Remembering Desert Storm. "This one's for you, Saddam."

With those words an Apache helicopter crew opened fire at 2:39 a.m. in Iraq – 6:39 p.m. in the United States – 20 years ago last night. Operation Desert Storm had begun. 

Strikes were scheduled to hit targets across Baghdad . This was the beginning of carnage that would come over the next 42 days. The strikers were 12 U.S. Army Apache helicopters, guided to their targets by three U.S. Army Special Forces Pave-Low helicopters. Their targets in far western Iraq that night were key radar stations in Saddam Hussein's extensive French-designed air defense network. They were essential for guarding Iraq , its two major airfields in that part of the country – plus, more importantly, launching sites for Saddam's Scud missiles that were targeted against Israel .

CNN's Bernard Shaw told the world that ‘war’ had begun. "Something is happening outside," he said from the Al Rashid Hotel. Operation Desert Shield, launched the previous August following Iraq's conquest of Kuwait, had turned from a massive military buildup into a war that would ultimately stretch from Iraq to Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and south along the Persian Gulf.

"They never saw us coming"

Moments later, 22 F-15E Strike Eagles accompanied by two F-111 electronic jamming aircraft flew undetected through the hole blown in the radar coverage by the Apaches. A Stealth bomber  dropped a 2,000 pound bomb on a key strategic Iraqi communications and radar node at Nukhayb. Located east of where the F-15Es crossed the boarded, Nukhaby had been identified as essential link across much of Iraq 's aerial defence network. With the blows at the border and Nukhaby, the Iraqis lost much of their electronic defense grid. As a result, the F-15Es headed for the Scuds undetected.

"They never saw us coming," recalled retired Lt. Col. James "Chainsaw McCullough," who flew his Strike Eagle along with weapons officer Ansel "Elvis" Mangrum in the backseat of the two-man fighter. Meanwhile, Stealths headed for Baghdad and other high-priority targets. Behind them were coming hundreds of other fighters and bombers from the Air Force, Navy and US Marines. Joining them were British, French, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian and other allied aircraft. As the world watched, there began what became the first "TV war" and "Nintendo war" for all the lethal high-tech weapons the U.S. and its allies would unleash remotely and without mercy.

"We will not fail" – Bush Senior

The Associated Press issued a bulletin saying the U.S. military confirmed that war had begun. Shortly afterwards President George H.W. Bush declared: "We will not fail." Saddam, meanwhile, declared in a radio address: "The great showdown has begun." Calling Bush a "criminal," Saddam said the "hypocrites" had struck at 2:30 a.m. Baghdad time. "With the perseverance of the believers, the dawn of victory nears as this great showdown begins."

Forty-two days later, the Iraqis would be driven completely out of Kuwait in a bloodbath which saw minimal casulaties among the American button pushers and playstation heroes.