Late in the afternoon of January 27, 1991, only ten days after the war between Iraq and the Allied Coalition forces began, aircrews of the 192nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 152nd Reconnaissance Group, Nevada Air National Guard, were called upon to fly north to Kuwait. Their mission was to take pictures of open oil manifolds which were draining crude oil into the Persian Gulf at the order of Saddam Hussein. Equipped with special sensors which provide highly detailed photographs from long distances, the two RF-4 aircraft from the 192nd took off from SheikIsa Air Base, Bahrain, without fighter escorts. Relying only on their speed and the skills of the aircrews, the "Phantoms" had to enter enemy territory alone and unarmed. The target area was a 40 Kilometer strip of heavily defended coastline adjacent to Kuwait City. Arriving in the target area, the flight leader determined that due to the heavy smoke cover from burning oil wells, the planned high altitude photo run would not work. To obtain usable photos of the area, the flight would have to approach the target area parallel to the coast and below the smoke cover. As the RF-4s approached the objective, they were fired on by anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. Low visibility required the flight to make another pass at the target to insure adequate coverage. Clear photographs were obtained by both aircraft which were forwarded the same night to U.S. Central Command. The following day, these photos were used by Allied fighter-bombers to attack the oil manifolds and stop the flow of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. During the Persian Gulf War, the "High Rollers" of the 192nd Reconnaissance Squadron added to its record of service in four wars and carried on the Air National Guard's proud tradition of service to the nation.

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