After 25 years, NC to use Kuwaiti gift for traveling Desert Storm memorial

After his younger brother was killed in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Michael Chapman coped by working to memorialize the North Carolina troops who died in the war launched 25 years ago to evict Iraqi troops from neighboring oil-rich Kuwait.

Partly at Chapman’s nudging, the Kuwaiti government donated $100,000 to North Carolina to help with the cost of a memorial honoring troops from the state who fought – 17 died – to push Iraqi troops back over their border. Mecklenburg and Cumberland counties made pitches to build one. At least four governors appointed and reappointed a state Persian Gulf War Memorial commission, with Chapman representing families of the fallen.

That commission even decided on a design and site – on Halifax Mall on the state Capitol grounds in Raleigh. But 25 years later, there’s no memorial.

Instead on Friday, the eve of the 25th anniversary of the war’s start, Gov. Pat McCrory and state veterans officials will announce in Raleigh that the Kuwaiti gift will be used to build a traveling memorial to all North Carolina troops who fought and died in the war.

Kuwait made its donation in 1992 to show its gratitude to the state for sending 75,000 troops – about one-sixth of all U.S. troops deployed to the Persian Gulf.

The money was turned over to the veterans department until additional funds were raised to build a memorial. That never happened. Now the gift will be transferred to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, charged with designing and building the traveling museum.

Ilario Pantano, the state’s assistant veterans affairs secretary, credits Chapman with reminding officials that the Kuwaiti money had gone unspent. It’s been in a private account that by state law couldn’t draw interest.

Pantano, who served as a Marine in Desert Storm and in Iraq and Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said that after hearing from Chapman, he dug into the memorial commission’s history and its efforts to build a permanent memorial.

He concluded those efforts might have been bogged down by wars since 9/11. “It might have been viewed as inappropriate because of politics, because of the desert wars still going on, to build a permanent memorial solely to Desert Storm,” Pantano said. “It’s my hope that in the future, once these hot wars come to some resolution, that Desert Storm and these other wars can be connected into a larger, grander memorial.”

Yet he wanted to put the Kuwaiti money to use as a way to mark the 25th anniversary. The mobile memorial will go to museums and veterans events across the state, Pantano said.

“We know this is not the full vision of the (Desert Storm) families,” he said. “But we wanted to do something with the money in an appropriate, thoughtful and modest way and make a more energetic effort in the future. We wanted to let the families know, now, that this is not forgotten, and that the soldiers, Marines and sailors who fought and died in this war are not forgotten.”

Chapman, who “pestered” at least four governors and resigned from the commission in frustration after 18 years, said he’s heartened that the money is finally being used but disappointed it won’t be for a permanent memorial.

“There’s permanence in a granite memorial,” said Chapman, who grew up in Charlotte and now lives in Salisbury. “This feels more like a Band-Aid just to get the money spent. But we’ll see what they come up with. If I see that they built something that looks like it cost $20,000, you can bet I’m going to be asking, ‘Where’s the rest of the $80,000?’ ”

America’s comeback war

It started as a warning, a line drawn in the sand by President George H. W. Bush, as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s invading troops refused to retreat from Kuwait and threatened to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil kingdom.

Through fuzzy TV reception, Americans marveled at the incandescent flashes of U.S. bombs precisely blowing apart Baghdad in what became the 20th century’s last large-scale land-and-air conflict.

The war put lives on hold. Suddenly neighbors in reserve units from across the Carolinas dropped their civilian lives and flew off to strategic war points after a U.S.-led coalition of 29 countries cobbled together by Bush launched a devastating air attack on Iraq.

Bush ordered shiploads of U.S. troops and materials to Saudi Arabia to defend against an attack.

The airstrikes began on Jan. 16, 1991, or 3 a.m. on the 17th in the Middle East. It took only 43 days – a mere 100 hours fought on the ground – to drive the Iraqis back.

Twenty-five years later, the war’s place in history has some clarity. It introduced the world to high-technology precision bombs first used at the end of Vietnam – and the 24-hour news cycle. Colin Powell and Norman “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf became household names.

Psychologically, it was America’s comeback war, following a stalemate in Korea and loss in Vietnam, and the Soviet Union in near collapse.

“In Desert Storm, the American military fought the Iraqis like it was going to fight the Soviet Union if there was a war in central Europe,” said James Hogue, a military historian at UNC Charlotte. “As George Herbert Walker Bush said: ‘We kicked the Vietnam era malaise.’ ”

Pantano said the quick victory amid the afterglow of Cold War’s end “led to this feeling of American power and set us up as the one superpower and allowed for political flexing.”

But soon, even some of Bush’s advisers wondered whether they had left the job unfinished by leaving Hussein in power. Ten years later, jetliners hijacked by terrorists shattered that muscular psyche, and many wondered what Desert Storm had accomplished.

First Mecklenburg casualty

Nearly 300 Americans died in Desert Storm, 147 in combat.

Chapman’s brother, Christopher, who was 25, was Mecklenburg’s first casualty. He was a master sergeant and crew chief on an Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed Feb. 21, 1991, on a rescue mission in the desert of Saudi Arabia. The weather was bad, and after trying to land once at the base camp, the chopper went down, killing the seven-member crew.

He and his two brothers grew up in northeast Mecklenburg. There, Chris and brother Mark often stood guard with wooden rifles outside their family’s home. When a car passed on their country road, they would jump into a fort of raked leaves and pretend to blast away at the car.

Chris Chapman left behind a daughter and two stepsons. He would have been 50 now.

Six days after he was killed, Bush declared Kuwait liberated and suspended combat operations.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "After 25 years, NC to use Kuwaiti gift for traveling Desert Storm memorial."