Thread by @johnismay, 2/13/1991: Alpha Battery, 21st FA fires the first M26 MLRS rockets ever [...]

John Ismay

johnismay

2/13/1991: Alpha Battery, 21st FA fires the first M26 MLRS rockets ever used in combat. The US Army says "the system performed extremely well," but that is only true if you don't count the thousands of dud submunitions it left behind, which killed many US soldiers #gulfwar30

ref: https://history.redstone.army.mil/miss-mlrs.html

Alpha Batt. 21st Field Artillery's radio callsign was "Steel Rain," which was noted by the 1st Cav DivArty commander in December 1990 while they were still in Saudi Arabia http://sill-www.army.mil/firesbulletin/archives/1991/FEB_1991/FEB_1991_FULL_EDITION.pdf

This report says 1st Cavalry "went to war" on Feb. 13 with a four-battery MLRS raid that started at 1815 hours http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA296089

Somehow, Alpha Battery's "Steel Rain" callsign was co-opted by senior leaders and presented to the wold in a lie - saying that it was Iraqi POWs who gave it that name. @NYTimesAtWar explored that lie a little over a year ago, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/magazine/steel-rain-army-artillery.html

A Myth That Won’t Die About a Gulf War Weapon, and Why It Matters (Published 2020)

Pentagon leaders have repeated a tall tale about artillery that was used against Iraqi troops during Desert Storm. For the Army, the fiction began right at the very top.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/magazine/steel-rain-army-artillery.html

"For some United States Army leaders, the imagery was intoxicating: Iraqi soldiers cowering in fear as dozens of American rockets and artillery shells broke open above them" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/magazine/steel-rain-army-artillery.html

An Old Army Myth That Went Unchallenged for Too Long (Published 2020)

A Times reporter explains how he started investigating a gulf war-era tale of artillery superiority and its questionable origins.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/magazine/steel-rain-army-artillery.html

The US Army fired 17,286x M26 rockets in Desert Storm, each containing 644x M77 DPICMs -- 11.1M submunitions in all. Factoring at least a 20% fail rate, that means there were 2.2M+ duds left on the ground. Over the next few months, I'll be writing about the Americans they killed

These deaths resulted from fundamentally negligent planning and leadership, and were papered-over after the fact. It's the side of the rah-rah #gulfwar30 and #desertstorm30 hashtags that the fanboys don't want to talk about

*millions, not thousands

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