Chapter 5: My Duties

The air war against the Iraqi army had been underway for several weeks and was proving successful. The skies over Kuwait and Iraq now belonged to the Coalition. There had been some aircraft losses, an unfortunate but expected reality in wartime, but it was still difficult to hear that a Coalition jet had been shot down. The goal was always to keep casualties low on both sides.

With the air war having successfully achieved its objectives, we shifted our focus to analyzing and evaluating the Iraqi forces facing Coalition troops. GNS tasked us with identifying the Iraqi army’s most vulnerable positions. We pored over aerial reconnaissance photos and satellite imagery, searching for weaknesses. The most critical intelligence concerned troop placements. Saddam continued to hold his reserves in place, refusing to reposition them despite mounting pressure.

I met with GNS and his staff several times, delivering briefing after briefing about what they could expect from the Iraqi army. These weren’t just picture shows or data dumps, they combined actionable intelligence with predictive modeling. I applied my algorithmic skills to forecast enemy troop movements and estimate associated resource allocations at times. These predictions proved crucial in identifying high-value targets for the aerial campaign which the Coalition was executing with considerable success.

The most valuable, and most dangerous, intelligence we received came from Special Forces troops embedded deep behind enemy lines. I had immense admiration for them, not only for their courage and dedication, but also for the exceptional quality of the intelligence they provided. I doubt that my team’s efforts would have been nearly as successful as they were without these extraordinary soldiers.

From what I understood, they were sometimes so close to the enemy that they could have reached out and touched them. These soldiers were trained in combat arms, advanced emergency medicine, survival techniques, foreign languages, and perhaps most importantly, in quickly adapting and thinking independently. The few who I had the privilege of meeting were exceptional professionals, and just a little insane in their downtime. They, almost without exception, enjoyed activities that most people would consider extreme or borderline reckless.