35 years since the Gulf War ended, veterans reflect on the conflict and its ongoing impact.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Gulf War, 35 years ago, was the U.S. military's first large engagement as an all-volunteer force after moving away from the draft in 1973. Scott Maucione from member station WYPR looks at the legacy of the war this Veterans Day and how it continues to affect those who served.
SCOTT MAUCIONE, BYLINE: When then-26-year-old Army Warrant Officer Todd Weiler stepped off the plane in the Middle East in 1990, the first thing he felt was heat.
TODD WEILER: It was boom. It, like, hit you like a brick. And I remember just starting to laugh 'cause all my friends were like, holy crap. This is terrible. You know what I mean? They were, like, complaining.
MAUCIONE: Weiler says the heat reminded him of home in West Texas. But this was an area he'd hardly expected to be setting foot in just a couple of weeks ago.
WEILER: Then all of a sudden, you know, on the news, I think everybody, like, on CNN saw what was happening. And it was probably within hours that we got the call that get ready, things are going to start moving.
MAUCIONE: Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, and the U.S. was bringing together a coalition of forces to push back. Weiler spent the next months conducting air support in Kuwait and Iraq as a Cobra helicopter pilot. He's one of 700,000 Americans who were part of the operations. Michael R. Gordon co-authored "The Generals' War," a book on Operation Desert Storm. He says it was a new type of conflict for the U.S. after Vietnam.
