VETERANOS DE AYER

"ARGENTINA EXPERIENCE"

First-person testimony of an Argentine veteran in the Persian Gulf

By Dany Smith

Spiro warship

Since war operations were completed in the Persian Gulf beyond April 1991, we never heard anything about the particular participation of Argentina Navy and much less than the testimonies of their endowments or even any of his men. It was a curiosity that had always troubled me, both as part of the campaign that Americans called "Desert Storm" as a common British people walking today through the streets and is retired after living all kinds of experience that many good times would not know if it was real or a bloody nightmare.

All who have participated in war actions or operations that were on the edge of hostilities unleashed without remedy, we lived what feels in the stomach and the feeling that today might be your last fucking day on earth and your wife and children do not know where you fucking find yourself or you'll never see them. Are those things that many do not know, especially those unfortunates who feel their backsides in an armchair with a nice desk to fill bureaucratic and political positions very well paid in those who have never known what it is to get your feet wet at night or in the early mornings . Oh !, my friends only know of that sacrifice who chose the career of the military and earned merit in each mission that our governments have not commanded.

So when a friend who studies on the status of war veterans in the United States told me he had been looking at some special cases of those of which no one speaks or hide under the table and was linked with the comrades of the campaign the Persian Gulf, caught my attention and captured when he said he had received messages from a "argentine" comrade who described his long struggle to recognize the rights that they are entitled to as "vets".

Interested in that particular case, I asked him to let me write Charly experience of this particular comrade who by their experiences, clearly would have been enemies in 1982 when clothed in one of the squadrons S.B.S.

The story is the man sound of the Navy Argentina Julio Cesar Toledo who has long been fighting to be recognized as a veteran of the Gulf War, a task that has not been easy as we have received information of the situation of Argentine combatants of that war. When reading his lengthy response sent to our publication, I could not help but admire for their history and for his courage to undertake virtually alone recognizes a claim that even the United Nations.

ARA Domecq Garcia

Started his career in a destructor called "ARA Domecq García" and experienced in Type 42 ships that made Britain, reveals a bulky personal and professional history that we in the Anglo-Saxon mentality, have often despised. As tells us embarked 28 years, we are facing an exponent of the rough men who gave their all in the 1991 war.

Some of their experiences are familiar, even before the war over the Falklands when he recounts the incident with a Chilean submarine is not a secret today, they gave us coverage and entrance to the Patagonia Argentina by the Strait of Magellan with some inroads with team frogman for recognition hired by Santiago de Chile. Precisely what tells the Argentine friend is true and the Chileans lost their men and a submarine in 1978 when they were hit a battery of "hedgehogs" happened by imprudent and ignore the capabilities of the Argentina Navy that after being informed by the royal naval intelligence arrogant Admiral Toribio Merino Castro Chilean spurned at the expense of his men.

This incident is clear that yes managed to sink a submarine class "Oberon" (something that the Argentine friend does not know) built in shipyards in Scotland with a wit as the "hedgehogs" made by the Royal Navy of His Majesty it is a damn ironic that says a lot of Argentine screwed. Perhaps our brains made them believe otherwise Chileans just to see what could happen.

Surely we have crossed a street in London or the "Trafalgar Square" when he was stationed in Britain to refurbish one of the jewels in the Royal Navy and a few months later, we would see face to face in a war that few know what hard and tough it was. I can not help but feel the respect I owe to each of my comrades living and those who are not. Being young and vigorous actively fulfill our mission without knowing that one day we would cross in such a different place and was as unthinkable as the war against Iraq in 1991 conditions.

Our comrade was highlighted in the task force with Australians "Bishop I" who had the important task of securing the area for the passage of supplies to the forces deployed on the ground and the first naval line was called.

While I was not in the area of ​​"argies", our senior officers knew of its operations in the Gulf input and their invaluable cooperation in area waters engaged in hostilities, were vital to the success of the entire campaign. 

