SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Gulf War, 35 years ago, was the U.S. military's first large engagement as an all-volunteer force after moving away from the draft in 1973. Scott Maucione from member station WYPR looks at the legacy of the war this Veterans Day and how it continues to affect those who served.
SCOTT MAUCIONE, BYLINE: When then-26-year-old Army Warrant Officer Todd Weiler stepped off the plane in the Middle East in 1990, the first thing he felt was heat.
TODD WEILER: It was boom. It, like, hit you like a brick. And I remember just starting to laugh 'cause all my friends were like, holy crap. This is terrible. You know what I mean? They were, like, complaining.
MAUCIONE: Weiler says the heat reminded him of home in West Texas. But this was an area he'd hardly expected to be setting foot in just a couple of weeks ago.
WEILER: Then all of a sudden, you know, on the news, I think everybody, like, on CNN saw what was happening. And it was probably within hours that we got the call that get ready, things are going to start moving.
MAUCIONE: Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, and the U.S. was bringing together a coalition of forces to push back. Weiler spent the next months conducting air support in Kuwait and Iraq as a Cobra helicopter pilot. He's one of 700,000 Americans who were part of the operations. Michael R. Gordon co-authored "The Generals' War," a book on Operation Desert Storm. He says it was a new type of conflict for the U.S. after Vietnam.
MICHAEL R GORDON: The significance of the Gulf War was the restoration of American military confidence. One consequence of it, though, is it opened the door to greater American military involvement in the region.
MAUCIONE: That involvement led to much more extended conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq again and even to the Iran war today. Ken White, a sailor at the time, served on a landing tank ship. After a short and decisive operation, he says coming home from the war, he and his crewmates were met with tremendous appreciation.
KEN WHITE: Not just family and friends, but there were a lot of Vietnam vets who were welcoming us home. Something that they didn't get to enjoy.
MAUCIONE: While the engagement only lasted about seven months, the political and human repercussions are still felt today. The U.S. military estimates that at least 30,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed. Four hundred American service members also died. Many Gulf War veterans are still facing health issues from their service. Dr. Robert Haley is one of the leading researchers of Gulf War illness.
ROBERT HALEY: It's very, very incapacitating.
MAUCIONE: Haley says the condition includes a cluster of symptoms and came from bombing Iraqi chemical weapons stores.
HALEY: And these people are unable to work. Their personality has changed. They're depressed and unable to get along with the people around them. And it's very crippling.
MAUCIONE: In 2022, Congress codified benefits for the estimated quarter of a million veterans with the condition. Weiler, the helicopter pilot, went on to serve as the assistant secretary of defense under President Barack Obama. He was proud to see a Gulf War memorial open in D.C. late last month.
WEILER: It's pretty cool - would be the word - to be able to take my son there and, you know, show him something a little more tangible, I guess, than just the stories he hears from me.
MAUCIONE: He says many more veterans need recognition, help and care as they come home from the many places they never expected to go. For NPR News, I'm Scott Maucione in Baltimore.
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