduring legacy of Operation Desert Storm - Al Jazeera English


@Abingdonboy @PARIKRAMA @Vauban @[Bregs] @litefire
Tell me if i've made some errors in the narration
I know i could have improved upon the quality of gifs, but file size was the limitation. Hope you guys like it.

 

[Levina]

@Technogaianist

@anant_s

 

[Jungibaaz]

Man how I wish PAF had an aircraft like the F-111, or the Tornado. I hope they get a few shiny JH-7s, if only to appease my childish desire to see them in our ranks and colours.

 

[Fenrir]

Man how I wish PAF had an aircraft like the F-111, or the Tornado. I hope they get a few shiny JH-7s, if only to appease my childish desire to see them in our ranks and colours.

It's crazy, but the US has retired much of their tactical (or theater) bomber force at a time when other nations, like Pakistan, are looking for new ones.

A-6/E-6? Retired:

S-3? Retired... some offered to South Korea.

The replacement for these medium, tactical bombers and electronic support aircraft? The F/A-18E/F:

And the EA-18G:

I'm not sure if this is a fair exchange at all, especially with the S-3 as the F/A-18 is hardly a potent sub-hunter... if at all. The Growler is progressing nicely, but the E-6 was in another class altogether.

Both the Aardvark:

And Sparkvark:

Have been replaced by the F-16 C/D for F-111:

And F-16CJ/DJ for the EA-111:

Again, I'm not sure it's the right replacement. No offense to the F-16, but the F-111 was a great, if flawed, aircraft. These variants of the F-16 are to be phased out by the F-35.

Pakistan could do no wrong by opting for a tactical bomber like JH-7 or an electronic attack variant. The USAF and USN made mistakes by retiring theirs, even if they were old and expensive to operate, when the alternatives are less capable, and in the case of the S-3, no alternative has been found.

Operation desert storm:

Desert Storm was a clinic that showed both China and Russia how unprepared they were for a modern war at the time. Here's some number... they are ridiculously one-sided:

Coalition: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces

Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries, 425,000 of which were from the United States.

Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft, 1,800 of which were American

Price: Estimated $61 billion dollars of which Gulf States covered $36 billion while Germany and Japan covered $16 billion

U.S. combat related deaths: 147

U.S. non-combat related deaths: 145

Iraqi deaths: 100,000+

Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26

Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000+

Coalition aircraft lost: 75 total, 63 U.S. and 12 allied

Iraqi aircraft lost in air-to-air engagements: 42

Iraqi aircraft lost on the ground: 81

Iraqi aircraft flown to Iran: 137

Number of oil well fires Saddam set off: 610

Millions of gallons of crude oil dumped into the Persian Gulf: Up to 11 million barrels

Coalition sorties flown: 100,000+

Tons of bombs dropped: 88,500

Cruise missiles fired: 297 Tomahawks plus 35 CALCMs

GPS units fielded at the time: 1,332

Coalition airlift: 509,129 passengers and 594,730 tons of cargo carried

Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,280 in inventory

Dollars Iraq owed Kuwait before they invaded: $14 billion

Iraqi SCUD missiles launched: 81

Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups: 6

Aerial refueling: 15,434 sorties and dispensed 110.2 million gallons of fuel

30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 Warthogs: 782,514

Number of air-to-air missiles fired by U.S. aircraft: 174

Number of anti-radiation missiles fired at Iraqi radars: 2,039

Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,004 of which 39.336 were cluster munitions

Number of smart bombs (LGB/EO) dropped: 9,342

Number of air-to-ground missiles fired: 5,930 (excludes those fired by the U.S. Army)

Duration of air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days

Ground war duration: 100 hours

 

[T-55]

 

[Levina]

Man how I wish PAF had an aircraft like the F-111, or the Tornado. I hope they get a few shiny JH-7s, if only to appease my childish desire to see them in our ranks and colours.

So that it could be used against India?

F-111 was a cool variable-sweep wing aircraft.

Desert Storm was a clinic that showed both China and Russia how unprepared they were for a modern war at the time. Here's some number... they are ridiculously one-sided:

Coalition: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces

Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries, 425,000 of which were from the United States.

Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft, 1,800 of which were American

Price: Estimated $61 billion dollars of which Gulf States covered $36 billion while Germany and Japan covered $16 billion

U.S. combat related deaths: 147

U.S. non-combat related deaths: 145

Iraqi deaths: 100,000+

Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26

Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000+

Coalition aircraft lost: 75 total, 63 U.S. and 12 allied

Iraqi aircraft lost in air-to-air engagements: 42

Iraqi aircraft lost on the ground: 81

Iraqi aircraft flown to Iran: 137

Number of oil well fires Saddam set off: 610

Millions of gallons of crude oil dumped into the Persian Gulf: Up to 11 million barrels

Coalition sorties flown: 100,000+

Tons of bombs dropped: 88,500

Cruise missiles fired: 297 Tomahawks plus 35 CALCMs

GPS units fielded at the time: 1,332

Coalition airlift: 509,129 passengers and 594,730 tons of cargo carried

Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,280 in inventory

Dollars Iraq owed Kuwait before they invaded: $14 billion

Iraqi SCUD missiles launched: 81

Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups: 6

Aerial refueling: 15,434 sorties and dispensed 110.2 million gallons of fuel

30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 Warthogs: 782,514

Number of air-to-air missiles fired by U.S. aircraft: 174

Number of anti-radiation missiles fired at Iraqi radars: 2,039

Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,004 of which 39.336 were cluster munitions

Number of smart bombs (LGB/EO) dropped: 9,342

Number of air-to-ground missiles fired: 5,930 (excludes those fired by the U.S. Army)

Duration of air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days

Ground war duration: 100 hours

Unfortunate.
No matter who looses their soldier, its a precious life that's lost.
I read some interesting stories about how the US pilots feared the battle hardened Iraqi pilots , but could fight the Iraqis back due to their experience(and maneuvers). I should be able to post it by night.

 

[anant_s]

Desert Storm was first televised war and thanks to CNN's live coverage, it drew complete attention of world.
My memory of the operation is Night Hawk. back in those days there was no internet and we believed whatever news channels told us. & two things got me mesmerized:
1. F 117, A jet that Radars couldn't see (I understood terms like radar cross section much later in my life)
2. Patriots missiles taking out scuds out of sky (& thereby preventing Israeli entry in war).

Here is a small story by a retired F 117A Pilot
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Desert Storm
On August 2, 1990 Saddam Hussein moved three divisions of Iraq's elite Republican Guard into the small neighboring country of Kuwait. On August 6th an agreement was reached that allowed US and Coalition troops on to Saudi soil to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion under the name Operation DESERT SHIELD.

On August 19,1990 22 Black Jets from the 415th and a dozen KC-135Q tankers from Beale AFB left Tonopah for Langley AFB where the stealths would stay overnight. The next day, KC-10A's of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing from March AFB joined up with the F-117A's for the 15 hour trip across the Atlantic that required 7 refueling. Four spare F-117As returned to Tonopah, leaving 18 to continue to Saudi Arabia for Operation DESERT SHIELD. On December 2, the second installment of 20 F-117As of the 416th took off for Langley AFB. The next day 18 of the 20 continued to Saudi Arabia. As a note: despite the aircraft's popularity at air shows, a fair degree of secrecy still shrouded the plane. Crews of the KC-135Qs refueling F-117As on the first stage to Langley AFB were not given refueling data on the airplane.
At 2:51 am (Saudi time),January 17, 1991, Maj. Greg Feest, like in Panama, struck the first blow to start Operation DESERT STORM. Although he was actually behind the stealth force flying into Baghdad(Khamas Mushait was 650 miles due South of Baghdad), he was the first to bomb Iraq when he destroyed his first target-the center that controlled all of the air defense radars in the Baghdad area.


The following is a published account of that first night of the war.