As well recounts the sound man Julio Cesar, there were many, perhaps too many moments of extreme danger for sailing in the area and were never aired. As he knows, his comrades and ourselves that we saw for years to keep things under the carpet of dirty government affairs. When the incident occurred open fire in the "HMS Gloucester" by nerves and a loose light discipline, the matter was shelved locked in the Department of Defense.

As told by our comrade, air raid alerts were as many as real, just be lucky that those MiGs and MIRAGES III Iraqis and some land-sea missiles were to not touch their helmets. They try to acts of providence and not at all lucky, because some of the attacks that launched the Iraqis from Kuwait with naval targets were more directed at targets importance of naval command and control secondary objectives. Moreover, the few Iraqi missions that could go out to sea headed to damage boats American and British flag were those that had anchored a few miles from the mouth of the Peninsula of Fao and Delta outgoing islands where the end war, "US Seals" exploring systems found well hidden MM-40 anti-ship "Exocet" with an impromptu assembly to fire nearby ships. At such times what you would have thought if their commanders told him that there was no danger when in fact it was the opposite? If our sailors had just assumed that there was "Exocet" looking for targets, recalling the Falklands War, simply jump overboard.

Another certain risks that were present were magnetic mines that were in all the operating theater and were circumvented professionally by the "argies" but not by misfortunes as "USS Pirnceton" or the "USS Tripoli" among many others. Another danger was the Arab Dhows or artisanal fishing boats that according to intelligence data could be used by the "Fedayeen Saddam" and allied groups for quick strikes.

And our friend is not wrong to list the threats. Class boats incidents "Osa" that occurred in the waters were as true as multiple. Only to say that there were more Royal Navy helicopters that were shot down by unexpected encounters.

ARA Warship Brown

The situation in the theater of naval warfare was clearly dynamic and it was impossible to delimit as our comrade tells us in the claims of his government not be the Parallel 27º North and 54 West. The needs and tasks that arose dragged far beyond, something bureaucrats and desk officers do not understand. In war reality it is very different from what was planned.

Only after the war and only a few could see what had really happened there, where to stay horror of some only take them head and lamenting. The evidence of use of chemical elements in the fighting was immediately hidden by governments and recently warned themselves of thousands of veterans who became ill with all kinds of conditions meats.

Or as not to mention the dangers that unfolded in around and behind the back door of the gulf with sleeper cells of Saddam's intelligence and allied groups who were preparing to spectacular shots over strategic port facilities and that was an ongoing concern Intelligence Command Central led by the Americans. No fool, not to be loved in the region much less we Anglos black history on the Arab peoples that can not be covered with the great lie of the story of Lawrence of Arabia. With this war and fucked up big.

But on the experience of Argentine told in the first person by one of its protagonists is undoubtedly a historical anecdote to account since being one of us is not conditioned as politicians with their interests, top secrets and silences that are routed to avoid disturbing their masters. Of course, we are all professionals in our respective tasks and as such we assert the active duty and cannot go unnoticed when you return to your home. The recognition of a veteran is also a recognition of their professional services, for which we prepare for years with cursing and horrible meals dawns just to stick with the routine that officers traced us. O yes, we have earned the right, which refers to a fighter who has fulfilled his duties wherever politicians have sent us and profit from their false smiles in public events.

We very similar to the "vets" Americans had to fight the deafness of the government of his majesty when returning from the Persian Gulf in 1991, most many of us with serious health problems and war pensions that do not cover these "collateral damage "comrades still see today as Julio Cesar must fight for right can only say later won without pause! The fight continues and we have achieved our progress. If the government wants our men and women are killed in wars, they must commit that will be responsible for its consequences, even compensate.

When Julio Cesar confidently tells us that he provided sensitive documents on their operations to their bosses, I must tell you that we also initially we made those mistakes and we found face down to see that we closed the door and turned their backs. We took the warrior and took the papers and the law in hand to enforce our rights, legal advisers accompanied by courageous lawyers, we conjure

Just so you know our Argentine colleagues like Julio Cesar, the time spent in military operations in an open war, which was the first phase of the war against Iraq in 1991 and was fraught with risks, but do not touch the scratch a shard, your services have more than fulfilled because it is not required to die to recognize you as a veteran.