Posted on 06/13/2014 10:53:16 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
A West Point grad once told me that the U.S. Army decided it was cheaper to bury Operation Desert Storm goodies under 30 feet of Iraqi desert than to bring them home. Anybody else hear this?
“Remember the story about 40+ new Spitfires that were buried in Burma after WWII?”
They were buried during WW2 to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese. That area of Burma was in danger of being overrun during the Imphal-Kohima Offensive.
When the US Army Air Corps then asked for new planes, Coolidge reportedly said, "Buy one and let them take turns flying it."
I can speak for my battalion in Desert Storm, every piece of equipment we took, that hadn’t been lost or destroyed, we brought back.
A vet friend told he spent weeks burning supplies;they had a huge bonfire and he and others just pushed material onto the pile with bulldozers.He was allowed to ship a half or full dozen bags of goodies home,mostly uniforms, disposable razors and such.
Desert Storm military gear ended up in USA, in Saudi Arabia or in Kuwait. Incursion into Iraq was not of a long duration - certainly no commander would have abandoned usable equipment in the territory of the enemy. Any tactical withdrawal or like lateral movement was preceded by destruction of any equipment and/or supplies the outfit was unable to take with them.
Saddam actually did try to bury his air force and other materials in the desert to hide them from advancing forces. I remember the pics of some Migs and other equipment being excavated.
IIRC, most of those pushed over the side were to make room for other incoming evac choppers.
the story I referred to is below. The spitfires were buried when the war was over.
When Saigon was falling in 1975 and the US Embassy was being evacuated, dozens of South Vietnamese helicopter pilots loaded their families and friends on board their helicopters and flew out to the couple of US air craft carriers that were off the coast to escape the North Vietnamese Army. It is pictures of those Republic of South Vietnam helicopters being pushed over the side of the carriers to make room for other incoming helicopters to land. The South Vietnamese pilots had no desire to return to Vietnam and become prisoners of war and ‘re-educated’ as communists.
We brought all of our toys back but I was stationed with the marines and they don’t have the budget to throw things away.
I remember the end of the war in Nam when the choppers were pushed over the sides of carriers.
************************************
They needed the room to land more ... and they certainly weren’t going back to be captured. most were single engine Hueys ... already outdated and with lots of hours on the meter.
The story on the spitfires is bullfeathers.But our military did and still does bury al kinds of equipment.
I am talking about Desert Storm, 1991. The guy said he complied with the order to bury the stuff. I’m just looking for a confirmation of his story.
No Bush removed the Yellow Cake from the desert and sold it to a Canadian Company, sorry you missed that.
What kind of stuff are we talking about?
I remember that a lot of heavy equipment (tanks, etc) was put into storage in Kuwait in case we needed to go back.
But it wouldn’t surprise me if lesser equipment, damaged or obsolescent vehicles (like the M60A3 tanks that the Marines showed up with then traded out for M1s from Army prepositioned stocks) were buried.
The story of the buried spitfires is hogwash.
Also, could be abandoned Iraqi equipment ...
Lots of equipment was pre-position in many middle east countries before Desert Storm, I know because I got there in Aug 90 and there was a lot of stuff already on the ground that was not shipped in a such a short time.
“After WW I, the Army piled-up 1,600 American airplanes and set them on fire rather than ship them back to the U.S.”
I remember reading about planes being pushed off the backs of carriers on the journey home after WWII. Heck, there’s still leftover Civil War kit out there.
It certainly happened after WWII. My father was in the Navy and told of huge amounts of material deep-sixed, officially and unofficially. No one wanted to be delayed by having to inventory stuff, to cite just one reason.
Jeeps, PALLET loads of things like binoculars, pushed overboard, some not far from American ports.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.