And it’s the formative years that stick with you.
I remember the first war in Iraq, the Gulf War, when hundreds of casualties were expected among the allies trying to restore the world order in the Middle East following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
In fact so many American troops were expected to die or be seriously injured that a contingency was set up at the former RAF hospital at Nocton Hall in Lincolnshire.
I was working for the Lincolnshire Echo at that time, and was fortunate enough to be sent along to find out what was happening there.
It had closed as an RAF facility in the 1980s and had been taken over by the USAF – and was in fact a little bit of the United States on British soil, much as an Embassy would be.
More than 1,300 US medical staff and Army reservists were sent to the area for the 1992 conflict, and I was treated to a tour of ward after ward of sterile beds, all set up under cellophane ready for the expected influx once battle commenced.
The sheer scale of the operation was incredible. From the giant big-bellied transport planes on the runway, to the armoured vehicles rolling around the site and the hundreds of staff being readied for what was expected to be a bloody conflict.
Lincolnshire’s rich RAF past helped the operation with many staff billeted at RAF stations dotted around the area, including Scampton, then home to the Red Arrows display team.
The war began in August 1990, in the middle of the night our time, after weeks of posturing and troops being made ready.
The tension was high and it was something of a relief when the order was finally given.
Moves by the Coalition forces to kick off Operation Desert Storm sent some 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs and destroying military and civilian infrastructure in a move which effectively won the war as soon as it had begun. No Iraq planes flew during the whole conflict, although 75 Allied planes were downed from anti-aircraft fire from the ground.
At the Echo we published an early edition about the hostilities and regular news updates in several daily editions, with what was a more forthcoming supply of copy compared with the time delay attached to the Falklands Conflict some ten years before.
And USAF Nocton Hall? It treated just 35 casualties.
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