This month in history: Mountain Home mourns the loss of airmen

In the Feb. 13, 1991 issue of the Mountain Home News an article came out titled “Morale soars after war begins.” In this article a Capt. Mike Williams-who had just come back to the states for his impending retirement from the United States Air Force-explained that in the beginning of the deployment there had been a large amount of excitement for the service members, but as they sat in the desert camps for months waiting on the slow buildup of troops, “boredom set in, and became a little problem.”

Capt. Williams also said that most of the troops had not been informed in advance when combat would start, but “when you started seeing that many planes lined up on the runway with live munitions hanging from them, it was pretty evident something was going on.”

The EF-111 Ravens of the 390th Combat Support Squadron of Mountain Home Air Force Base helped spearhead the initial attacks on Baghdad and quickly lifted the spirit of the deployed men and women.

On the same day that story came out two pilots from Mountain Home Air Force Base lost their lives during the conflict when their Raven went down in the desert of Saudi Arabia.For the full story, pick up a copy of the Mountain Home News or click on this link to subscribe to the newspaper's online edition.