The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Memories of a Gulf War fighter pilot
Thirty years after the launch of Desert Storm to oust invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait, Michael Alexander speaks to a record-breaking former RAF Leuchars fighter pilot who served in both Gulf Wars
In the early hours of January 17 1991, the “mother of all battles” began with the start of the combat phase of the first Gulf War. Operation Desert Storm was launched by the American, British, French, Saudi and Kuwaiti allies to destroy Iraq’s military and civilian infrastructure through an enormous aerial bombing campaign aimed at military and strategic targets. The trigger for the Gulf War was Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2 1990, when it attempted to seize Kuwait’s vast oil reserves and relieve Iraq of crippling debts accrued during the Iran-iraq War.
Undeterred by complete economic sanctions and a military build-up in the region by Allied forces, Iraq refused to comply with a UN ultimatum for its troops to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15.
This led the Allies to launch a devastating and sustained aerial bombardment involving cruise missiles launched from US warships. US, British and Saudi Arabian fighter planes, bombers and helicopters were also involved.
Within hours, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein defiantly took to state radio to declare: “The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun.”
Yet Saddam’s prediction that the “dawn of victory” was near could hardly have been more wrong.
After five weeks of more than 2,250 coalition aircraft flying in excess of 1,000 sorties a day, the Allies launched a land offensive on February 24.
Within a day, the Iraqis began retreating, and on February 27, American President George Bush declared victory. Kuwait was liberated but Saddam Hussein remained in power in Baghdad.
It would be another 12 years before President George W Bush led a “coalition of the willing” on a second invasion of Iraq with the aim of toppling the Bagdad regime.
Within a month of that conflict, Saddam Hussein had been ousted and the Americans were claiming victory in what many to this day see as an “illegal” war.
One man who flew combat missions in both Gulf Wars is retired record-breaking former RAF Leuchars fighter pilot, Flight Lieutenant Roy Macintyre, who lives in Cupar.
The Stirling-born officer, who holds the RAF record for the highest number of pilot hours (4,600) flown in the Tornado F3, had recently converted to the Tornado F3 at RAF Leeming when, as a 32-year-old father-to-be, he was deployed to the Middle East with 23 Squadron to fly Desert Shield air defence sorties ahead of Desert Storm.
“I find it quite surprising to think that it was 30 years ago,” says the now 62-year-old father-of-two who retired from the RAF in 2018, latterly flying Tutors as an instructor with the East of Scotland University Air Squadron at Leuchars.
“It all happened quite quickly in 1990 – the invasion of Kuwait. I was on 23 Squadron based at Leeming at the time. We saw things snowball quickly and we realised we were going to be part of something quite significant.”
Flight Lieutenant Macintyre recalled how members of his squadron were given a departure date for Saudi Arabia in August/ September 1990.
However, it quickly became apparent that amid military spending issues, RAF aircraft were not war ready and there was a threeweek delay that added to the emotions of leaving behind his wife, Philippa, who, it emerged three weeks after he left, was pregnant with their first child, Catherine.
“In the first Gulf War, between September and December 1990, I was part of what the Americans called Desert Shield which was exactly that – defending Saudi Arabia,” he recalls.
“We were ‘sentries’ on the Saudi Arabian border and we did that for three months.
“All the time there was diplomatic stuff going on, but what we were doing was allowing the West’s war machine to build in Saudi Arabia, ready for Desert Storm.”
Having joined the RAF in 1982 and qualified on the Phantom F4 while serving on 43 (F) Squadron at RAF Leuchars, the only previous frontline action he’d experienced was doing QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) interception with Russian bombers.
While those missions had a profound impact on him, he was conscious it was very much Cold War “peace time police work”.
As he saw the Allies’ military hardware building in the desert, however, it seemed inevitable that unless Saddam backed down, there was going to be some real action.
Flight Lieutenant Macintyre recalls how once he was thousands of miles away, it was easier to “compartmentalise” his life and get on with the job.
However, at a time when there were no mobile phones, no internet and letter writing was still an art, he recalls how difficult it was when he phoned his then-pregnant wife with no return date guaranteed.
“Co-ordinated principally with the Americans, we ran round-the-clock, 24-hour operation sorties,” he explains.
“The squadron was divided into three. We did eight-hour shifts. The sorties themselves were generally pairs or four aircraft operating to the north of where we were based up near the Iraqi border, but not into it.
“We were there as ‘doormen at the front of the club’ – ‘You are not coming in’ – kind of style, but ready to take action if the Iraqi air force came towards us.
“For the most part, it was just patrolling. There was very little activity. There were a few times when Iraqi recce aircraft tried to come in. We were also detecting helicopters coming across the border, but these turned out to be special forces.”
After a three-month rotation, Flight Lieutenant Macintyre got home to the UK before Christmas 1990. His squadron was replaced by 43(F) Squadron from Leuchars and 29 Squadron from Coningsby.
He partly regretted being back home when the shooting war started on January 17 1991. But that was tempered by the thought he’d done three months and it was not as easy as it might have been.
“I was also glad I was home with my wife,” he smiles. “By this time, I was also facing the upheaval of a reposting to Coningsby. I certainly had quite a lot of technical insight to what was going on – more than what was on the news.”
Reflecting on that period which raised awareness of so-called Gulf War Syndrome – allegedly caused by a cocktail of inoculations – and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), Flight Lieutenant Macintyre knows of a few individuals who suffered changes in personality.
“Right at the start we were given a brief on local customs and what not to do in Saudi,” he recalls.
“One of the things was ‘Don’t go to the local square on Friday mornings because that’s when public executions happen’. One of our ground crew did go down. As a Westerner, he was pushed to the front and saw everything. He was medically evacuated home within a fortnight – he was so traumatised.
“As for me, I was lucky. Although a few months afterwards, my wife commented – and I realised it was absolutely true – I’d lost the ability to sleep in, no matter how tired I was. It wasn’t a conscious thing. I was like ‘Gosh, you are right’. I can only assume it was something to do with that.”
Flight Lieutenant Macintyre recalls that once military action was completed, military units returned home extremely rapidly.
“The reason for that was the Saudi government didn’t want us in the country a minute longer,” he says.
“We were an embarrassment to them. We were a visible symbol that they weren’t able to defend their own country.
“Also the clash of cultures – Christianity and the very strict Muslim religion practised in Saudi.”
In the years that followed, he flew on several Iraq no-fly zone tours. By the second Gulf War in March 2003, however, when he was serving with Leuchars-based 111 (F) Squadron, he recalls it being “very mind focusing” when he was flying over enemy territory for the first time.
He flew a sortie 25 miles south-west of Baghdad on the first night of the shooting war and vividly remembers the first cruise missiles going in. “Shock and awe? Yes, definitely!” he remembers.
But with greater awareness of politics, and the media coverage around whether there were weapons of mass destruction, came the debate about the legalities of the second Gulf War.
The military had a job to do. It was only when personnel came home that some questioned it.
DON’T GO TO THE LOCAL SQUARE ON FRIDAY MORNINGS BECAUSE THAT’S WHEN PUBLIC EXECUTIONS HAPPEN