Iraq’s Scud missiles were a major concern for the coalition, and there was a particular radar often co-located with the Scuds called by the unclassified NATO nickname of End Tray. This radar tracks a balloon as it rises into the upper atmosphere, gathering data on high-altitude wind speeds. The information increases the accuracy of the Scud by adjusting the missile’s trajectory before launch and after compensating for atmospheric effects. End Tray is a fairly common signal to locate. Unfortunately the mobile Scud equipment often disappeared into hidden locations before coalition forces could neutralise the Scud batteries, and when hostilities ceased, there was no evidence that conclusively proved that even one Scud transporter erector launcher was destroyed.[13] This result has been studied and the United States has undoubtedly prepared a ‘Lessons Learned’ report that should enable a more effective response against mobile ballistic missiles in the future. Destroying these mobile systems remains one of the most challenging tasks facing the military. The Scuds caused civilian deaths in Israel and killed twenty-eight American reservists when a missile hit a coalition barrack in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia,[14] resulting in the single largest loss of American lives during the Gulf War. Fortunately for Australia, not one Australian soldier was killed in Iraq or Kuwait during the entire war.
The Gulf War is often called the ‘100 Hour War’ because President Bush declared a cease-fire 100 hours after the ground war began, but at Pine Gap and around the world people reacted to the report of a cease-fire with stunned disbelief. As Iraqi troops retreated from Kuwait, much of the world was outraged as President Bush stopped pursuing the man who had ordered the invasion and looting of his neighbouring country, allowed the killing and kidnapping of innocent Kuwaitis and the rape of hundreds of Kuwaiti women, and ordered the catastrophic burning of Kuwaiti oil fields. Most of us at Pine Gap weren’t displeased when we saw the carnage along the ‘Highway of Death’,[15] as we believed these Iraqi troops behaved less like professional soldiers and more like violent criminals. Ironically, the reputation of prisoner abuse would later haunt the US military when the infamous Abu Ghraib pictures emerged from the second Iraq War under George W Bush.
I was one of those in shock when President Bush stopped short of removing Saddam Hussein from power, especially when it was apparent that the coalition had control of Iraq. No matter what President Bush said to justify the cease-fire, he simply couldn’t convince the general US population that this was the correct decision—it would prove to be a decision that lost him an enormous amount of credibility at home and around the world and was a major factor in his loss pursuing reelection in 1992.
Allowing Saddam Hussein to escape had reawakened the allegations that had appeared during the 1988 presidential campaign: that George Bush was a ‘wimp’. And the action did ultimately backfire with Saddam regaining power and President Bush losing his reelection bid. The American public became disillusioned with the once hugely popular President Bush, with Saddam Hussein helping to deal him a humiliating political defeat.
President Bush’s reasons for the cease-fire included the argument that continuing the campaign into Baghdad would have fractured the alliance, resulting in unnecessary political and human costs.[16] But at Pine Gap, the intelligence community rumour was that President Bush declared a cease-fire mainly because the influential Saudis didn’t want Saddam Hussein removed by force, preferring an internal coup to an American-installed government. The Saudis apparently feared that a democracy installed in Iraq would take hold in the region and would threaten their Islamic absolute monarchy. Whatever the reason, the resultant twelve years of Saddam’s continued presence in power provided the United States with a real battle zone over Iraq in which American pilots could practise wartime activities and sharpen their skills, albeit with an ‘enemy’ that was no longer a serious military threat.
Operation Desert Storm ushered in a potent war strategy for the United States—‘Bomb, soften, then invade’—as previous military action had mostly consisted of sending in the ground forces relatively early in a conflict. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, their ground forces entered the country on the same day that their aircraft entered Afghan airspace, capturing the airport at Bagram. The Russians did not bomb any key Afghan infrastructure prior to their invasion, although the KGB—disguised as Afghans—did sabotage many government, military, and media buildings.[17] Protracted bombing campaigns before the use of ground forces would be successfully used later by presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush. In every case, various facilities around the world would quietly watch and listen before the conflict, providing communication and weapons-related intelligence to tactical planners in an effort to help minimise the loss of life to soldiers and civilians alike.
As the Gulf War ended, the impending collapse of the Soviet Union meant that the leadership in Washington needed to know who was in control of the launch codes for Russia’s mighty nuclear arsenal after the house arrest of Mikhail Gorbachev, and satellites would play a role in getting answers. ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ It was critically important to identify who in Russia was authorised to push the nuclear button, but fortunately the coup failed after three days and Gorbachev was returned to power, only to find that his authority to rule had vanished.
At Pine Gap we rejoiced on Christmas Day 1991 as the Soviet Union disintegrated and the new leader of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, assumed all of Gorbachev’s powers, espousing democracy for Russia. As I watched the Soviet flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, replaced by the Russian flag, I remember thinking, ‘I feel like we’ve won the Cold War.’ And in 1992 the unimaginable actually happened—President Bush and President Yeltsin formally declared an end to the Cold War. This was perhaps President Bush’s finest hour, but the achievement wasn’t enough to help get him re-elected. American voters wanted change and didn’t want a president who had failed to properly finish the job in Iraq.
As world politics shifted and changed and the world moved forward, I decided to apply for a second two-year tour in Australia. The ‘hardship tour’ was fast becoming a pleasant experience akin to The Life of Riley since, as I’ve said, agency employees based overseas received very good benefits (seen in Appendix E). This, coupled with extra money from shift work, helped me to rapidly pay for my divorce and allowed me to put money into my Maryland home and other investments. I jokingly told my family that United States Government employees had only three expenses, which I called the Three Fs—Food, Phone, and Fun. My life had finally turned around and the hardship tour had turned into an easy, somewhat catered lifestyle that I was determined to prolong. I had no idea in 1992 that my time in Alice Springs would eventually extend to almost two decades.
Probably one of the reasons life seemed so good was that I had also started dating again after almost two years of avoiding a relationship—time I really needed, not only to save money and pay for my divorce, but to reflect on life as well. In 1992 I met Colleen in Alice Springs, where she worked at Antica Roma, a local pizza restaurant. She was from Vancouver, Canada and was half-Japanese. Colleen enjoyed the outdoors and had been backpacking around Australia. We travelled within the Alice Springs area, visiting the various gaps and gorges, and once drove out to a remote homestead called Glen Helen that had a rather large lake adjacent to the property—a rare feature in the dry outback. Colleen eventually moved in with me but she had only stayed for a few months when her visa required her to return home.