UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

373

1991-Continued

S-3 Vikings fly over burning Kuwaiti oil fields.

24 February Operation Desert Sabre, the ground of-

fensive against Iraq, began. General Norman

Schwarzkopfs plan was based on the classic principles

of war: deception, concentration of force, and speed.

25 February Two Marine Corps aircraft were shot

down by Iraqi forces. Captain Scott Walsh was rescued

after his VMA-542 AV-8B was lost. Major Joseph Small

was captured and Captain David Spellacy was killed

when their OV-10A was shot down.

26 February A-6Es from Ranger's VA-155 bombed

Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait City to Basra in "bumper to

bumper" convoys along two multi-lane highways.

Numerous tanks, armored vehicles, jeeps, cars, and

tractor-trailers were destroyed.

27 February At 9:00 p.m. EST, President George H.

W. Bush declared that Kuwait had been liberated and

that the Persian Gulf War over. At midnight EST, all

U.S. and coalition forces would suspend further offen-

sive combat operations.

27 February Forty Iraqi soldiers, thinking it was

manned, surrendered to battleship Wisconsin's (BB

64) RPV when it flew over their position.

27 February Captain Reginald Underwood, USMC

was killed when his VMA-331 AV-8B was shot down

by Iraqi forces.

3 March CH-46 helicopters with loudspeakers

rounded up surrendering Iraqi troops on Faylaka

Island. The enemy prisoners of war were ferried by

helicopter to Ogden (LPD 5) for further transport to

Saudi prisoner of war facilities.

4 March Iraq released POWs including the Navy's

Lieutenants Jeffrey Zaun, Robert Wetzel, and Lawrence

Slade. The prisoners of war were turned over to U.S.

officials by the International Committee of the Red

Cross near the Jordanian border station of Ruwayshid.

4 March America departed the Persian Gulf and re-

turned to the Red Sea after conducting 3,008 combat

sorties during the war.

6 March New Orleans, with a minecountermeasures

squadron on board and four mine-countermeasures

ships, led minesweeping activities.

6 March President George H. W. Bush reported to a

joint session of Congress, "Aggression is defeated. The

war is over."