Jim Boots Demarest - Five Nickels: True Story of the Desert Storm Heroics and Sacrifice of Air Force Captain Steve Phillis

C aptain Steve Phillis launched on his thirtieth combat mission of Operation Desert Storm on February 15, 1991. A highly experienced Air Force A-10 fighter pilot, Steve was leading his two-ship formation, call sign Enfield 3-7, on their most challenging mission of the warattacking Saddam Husseins elite Medina Division of the Republican Guard. The Medina were dug in one hundred miles north of the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and they were equipped with Iraqs most modern air-defense equipment. It was tough tasking, but Steve and his wingman were quietly confident in their ability to get the job done.

Steves wingman was First Lieutenant Rob Sweet, a young A-10 pilot who had grown up fast during Desert Storm and showed talent well beyond his years and experience. Rob and Steve flew as a combat pair during the war, and both had experience being shot at by Iraqi forces. To thrive and survive, each pilot had specific mission responsibilities. Steves duties as flight lead were cleardrop bombs on target and bring both aircraft safely back to base. Robs job as wingman was to follow Steves lead and support his efforts to get both of them back home safely. After a month of combat flying, both understood the risks they would face.

The Medina Division endured regular aerial bombing by a host of coalition attack aircraft yet maintained an 85 percent combat effectiveness rating according to intelligence analysts. Over the preceding few days the air attacks had intensified, and February 15 was no exception. It was late in the afternoon when the Iraqi commander ordered several soldiers from his air defense company to man their Soviet built SA-13 Gopher/Strela-10 surface to-air missile (SAM) system mounted on a tracked armored vehicle. Most of the chassis was buried in the sand, leaving only the hatches, gunners window, steerable turret, and missile canisters exposed.

They would get little notice of an attack. All the early warning radars were either destroyed or turned off to prevent engagement by a coalition aircraft. Any advance warning would arrive via information passed through a vast network of underground telephones, or as was more often the case, the crew simply relied on their eyes and ears to locate enemy aircraft. Several soldiers took up lookout positions around the SA-13 while the commander, gunner, and driver stood ready. All had clear orders: attack any coalition aircraft that strayed within the SA-13s three-mile range.

Enfield 3-7 flight entered the kill box occupied by the Medina Division. Steve and Rob took turns dropping bombs on military equipment and vehicles, with one attacking targets while the other watched out for SAM launches. They had seen several launches in the area and heard plenty of radio chatter from aircraft frantically maneuvering to prevent getting shot down. Their A-10s were well-equipped to defend against SAMs, but neither was eager to put these systems to use.

After several bombing passes, Steve noticed a truck traveling southwest on the only road in the area, so he and Rob followed. Steve rolled in and strafed the truck with the A-10s 30mm cannon but missed. The truck raced off the road and pulled into the center of a small circle of trucks parked on the south side. Rob rolled in and dropped cluster bombs on the truck park and covered about half the circle with bomblets. Steve called out that they had been in this target area long enough and directed the flight eastbound.

Through the smoke belching from burning vehicles and oil fires and the dust constantly kicked up by desert winds and coalition bombs, an Iraqi soldier spied two black dots approaching his position. Unable to initially identify these objects, of one thing he was sure. They were not Iraqi aircraft. He watched as the dots grew bigger and now suspected his unit was in for more trouble.

His fears were confirmed when the dots, now identified as aircraft, began to dive and drop bombs near his position. While not in the direct line of fire, he was close enough to see what was happening. His unit was being attacked from the air yet again. The initial attack was out of range of their SA-13s. However, after delivering their bombs, the aircraft circled back to attack a closer position. The commander ordered his team into their armored vehicle, and all three raced across the desert sand with an unmistakable sense of urgency.

The driver hopped into the open front-left hatch and reached over to start the engine. Once running, it would drive the internal generator used to power the entire weapons system. He reached up to close and lock the hatch behind him and turned on the generator. The system would be powered up in less than five seconds. Next in was the gunner, who scampered down the front-right hatch and moved quickly through the tight space back to his firing position. He unlocked the turret, placed his hands on the steering and fire controls, and began searching for the target through the blast-proof glass in front of him. The commander entered just behind the gunner, then reached up to close and lock the hatch. He confirmed both hatches and the window were locked, which was a requirement to launch. He put his headset on and activated the intercom, listening for words from his gunner.

The gunner looked down to confirm the COMBAT light was on steady and moved his thumbs over the push buttons atop the turret controls. He spun the turret to the south and continued looking for any coalition aircraft, eager to shoot one down with his Arrow missile. The Arrow was a seven-foot-long, eighty-six-pound missile designed to destroy high-performance aircraft at low altitude. The single-stage solid-propellant rocket motor boosted the missile to speeds in excess of twelve hundred miles per hour, and its thin white smoke trail was difficult to see from the air.

While flying eastbound, Steve spotted a lucrative target of riveted tanks in a three-mile-wide circle. There were no bomb craters anywhere in the formation, indicating that this unit had not come under recent attack in its present location. At first, Steve wondered whether he should even attack these targets, for fear that they were decoys. He decided to reposition the flight for what Rob believed to be their final attack, unaware of the flurry of activity going on below them.