UNITED STATES NAVY IN DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM

25 Jan DOD announces 17,500 sorties have been flown (a record 2,700 today) and 236
TOMAHAWK cruise missiles have been launched. Iraq has lost 43 aircraft,
19 in air-to-air engagements, 24 on the ground. The U.S. has lost 10 aircraft
to ground fire and the coalition has lost 7 aircraft. including 5 UK Tornados
hit by anti-aircraft fire flying low-level missions to crater airfields. The total
of 17 aircraft losses represents two-tenths of 1 percent of all combat missions
flown to-date.
U.S. ships engage an Iraqi vessel laying mines near Sea Island Terminal, setting part
of terminal and surrounding water afire.
Iraq has dumped several million barrels of oil into the Arabian Gulf from the Sea
Island crude oil tanker loading terminal, off the coast of Kuwait. 3 pre-
positioned Iraqi tankers in the occupied Kuwaiti port of Mina al Ahmadi
have been drained of oil, and oil is being pumped from storage tanks ashore
through an underwater pipeline into the gulf. Described by DOD as "an act
of environmental terrorism", the spill is approximately' 20 miles long, 3 miles
wide, and three feet deep, and threatens to foul the intakes of Saudi Arabia's
desalinization plants as well as the gulf.
U.S. troop strength in the region has increased to 482,000. To-date, 192,965 Na-
tional Guard and Reservists have been recalled to active duty (14,702 Navy,
22,142 USMC). Fifteen percent of U.S. servicemembers in the DESERT
STORM field of operation are Guard and Reserve.
Iraq fires 3 SCUD missiles at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. U.S. Patriot missiles success-
fully intercept, but warhead debris kills at least one person, 23 injured. In a
second attack, 7 SCUDs impact in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel, killing one
person, injuring dozens.
SECNAV activates 298 additional Naval Reservists from 41 units.

26 Jan D()D announces 20,000 sorties have been flown as the air campaign's focus shifts
from strategic interdiction to battlefield preparation, with targeting on mili-
tary storage facilities, military production facilities, Republican Guard troop
fortifications and SCUD launchers. Bomb damage assessments confirm
significant destruction of Iraqi biological/chemical production capability.
The Navy has lost an F/A-18 in non-combat operations. The aircrewman ejected
over the Persian Gulf and was recovered safely.
Total of Iraqi aircraft destroyed in air-to-air engagements climbs to 22 as USAF F-
15s down 3 Iraqi MIG-23s.
USN aircraft attack an Iraqi patrol boat in Kuwait harbor. Boat last seen burning.
A-6s have engaged and left a TNC-45 patrol boat burning.
DOD announces that at least a dozen Iraqi MIG-29s/F-1s and a do;en transport
aircraft have landed in an undisclosed location in Iran, a declared neutral
country. DOD ascertaining whether Iraqi planes are seeking a safe haven
from bombing attacks, whether this is a mass defection or a husbanding of re-
sources for future combat operations.
An estimate 1 *lli n all n f i n in w int h i n from
the Sea Island Terminal, and the oil slick -- partly afire from January 23 en-
gagement between USN and Iraqi patrol boat -- is now 31 miles long and 8
miles wide. ASD (PA) Pete Williams denounces deliberate spill as "indis-

A-2O