"As Maj. Joe Salata skimmed over the desert of Iraq, flying his F-117A Nighthawk in the initial wave of stealth fighters to bomb Baghdad the first night of Desert Storm, one thought nagged at him.
Did he leave the lights on?
No, not the lights in his dorm room back at Khamis Mushait Air Base, secluded high in the mountains of Saudi Arabia, but the exterior lamps on his black, bat-winged jet. When properly primed, the F-117A's stealth technology aids the jet in foiling enemy radar, but if its outside lights are on, the Nighthawk becomes about as covert as a used car salesman wearing a white suit.
"Some fighters have a pinkie switch for selecting missiles to guns, but on the F-117, it controls the lights, showing you just how important it is," said Salata, now a lieutenant colonel at the 49th Fighter Wing, Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. "During the war, the switch's three positions were up for bright, down for dim, and in the middle for off. I'd turn it off when I was 'stealthing up' by pushing up first, then down and finally to the middle. But then I'd second guess myself. 'Did I push it up too high? I better check again.' I must've checked it 20 times before each combat mission." After Desert Storm, the Air Force fixed this design glitch, modifying the switch so that "off" was down instead of in the middle.
Salata bombed Baghdad's sector operations headquarters, which directed all of the Iraqi air defense fighter aircraft, at H-hour-3 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1991-and a few minutes later he razed a radio relay station on his way out of the city. The first raid, carried out by 10 Nighthawks, was so unexpected the city's lights were still on when Salata released his first bomb.

"Those early attacks along with the next few waves, knocked the eyes and ears out of the Iraqis, so they were blind and deaf," said Salata, 38, who flew 21 combat missions by war's end. "Saddam's forces were quickly into a backup mode in their air defense system, meaning the normal chain of command was totally disrupted. They had many bases and a lot of air defense sites that were working autonomously for a while. That really paralyzed them. Those initial attacks were crucial to the war's outcome in the next few weeks."
Salata described that first mission into Baghdad as surrealistic. "None of us, except the DO (deputy commander for operations), had ever been in combat before, so we didn't know what to expect," Salata said. "The first time I saw triple-A [anti-aircraft artillery], I wasn't quite sure what it was. I thought something in the city was on fire. The flak was still fairly light, but after we dropped the first bombs, the city lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Triple-A was coming from all directions, some of it in streams and some of it heavy stuff going up over the cockpit and exploding," he said. "It was an amazing sight. I nearly forgot about my second target because I was watching the display outside the window."
"There were times when the Iraqis were firing triple-A from one end of the city to the other, and it would be dropping on their own residential areas ... it was that thick," Salata said. "It wasn't just on the outskirts, it was everywhere. It looked so dense I thought it would be impossible to fly through without at least getting a couple of hits. But we didn't.
"I guess it always looks worse than it really it is. That's, at least, what I always tell the guys. You get through it anyway," said Salata, who is now the 49th FW chief of weapons and training. "You try to block the triple-A out of your mind for a moment and hit the target. You don't want to get hit by anti-aircraft flak or by a SAM, but at the same time, you don't want to go back to the squadron with a miss because you were looking out the window. It's actually not as tough as you think to pull yourself back into the cockpit to do what you have to do. Right after you hit [the target], you can look out and get scared again."


According to Salata, squadron scuttlebutt said only half the pilots in the first wave of 10 would survived the Baghdad raid. "When I saw the triple-A, I also didn't think we'd all make it through," he said. "And after I hit my targets and was on my way back, I listened to the check-in frequency with AWACs [Airborne Warning and Control aircraft] to see who would report in. Initially, I heard only five of the 10 guys check in. So when I landed back at Khamis Mushait, I thought we'd lost five guys. It was a real relief when I went around the squadron and saw everybody there. Fortunately, we didn't lose anybody the whole time."
"I can remember one target in Baghdad [later in the war]-it was a bridge. My objective was to drop the bridge into the water. It wasn't to kill everybody on the bridge," Salata said. "But I saw a car starting to drive across the bridge, and I actually aimed behind him, so he could pass over the bridge. If I had hit the left side of the bridge, he would've driven right into the explosion. Instead I hit the right side. You can pick and choose a little bit in the F-117. In any other type of aircraft, I would've never had the opportunity to move my spot. I would've missed everything, and then I wouldn't have been able to see what happened anyway. Stealth allows us to look longer at the targets before release, as well as after release.
"I think the guy made it safely across the bridge, but you can't really think about that when you're at war. You could drive yourself crazy, thinking of those kind of things. If you have a target to hit, you hit it," the colonel said."

At 4:00 AM, the second wave of F-117A's reached Baghdad. Following shortly was a third wave of eight Black Jets. Of the 60 LGBs carried by the F-117As that night, 11 were not released because the pilots were not able to get a positive identification of the target or were not confident that their weapons would guide properly. Of the 49 LGBs dropped, only 28 actually hit their aim point. Most of the misses were at outlying targets, away from densely populated areas. However, the F-117As had taken out the most heavily defended strategic sites and cleared the way for unstealthy Coalition aircraft to operate with some degree of safety.
Weather began to plague the operations in the gulf. On the second night there was a severe storm (the worse weather in 14 years) and only 23 hits were achieved. Despite this, one pilot bagged one of Iraq's three Adnan-2s' (Soviet Il-76s converted to AWACS).


