From: bergman@AFNEWS.AF.MIL (CMSgt Mike Bergman)
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: Army News Service 04/10/92 (fwd)
Date: 14 Apr 92 13:45:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: afnews.9204141345.AA12188
Organization: Hq Air Force News Agency/SCC


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 ARMY NEWS SERVICE - 10 APR 92
 
 Despite controversy, Army stands by Patriot's performance
 
       WASHINGTON (ARNEWS) -- One year ago, Staff Sgt. Jose Lopez's 
Patriot missile battalion team basked in international praise for a 
 job well-done in the Persian Gulf War. 
       On April 7, critics gathered before a House Government 
 Operations subcommittee to raise second thoughts about both the 
 Patriot's effectiveness and whether previous praise was warranted. 
 Their charges were challenged in subsequent testimony by Lopez and a 
 panel of senior officers.
       "We were told we did a great job," Lopez said. "Now we're being 
 told we didn't do as well as we thought we did in the first place. 
 That's wrong. We did a great job." 
       The Patriot is a "terrific success story, tactically, 
 psychologically and politically," said Maj. Gen. Jay M. Garner, 
 assistant deputy chief of staff for operations and plans, force 
 development, in a prepared statement to committee members. Garner 
 added that the Army also learned what it needed to improve the Patriot 
 for the next fight.
       The Army recently completed an exhaustive assessment of every 
 Scud engagement during the war. Garner said the Patriot was successful 
 more than 70 percent of the time against Scud missiles in Saudi Arabia 
 and more than 40 percent of the time in Israel.
       The Scuds fired by Iraq at Israel were mainly in residential 
 areas, while those aimed at Saudi Arabia targeted military 
 installations or supply sites. Garner said that even when modified, 
 the Patriot was never designed or intended to defend large 
 metropolitan areas, such as those in Israel.
       Critics say their analyses show that the Patriot destroyed 
 either one or no Scud missile warheads. Army officials cannot reveal 
 the actual number of Scud missile warheads they believe the Patriot 
 intercepted, because the information is classified. 
       Col. David Heebner, commander of Patriot Forces in Israel, 
 compared the original Patriot design to a baseball batter expecting a 
 fastball but receiving a knuckleball instead, during Desert Storm.
       While Garner lauded the Patriot as the "best anti-aircraft 
 system in the world" -- the mission for which it was originally 
 designed -- he conceded the al Hussein (Scud variant) was a target for 
 which the Patriot was neither designed nor developed to engage. 
       "The threat moved from a relatively short-range, ballistically 
 stable missile," Garner said, "to a Scud-variant fired at far greater 
 ranges, traveling to higher altitudes, and attaining speeds of more 
 than 5,000 miles per hour, while often maneuvering and breaking up." 
 The Patriot's capabilities evolved to meet the Army's needs, he said.
       "We used two criteria to define success," he said. "First, a 
 warhead kill, defined as causing a warhead to explode...Second, a 
 mission kill, defined as causing the warhead to be diverted away from 
 its intended target, resulting in an impact outside the Patriot's 
 defended area." He said the Patriot's mission expanded from a defense 
 system to an area defense system. 
       Col. Skip Garrett, commander of the Patriot Forces in Saudi 
 Arabia, said there was not one Patriot-defended installation that was 
 successfully attacked by Iraqi Scuds. 
       "We fought the first anti-missile war in history," Garner said. 
 "We tested against a threat which we did not fight, and we fought 
 against a threat for which we did not test."
       Garner said the overall system exceeded expectations.
       "Proven in combat in the first missile duel in history, our 
 soldiers, our industrial base and the Patriot system did what our 
 nation asked it to do," Garner said. "The Patriot is a story of a 
 weapon system and soldiers that together provided a critical 
 psychological advantage to our forces and our allies.
       "War is a bottom-line business. The bottom line on Desert Storm 
 is that the United States and its Allies won. Patriot had a large part 
 in that victory."
 
 Army grants clemency to convicted Desert Storm deserter
 
       FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (ARNEWS) -- Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, an Army 
 Reserve captain convicted by general court-martial in August 1991 of 
 desertion from her unit, was granted clemency April 6 and freed from 
 the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks here. After her desertion, her unit 
 deployed to Southwest Asia during Operation Desert Storm.
       Huet-Vaughn, who originally received a 30-month sentence that 
 was reduced to 15 months by the general court-martial convening 
 authority, served about 8 months before being released. 
       The maximum penalty for peacetime desertion under the Uniform 
 Code of Military Justice is dismissal from the service, confinement 
 for up to 5 years and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Because 
 the United States was not yet at war with Iraq when Huet-Vaughn left 
 her unit, she was tried as a peacetime deserter.
       William D. Clark, acting assistant secretary of the Army for 
 manpower and reserve affairs made the decision to release Huet-Vaughn. 
 He made his determination based upon her minimum release date of 
 August 1992, the date she would have been eligible for early release 
 based upon good conduct; and her record of confinement. 
       Clark's action remits only the terms of her confinement; her 
 sentence of dismissal from the Army is pending results of the 
 appellate process.
 

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    |            Air Force News Center (AFNEWS)                        | 
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