Patriot Crew Remains a Believer in System

Spc. Nicholas Bunch was 9 years old when Patriot missile batteries fired at Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. First Lt. Marsha Hackett was 11. Her only memory of that earlier conflict was sending valentines to troops from her grade-school class.

Neither soldier ever heard of a Patriot missile until joining the Army.

Today, Bunch and Hackett own the distinction of firing the first of a new generation of Patriots in combat. They also lay claim to the first Patriot kill of the current war, a direct hit on an Iraqi Frog-7 missile bearing down on this U.S. desert camp on March 20.

“Once the adrenaline stopped pumping, we all realized we had really accomplished something pretty special,” said Hackett, 23, of the three-soldier crew that operates from a control room in a trailer a few hundred yards from the Patriot missile batteries.

The elation has since faded following the accidental destruction of a British fighter plane by another Patriot battery, killing the crew of two, and the attack by a U.S. warplane on a Patriot radar. But Hackett and Bunch are still focused on their mission: protecting U.S. soldiers from deadly Iraqi missile strikes.

“We’re all very disheartened, very sad,” the Patriot crew’s commander, Capt. Gregory Kentel, 36, said of the incident involving the British. “We try very hard to avoid mistakes but, unfortunately, they do happen in a war. Even so, our morale is still high and we’re still concentrating on doing our jobs.”

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Patriot’s reputation was tarnished when it was revealed afterward that the missile had not performed as well as the Pentagon had claimed. The controversy continues in this war, although Patriot batteries have shot down several Iraqi missiles and U.S. forces have suffered no casualties from long-range missile strikes.

The experience of the Camp Thunder crew is significant not only because it scored the first hit on the first day of the war, but also because it showed that the revamped Patriots can track and kill enemy missiles under combat conditions. On Tuesday, an Iraqi missile, believed to have been fired from the southern outskirts of Baghdad, was intercepted and destroyed by a Patriot missile over a desert camp near the south-central Iraqi town of Najaf.

The original Patriot system was designed to shoot down aircraft and was modified just before the 1991 war to intercept missiles, according to Kentel. The current system is a new generation specifically designed to track and destroy incoming missiles.

“It’s a much better system. It’s capable of doing exactly what we ask it to do,” the captain said.

The missile batteries, painted desert tan, look like metal cargo containers tilted toward the sky. Two of the three Camp Thunder batteries, protected by barbed wire and sand berms, are aimed toward Iraq. The third is aimed toward Basra, the southern Iraqi city where the first incoming missile originated. Each battery holds four Patriots.

Known as Delta 5-52, the Camp Thunder battery was set up just four days before the war began. The crew was in the middle of an uneventful shift when the two computer screens in the control trailer suddenly flashed a green blip -- known as a “karat” -- signifying an approaching missile.

“At first I thought it was just an air battle,” Hackett said, referring to regular simulations the crews perform to stay sharp. “Then we checked the speed and altitude and verified that it was for real.”

Bunch, 21, sounded an alarm, which sent thousands of soldiers on the base running for bunkers and trenches in their chemical-biological suits. The incoming missile was later found to have carried no chemical or biological agents, but U.S. forces are trained to assume that any incoming missile is a potential chemical or biological threat.

Twenty seconds later, two more Patriot missiles were automatically launched by the system’s internal controls.

The Iraqi missile was intercepted nine miles north of the base and destroyed with a boom that reverberated across the desert floor. The second Patriot malfunctioned and, as designed, self-destructed in midair. A third missile, automatically launched because the second one had malfunctioned, exploded harmlessly in the desert.

“It seemed like we spent forever watching that [screen],” Kentel said. “Then, all of a sudden, everybody was cheering and yelling.”

For the third member of the crew, Sgt. Michael Harris, 38, the kill was vindication of sorts. He had served in the Marine Corps during the 1991 war and was familiar with the criticism of the Patriots.

“To be honest, I wasn’t real confident about it,” he said of the current system. “I mean, they had told us beforehand that the percentages might not be all that good every single time.”

But after the confirmed kill, Harris said, “I was ecstatic. It worked exactly the way it was supposed to.”

While ruing the misfires and accidental deaths, Kentel said the Patriots have the potential to save the lives of thousands of allied troops, as well as Kuwaiti civilians.

“You know, at 1.3 million bucks a missile, I spent over 3 million bucks in 10 seconds,” Kentel said. “But if that saved the life of just one American soldier, it’s worth it. That’s a pretty gratifying feeling.”