Historical Resources Branch

US Army Center of Military History

XVIII Airborne Corps in Operations

DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM:

An Annotated Chronology


INTRODUCTION

These files consist of copies of the annotated chronology compiled by the Command Historian,(1) XVIII Airborne Corps, and are posted to the Center's web site with the permission of that office. The files were initiated during the DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM deployment and completed after redeployment by carefully cross-referencing the official corps records before they were retired. The preliminary draft of this chronology was submitted as the documentation in the package recommending XVIII Airborne Corps for the Presidential Unit Citation (Army). That award was never approved.

The chronology is organized by month, with the exception of the months of January and February 1991. Each of those monthly files is divided into two sections. January is split between the DESERT SHIELD (1-15 January) and DESERT STORM (16-31 January) phases. February is split between the period of the air war (1-23 February) and the period of the 100-hour ground offensive (24-28 February).

In format, each file consists of entries for a date placed in chronological order. Each date further identified by a "C" date (indicating the number of days elapsed from the Commencement of Operation DESERT SHIELD), and where appropriate "D" date (indicating the number of days elapsed since the beginning of Operation DESERT STORM) and "G" date (indicating the number of days elapsed since the beginning of the "100-hour Ground war"). The left-hand numbers for each entry represent the time of day expressed in military style on the 24-hour clock (e.g., 0100 is 1:00 A.M. while 1300 is 1 P.M.). Unless otherwise noted, times for events in the Southwest Asia Theater of Operations are "C" or "CHARLIE" time zone, which is the local time in the theater. Other time zones used occasionally are "Z" or "ZULU", which is Greenwich Mean Time, and is normally used by the military for world-wide communications; or "R" or "ROMEO" which was the local time for Fort Bragg, North Carolina (Eastern Daylight Savings Time or Eastern Standard Time depending upon the season).

If the information in the entry was derived from the actual Daily Journals and Journal Files, no annotation appears. If other sources were consulted, they are listed in brackets at the end of the entry. If primary sources conflict, or if they contained inaccurate information, the Command Historian investigated the contradiction, made an on-the-spot determination based on that investigation, and provided an explanation in the bracketed materials to indicate which source was correct.

Readers should be aware that initial reporting contained in the Journals and Journal Files or first daily situation reports (SITREPS) is rarely accurate in matters of detail. The need to pass information quickly takes precedence over the need to be 100% accurate. In cases where the reports were in conflict with each other or where they were in error, the chronology reflects all sources but makes a definitive statement that is based in each and every case by the on-the-ground investigation by the XVIII Airborne Corps History Office.

Users of this chronology should also consult the original records of the corps and each of its subordinate units; the oral history collection (DSIT-AE) maintained by the Corps History Office at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (with copies on file at the Oral History Activity, US Army Center of Military History); and the rosters of key personnel.

No XVIII Airborne Corps Command Report was compiled for Operations DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM. Instead, priority was given to the processing and retirement of the official records and this command chronology was prepared as a substitute.

updated 9 April 1998



Notes:

(1) During the period from June 1989 through November 1991 Dr. Robert K. Wright, Jr., served as Command Historian, a Department of the Army civilian position which also required a commission in the Reserve Components. Dr. Wright initially covered the corps' deployment from Fort Bragg, and then moved to Saudi Arabia in October. On 6 December 1990 he was called to active duty in theater as a major. The Corps History Office initially consisted of Dr. Wright and two enlisted members, but grew in December with the arrival of the 116th, 130th and 317th Military History Detachments. During the 100-hour ground offensive, the Office achieved a peak strength of 25 soldiers (12 historians and 13 attached personnel from the Joint Combat Camera Detachment); it covered the corps through task organization into four mobile teams.