Collections Archive –– Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm

Servicewomen at King Fahd Airport, Saudi Arabia.

  
Moving weaponry off transport.  
  Operations Desert Shield and Storm (1990-1991) were the largest deployments of military women in the history of the United States, more than 40,000 women were deployed. Fifteen were killed and two were imprisoned by Iraqi forces. Media coverage revealed how completely US servicewomen integrated into almost every military unit.    

On the evening news, Americans saw military women in the Persian Gulf transporting troops and supplies. A woman led a company of Chinook helicopters into Iraq on the first day of the ground war. Women served aboard Navy hospital ships and support ships. They commanded a variety of units from graves registration detachments to battalion-sized material management centers.

 

  
Repairing a truck in the desert.  

Briefing then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell.

  
  Others drove trucks, established communications systems, dug bunkers, flew tankers, refueled bombers and fighters in midair, launched Patriot missiles and endured enemy attack. They guarded POWs and lived with, worked with and commanded male soldiers.     “Women proved they were able to work beside men and get the job done,” reported one Army Reserve major. The operations established new frontiers for women in combat even though federal law prohibited women from serving in direct combat and barred Navy and Air Force women from combat ships and aircraft.

 
 

A Black Hawk helicopter pilot and executive officer of a lift battalion in her quarters.

     Aboard the USS Acadia.  
  When the troops of Desert Storm began coming home, there were celebrations, fanfare, yellow ribbons and an appreciative, flag-waving public. Congress began rescinding the statutory restrictions which had banned servicewomen from combat aircraft and vessels.     Currently, servicewomen serve aboard every kind of military aircraft and naval vessel with the exception of submarines. Policy also prohibits women from serving as special forces personnel. And, no law bans women from armed combat—although the Army and Marine Corps still restrict women from the combat arms (infantry, armor and artillery) and women's exposure to combat.