The Gulf War was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes. On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied Kuwait, which was met with international condemnation and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and US president George H. W. Bush deployed forces into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. Most of the coalition's military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost.[ The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, continuing for five weeks. During this period, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel in an attempt to provoke a coalition-jeopardizing Israeli response, which failed to materialize. This was followed by a ground assault by coalition forces on 24 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased its advance and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on Saudi Arabia's border. The war marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The ground campaign consisted of three or possibly four of the largest tank battles in American military history.] The battles at 73 Easting, Norfolk, and Medina Ridge are well noted for their historic significance. Some consider the battle of Medina Ridge the largest tank battle of the war. The US Marine Corps also fought the biggest tank battle in its history at Kuwait International Airport. The US 3rd Armored Division also fought a significant battle at Objective Dorset not far from where the battle of Norfolk was taking place. The US 3rd Armored Division destroyed approximately 300 enemy combat vehicles during this particular encounter with Iraqi forces. The Iraqis suffered the loss of over 3,000 tanks and over 2,000 other combat vehicles during these battles against the American-led coalition Coalition members included Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America. Germany and Japan provided financial assistance[178] and donated military hardware, although they did not send direct military assistance. This later became known as checkbook diplomacy. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself: Gulf War and Persian Gulf War are the most common terms for the conflict used within western countries, though it may also be called the First Gulf War (to distinguish it from the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Iraq War). Some authors have called it the Second Gulf War to distinguish it from the Iran–Iraq War. Liberation of Kuwait (Arabic: تحرير الكويت) (taḥrīr al-kuwayt) is the term used by Kuwait and most of the coalition's Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Terms in other languages include French: la Guerre du Golfe and German: Golfkrieg (Gulf War); German: Zweiter Golfkrieg (Second Gulf War); French: Guerre du Koweït (War of Kuwait).

DESERT SHIELD/STORM brought together the largest force of Navy warships assembled in a single theater since World War II, adding a powerful punch to Navy forces already onscene the night of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Arabian Gulf and Southwest Asia are familiar territory to the United States Navy. U.S. naval forces have been operating in the region since 1801 and have maintained a continuous presence there for over 40 years. It is likely that Navy ships will continue to represent and protect U.S. interests in the region for the foreseeable future. The American response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the threat against Saudi Arabia was a logical extension of the United States' post World War II Arabian Gulf policy. Saudi Arabia, with its enormous petroleum reserves, has long had a special relationship with the United States, symbolized by President Franklin Roosevelt's meeting with King Ibn Saud in February 1945. The present Saudi monarch, King Fahd, recalled that meeting when he met with Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in Jidda on 6 August 1990. Planning for the huge air base at Dhahran, which figured so prominently in DESERT SHIELD/STORM, began in 1944 and continued after the war as a symbol of American commitment to the Saudi monarchy. The U.S. Navy has maintained a permanent presence in the Gulf since the establishment of the Middle East Force in 1949. Navy presence was embodied in the "little white fleet" of USS Duxbury Bay (AVP 38), USS Greenwich Bay (AVP 41) and USS Valcour(AVP 55)--former seaplane tenders--which rotated duties as flagship for Commander Middle East Force and his staff. All three ships were painted white to counter the region's extreme heat. The flagship served as the primary protocol platform of the United States throughout the region. Accompanied by one or two other rotationally deployed warships, the Middle East Force (MIDEASTFOR) provided the initial U.S. military response to any crisis in the region, as well as humanitarian and emergency assistance. For the next 20 years, three or four ships at a time were assigned to MIDEASTFOR -generally a command ship and two or three small combatants such as destroyers or frigates. Because temperatures in the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea and Indian Ocean reached as high as 130 degrees, the non-air-conditioned ships rotated every few months ---a practice still followed today, with the exception of the single forward-deployed command ship. American political involvement in the Arabian Gulf after the end of World War II deepened with successive crises. For three decades we depended on others to provide for the defense of the region. The United States flrst looked to the British, who withdrew from the Gulf in the late 1960s. In the 1970s we turned to Iran and Saudi Arabia to act as "twin pillars" in the region. When Bahrain became a sovereign state in 1971, the U.S. Navy worked out an agreement to take over piers, radio transmitters, warehouses, and other facilities left vacant by the departing British. USS La Salle (AGF 3), an amphibious transport ship converted for Gulf duty, began to serve as the permanent MIDEASTFOR flagship 24 August 1972. La Salle became a familiar site in the Middle East. La Salle and the small MIDEASTFOR's peacetime mission has focused on building good relations--"showing