Veterans' Voices: First Gulf War

Lisa Erickson’s dad joked that she didn’t even know how to put gas in her car. But the Air Force made her a jet engine mechanic and she learned. She was one of two females on the crew at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, that supplied jet engine motors to planes in the Gulf War. [Read Transcript...]

Theresa Dawson was a Russian linguist in Berlin when war the US went to war with Iraq. Though her unit had the opportunity to deploy, they were still vital to the mission in Europe, where the Berlin wall had fallen but a Soviet threat still lingered. [Read Transcript...]

Army nurse Lori Allert was told in summer 1990 that she may be deployed. Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces had invaded Kuwait. So she waited. And waited. Finally, after New Year’s, she got the call. She was being mobilized. [Read Transcript...]

Larry Liljenquist, a marine, was given sea duty on the flagship for the 7th Fleet. The fleet, scheduled to go to Russia, suddenly received orders to redirect to the Persian Gulf. [Read Transcript...]