The following is an account from the Oct/Nov issue of Air and Space Magazine of Major David Horton, a KC-135 pilot flying on that night:

"There was a severe storm on the second night and Horton picked up a distress call from an F-117A. Returning late from an attack on Baghdad, the stealth fighter had missed its scheduled tanker and was critically low on fuel. Refueling the F-117A required special procedures. For security reasons, most refuelings were accomplished with minimal communications, but for a tanker to achieve a visual rendezvous with a stealth fighter at night is tricky, to say the least. Further, the F-117A pilot has a limited field of vision through the cramped windscreen. Luckily, Horton and his crew were qualified for F-117A refuelings and had a full load of gas. "We called AWACS and told them that we had gas if he had enough time to get together with us," Horton says. They headed for the Iraqi border. "I found out afterwards that AWACS was contemplating turning us at that point to keep us from going into Iraq, but better judgment prevailed," he recalls. "By the time we hooked up, we were about 60 miles deep in Iraqi airspace, lit up like a Christmas tree because we had to [be] in order for him to see us in the weather we were in." Conditions were so severe that Horton's boom operator couldn't even see the F-117A at the end of the boom.
By the time they finally hooked up, Horton says the F-117A had less than 100 pounds of gas left on board. The pilot "told my boom operator that he basically had one shot at this or he was going to have to [eject]," Horton recalls. "That would not have been the optimum place to loose a F-117A."
They achieved a second hookup as the aircraft turned south and started descending, finally emerging from Iraqi airspace. As the F-117A took on fuel it had trouble maintaining altitude and retaining the hookup so Horton tobogganed his big tanker-descending with the fighter as both traded altitude for airspeed-enabling the fighter to stay with him long enough to take on a full load of fuel. "We found out afterwards that one reason he was having trouble holding altitude was he had a weapon on board, so he was a whole lot heavier without any gas," says Horton. "and flying at a high altitude, especially at the airspeed we were flying, was extremely difficult for him." As the stealth pilot disconnected from the tanker and headed to base, he told Horton and his crew, "You guys really saved my bacon."
Only six hits were scored on the third night. On the fourth night things turned for the better as 17 targets were destroyed. However, two air aborts, and one ground abort helped limit the number of hits on the fifth night to just 17 again.

The nights of the 21-22 had excellent fighting weather allowing 14 aircraft of the 416th to register 26 hits and two misses on targets in the Baghdad area. These targets included: The Ministry of Defense, the Air Force Headquarters, the GID (Internal Security) Headquarters, the presidential palace and retreat, HAWK sites of captured American made Kuwaiti owned surface to air missiles, and a biological warfare facility that Iraq later tried to pass off as a "baby milk factory".

On January 26, eight more F-117A's arrived in Saudi Arabia. On January 28,1991, all sorties were suspended as Iraq conceded defeat. The F-117As were the only aircraft that went into downtown Baghdad, it was the only aircraft that could be sent inside the city limits because the threat there was genuine. Originally the USAF had stated that the F-117A had achieved a 75 percent success rate based on its combat record of 1,669 direct hits and 418 misses in approximately 1,280 combat sorties totaling more than 6,900 hours of flying. When it was revealed that there were nearly 480 no-drops, some people howled that the "true figures" showed the Nighthawks hitting their marks "barely half the time". However, it must be remembered that the commanders in charge often changed targets at the last minute, weapons system limitations combined with the worst weather on record (14 years) caused many of those aborts. (13 percent predicted cloud cover became 39 percent actual cloud cover) Approximately 15 percent of scheduled aircraft attacks or ties during the first 10 days were canceled because of poor visibility or low overcast sky conditions. Cloud ceilings of 5,000 to 7,000 feet were common, especially during the ground campaign's last few days. Low cloud cover often prevented F-117As from acquiring the targets. Also, for 43 days the Nighthawks and their pilots flew missions averaging 5.4 hours each, dropping bombs on downtown Baghdad, often within blocks of innocent civilians. This factor made positive target acquisition and identification a necessity if innocent lives were not to be lost.
Despite these setbacks, the F-117A proved invaluable in the Gulf. On day one of the war, only 36 F-117As (less than 2.5 percent of the UN Coalition's tactical assets) were in the Gulf Theater, yet they attacked 31 percent of the targets that day. During the first 24 hours, 30 F-117As attacked 37 high value targets in Iraq. Without the F-117As striking Baghdad, the heart of the Iraqi war machine, and blinding it that first night, coalition aircraft would have had to deal with the "7,000 radar missiles, 9,000 IR missiles, 7,000 anti aircraft guns, and 800 fighter aircraft", and the numerous radars and command centers that guided them.

