![]() Follow-up research surveys were administered between July 1991 and November 1991, after units had returned to the United States. The primary data source for the stressors of Operation Desert Shield is interview and survey research conducted by teams from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in Saudi Arabia beginning in September 1990, and continuing through the war until June 1991 ( Marlowe 1991, 2000). ![]() This paper examines the stressors of the early deployment to the Gulf and discusses the relationship of the events of that period to the health of veterans in the years since the PGW. In the same period of the PGW, 184 483 people had been moved and over 1.2 million tons of supplies (from ‘ Tracking the Storm’ 1991). In the first 90 days of World War II, the US Army had moved 138 060 people and 836 060 tons of supplies. By Christmas of 1990 there were over a quarter million US military personnel in the Gulf and over 300 000 by the beginning of the air war on 17 January 1991 ( Norwood & Ursano 1996). The number of American service members in the Gulf reached 150 000 by mid-September. The ‘operations tempo’, reflected in the build-up of troops and supplies, was unprecedented since World War II. ![]() On 7 August, the United States began moving forces to the region. The stressors of war evolve over the time line of many different war experiences: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, hostilities, reunion and reintegration ( Norwood & Ursano 1996). Too often we focus narrowly on the combat related stressors, forgetting that threat to life and exposure to death are not the only stressors of the combat experience. The mobilization of reservists for Desert Storm was a substantial burden on small towns, that lost major figures in their communities, including business and civic leaders, teachers, health care providers and law enforcement officials. ![]() The forecasts had been for tens of thousands of deaths, and for chemical and biological warfare attacks. Rather than looking at the veterans of that war as products of events that occurred in a few weeks in January and February of 1991, we must consider the web of events that occurred over a much longer period, from the decision to send forces to Operation Desert Shield through to their homecoming.ĭuring the Gulf War, American forces sustained 148 combat dead, 145 non-battle deaths, 21 prisoners of war and 467 wounded in action. However, any understanding of the health and well-being of PGW veterans requires consideration of the experiences, both positive and negative, during the months that preceded the opening shots of Operation Desert Storm. This rear-view mirror look at the events of 1990–1991 makes it all too easy to forget the tension and hardship of the early days of Operation Desert Shield, when soldiers prepared for war in the desert, not knowing what the outcome would be. Thus, most people tend to remember primarily the massive, essentially one-sided, air war followed by a four-day ground campaign in which Coalition ground forces moved rapidly across the desert to liberate Kuwait. In evaluating the stresses of the Persian Gulf War (PGW) today, we have the benefit of hindsight. Over 15 years have passed since the first forces from the United States and its Coalition partners deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield, which would lead to Operation Desert Storm.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |