R-11 Zemlya

Uh, we, we stayed in, uh, in Dhahran at, uh, specifically at Khobar Towers, um, for a few days.

Um, [laughs] as part of this, I was, uh, under the very first, uh, SCUD attack of the war from, uh, [sniffs] the, uh, the, the Iraqis, uh, you know, launched, uh, on the first, uh, first night of the, of the war.

Uh, well, actually I should say at, at the time it was really the second night, 'cause we initiated operation on the first night, and then the second night, you know, as a retaliation, uh, they started lobbing SCUDs, um-

Mm

... on Israel and other locations.

Now, there was only one SCUD launched, uh, on that night against Khobar Towers, uh, but I was there.

And, uh, a Patriot missile blew it out of the sky.

Um-

I'll tell you this story right here.

When my dad was stationed in Bahrain, I don't remember what night it was, but he was at his barracks one night and Next thing you know, an Iraqi Scud missile, which was a Russian-made missile that they had, huge.

And they launched it over the base.

And what he told me, it was supposed to hit like 100 to 150 yards, I believe, right to where he was bunked at, like in that area.

And he saw that happen, which I thought was actually a pretty neat story.

And I mean, I feel like that would be a cool experience to see that just like a big firework in the sky.

He says he has a piece of debris of the missile, whether it was a Scud or a Patriot.

He doesn't know where it's at.

But one of the big – and I remember this when it was happening.

One of the big contentions, one of the big things that they made a big deal out of, and it was, was Saddam launching the Scuds just into the Israeli population.

Yeah, I'm glad you raised that.

Saddam was craftier.

He should have thrown his whole air force, a carrier battle group and tried to sink what he could.

You know, the people are talking about as if it was like the Argentine Air Force, you know, like like like knocking out British cruisers.

um, in the Falklands, it's, like, not at all comparable, and, like, if Saddam had thrown those airplanes at, uh, at a carrier battle group, they just would have gotten, like, slaughtered, it would just would have been, like, a fireworks show, and, like, that'd be the end of it, like, um, and he knew that, um, so that, coupled with, um, you know, yeah, the, the ability of Bush and Baker to, to stand down, um, the, uh, israeli government but also those are the days like yesak rabin man and stuff like you didn't just like just like demento zionist element it's not like the israeli government was ever any great shakes but it was a lot more rational then you know um and uh there's far more of a concord um in the occupied territories you know the uh um it was it was kind of it was kind of a rare moment of relative calm you know um so it was a constellation of all those things, but yeah, I, understanding, um, either of those things in isolation, um, either the, uh, the launching of Scuds at, um, at, um, Tel Aviv, or, uh, you know, the, uh, the appearance of, uh, the Iraqi Air Force or remain of it in Iran, um, I think those things have to be understood together.

And it's also, you know, once, um, I, I mean, the point of evil too, I mean, especially about the second world war, but about all conflicts, you know, what, once, once you're in a war, once you're in, um, conditions approaching war, you can't just say like, you know what, I'm going to put the brakes on this and like stop everything.

But we had all the predator drones.

So they would fly into Iraq and they'd look for the missile launch sites, the Scud missiles.

And then we had a bunch of special operations guys.

I flew into Germany to go to Jordan and they said, aren't you supposed to be in uniform? And I said, I don't think so.

But really, Chelsea are like, you are.

Anyway, the Scud is back.

The Scud, good morning to you, Scudley.

Where is your, there it is.

No, no, that's Cole.

Sorry, I'm just trying to catch up here.

Just seeing what's going on, going on, going on, going on.

Scud used to be a butcher.

Uh, but as they say, the enemy gets a vote, and what we've seen here, if there was any surprise, it probably had to do with just how, how hunkered down, uh, Iran or the IRGC more broadly, how hunkered down they were and how elusive it has proven to be able to do that, uh, that thing that everybody likes to wave their hand at, of left of launch or, you know, hitting missiles on the ground before they can be, uh, before they can be launched.

Turns out that Scud hunting or TEL hunting is, uh, a transport erector launcher, uh, or TEL, uh, it's harder than it, than it looks.

And, uh, that's, that's the, the perhaps one of the lessons here.

It's frustrating.

Louis?

Like, is it like Scud, Skid, Scad? Some-

Skid is the spinny man.

Skid.

[laughs]

Um, the guy that had the, uh, the...

Was it the first one we were actually introduced to that wasn't Scud? The other one.

He had, like, a bit of a quiff going on.

You know, the, the, the, the small correction that's required to, um, to put that missile through the, the warhead through the flight deck, this is not n- t- you know, 1990 anymore.

In, in, uh, 1991, a Scud missile landed, uh, near a warship in the port of Jubail and next to a dock loaded with ordnance, and if it had, you know, been 100 meters to, you know, further out, it would have caused a mega explosion.

Well, today all these weapons can hit those targets, including, it's, it, you know, even moving targets like a carrier.

So, you know, we may, we may in the long run be kind of grateful that w- that we burned our hand on the Iranian stove and not the Chinese stove 'cause, you know-