On April 1, 1991 the first eight F-117A's and two KC-10s arrived back at Nellis AFB before 25,000 people. The aircraft were #'s 830,810, 814, 808, 825, 791, 843, and 813. The return came eight months after initial deployment. The flight flew from Saudi Arabia, across Egypt to Spain and then to the U.S. East Coast.
F-117A: Desert Storm


Faceted panel technology for achieving low RCS has since undergone sea change and F 117 have retired, but for a black fighter jet, that Saudis named Shabah (Ghost), it remains an icon of operation Desert Storm.

& to think that all this began with this book...

Ma'am,
Is that a fuel dump maneuver?

 

[anant_s]

Sir,

Sir... Ma'am

I'm really sorry about that, i didn't knew

 

[New World]

Desert Storm was first televised war and thanks to CNN's live coverage, it drew complete attention of world.

luckily i got one copy of the CNN published book "WAR IN THE GULF"..
and on the backside of the book the Quotes of Hosni Mubarak and Dick cheney are written about how CNN help them to get upto date about Gulf War..

 

[Levina]

Right after you hit [the target], you can look out and get scared again."

You don't want to get hit by anti-aircraft flak or by a SAM, but at the same time, you don't want to go back to the squadron with a miss because you were looking out the window.

This guy is funny for sure.

I must've checked it 20 times before each combat mission." After Desert Storm, the Air Force fixed this design glitch, modifying the switch so that "off" was down instead of in the middle.

Glad that they learnt from their mistakes and were quick to fix the design glitch. I can relate to it as something similar happens to me when i put the gear to neutral while waiting at traffic signals. lol

I can remember one target in Baghdad [later in the war]-it was a bridge. My objective was to drop the bridge into the water. It wasn't to kill everybody on the bridge," Salata said. "But I saw a car starting to drive across the bridge, and I actually aimed behind him, so he could pass over the bridge. If I had hit the left side of the bridge, he would've driven right into the explosion. Instead I hit the right side. You can pick and choose a little bit in the F-117.

Hats off to the pilot.

 

[anant_s]

Hats off to the pilot.

indeed!
It shows even on a deadly mission of destruction, the pilot was caring enough to worry about collateral damage and used his skills and resources to save life where possible.

 

[Levina]

the pilot was caring enough to worry about collateral damage and used his skills and resources to save life where possible.

yes they do.
@jamahir here's another example of how soldiers go out of their way to protect civilians (in continuation to our conversation about Chris Kyle).

 

[anant_s]

yes they do.
@jamahir here's another example of how soldiers go out of their way to protect civilians (in continuation to our conversation about Chris Kyle).

i've heard similar stories of soldiers who served in Afghanistan with coalition forces.
I mean its hard to believe, how they can manage to do so, with literally seconds separating life and death in heated combat zones. crazy isn't it!

 

[meghdut]

Well the first strike in Desert Storm Air Campaign was not launched by Coalition Air Forces at all. It was US Army AH-64 Apaches guided by MH-53J Pave Low Special Operations Helicopters which attacked an Iraqi Radar Station. They launched a salvo of Hellfires against the radar sites to blow open a hole in Iraqi Air Defence System. Through this the rest of the coalition non-stealth aircraft entered Iraqi airspace and started the invasion.

 

[jamahir]

yes they do.
@jamahir here's another example of how soldiers go out of their way to protect civilians (in continuation to our conversation about Chris Kyle).

hello levina, sorry i didn't reply to this yesterday, but i had some elaborated thoughts on this for which i couldn't form the reply yesterday or today... will reply tomorrow.