the flag" to generate goodwill and promote mutual understanding, while providing a counterweight to aggressive Soviet Navy expansion in the region. After the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979, the United States assumed greater responsibility for the security of the Gulf. During the 1979-1981 Iranian hostage crisis, nearly 30 Navy ships were on constant patrol in the region, including one carrier battle group in the Indian Ocean or North Arabian Sea. In April 1980, the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) battlegroup served as a jumping off point for the jointservice rescue attempt of the 52 American hostages. In 1980, the Carter Doctrine declared the Arabian Gulf region to be a "vital" interest to the United States--one for which we were willing to fight. Events in the Middle East convinced President Carter that the United States required a means of rapid response to regional crises. In October 1980, a new unifled Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) was created to meet that need. The RDE later evolved into Central Command, which marked the beginning of the capability to move large military forces into the Arabian Gulf, the sine quo non of DESERT SHIELD/STORM. The political situation in Southwest Asia continued to deteriorate. After 10 months of intermittent skirmishes over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, Iraq attacked Iran in September 1980, launching a war that would last eight years. By 1982, more than 100,000 people had died. In the so-called "tanker war", both belligerents launched attacks on neutral merchant vessels transiting the Gulf, prompting several Gulf states to seek protection from foreign navies. On 1 November 1986, Kuwait, a nonbelligerent, announced it would seek international protection for its ships. On 7 March 1987, the United States offered to reflag 11 Kuwaiti tankers and provide U.S. Navy protection. Kuwait accepted. On 17 May 1987, an Iraqi attack aircraft fired two Exocet missiles, killing 37 sailors and wounding 21 others aboard USS Stark (FFG 31). During the very first escort mission, a mine ripped into the re-flagged supertanker Bridgeton. That first month, three tankers hit mines and minesweeping operations by Navy helicopters began. In October 1987, U.S. surface forces destroyed an armed Iranian oil complex in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-flagged tanker. On 14April 1988, watchstanders aboard USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) sighted three mines floating approximately one-half mile from the ship. Twenty minutes after the first sighting, as Samuel B. Roberts was backing clear of the minefleld, she struck a submerged mine nearly ripping the warship in half. Working feverishly for seven hours, the crew stabilized the ship. Samuel B. Roberts was sent back to the United States for repair and later returned to the region to serve with the Maritime Interception Force during DESERT SHIELD. Three days after the mine blast, forces of the now-Joint Task Force Middle East executed the American response --Operation PRAYING MANTIS. The success of PRAYING MANTIS--and broad-based allied naval cooperation during Operation EARNEST WILL --proved the value of joint and combined operations in the Gulf and paved the way for the massive joint/ coalition effort during DESERT SHIELD/STORM. It was during these operations that USS Vincennes (CG 49) shot down an Iranian commercial airliner after mistaking it for an Iranian F-14. Within two months, Iran and Iraq reached a fragile agreement to end hostilies. At the height of the Iran-Iraq war, MIDEASTFOR was composed of 12 or more ships. That force, along with mine countermeasures teams, special warfare units, and rotating carrier battle groups deployed to the North Arabian Sea, made up America's largest deployed naval force since the Vietnam era. The Navy's Administrative Support Unit contingent in Bahrain grew to over 800 personnel. By the end of 1989, however, U.S. Navy presence in the Gulf had drawn down to the normal flagship and four or five other ships, monitoring the again-busy transit lanes. That force was often augmented by a carrier battle group in the Indian Ocean. The Navy benefited from years of experience in the harsh operating environment of the Middle East, and the requirement to conduct those operations independent of major support bases. With no permanent U.S. bases in the area, forward-deployed ships became increasingly important as the United States worked to demonstrate the continuity of American commitments and maintain stability in the region. THE ROLE OF THE NAVY IN JOINT OPERATIONS. The United States Navy is structured to provide four fundamental military capabilities. First is control of the sea to assure the U.S. can use the oceans for economic and military purposes while denying such access to opponents in time of crisis or war. Second, the Navy projects power ashore--with air power, naval gunfire, cruise missiles, and Marine forces--either in support of sea-control or to support a joint campaign ashore. Third, the Navy applies nuclear deterrence. Finally, the Navy and the Maritime Adminitration provide strategic sealift to support joint military operations. The Navy applies the concept of combined arms operations at several levels. The Navy-Marine Corps team synergistically combines land, sea, and air capabilities and exemplifies the combined arms concept. In recent years, the Navy has also operated extensively with the Army and Air Force, which proved to be valuable preparation for DESERT SHIELD/STORM. The fundamental role of the Navy in joint power projection operations is to gain control of the sea. Sea control is an essential prerequisite for introduction of joint power projection forces. As an integral part of the U.S. military strategy of forward defense, the Navy has maintained a significant forward presence since World War II. Forward deployments promote regional stability and maintain readiness for crisis response. President Bush reaffirmed forward presence and crisis response as fundamental pillars of U S. strategy in a speech at ASPEN, Colorado on 2 August, the day Iraq invaded Kuwait.