Desert Storm - Battleship USS Missouri Comes Under Iraqi Anti-Ship Missile Attack 

Many thanks to @The Mighty Jingles for being kind enough to tell us his story

Fun fact, a common thief stole the computer and briefcase of a British officer containing the plans for the invasion. The thief later returned the items, but kept the money, stating that he was no spy and was just a common thief in a note.

Well that bit about Jingles came out of nowhere

Fun fact, Jingles was in the Operations Room, waiting patiently in silence and somehow still managed to misidentify the hostile targets, it's a skill!

I was a Marine Stationed on the Mo when all this happened. Originally when the 1MC announced Starboard side brace for shock they thought there were 9 missiles inbound. 6 turned out to be friendly aircraft without the ID on. We also manned the 5” mount just off the Surrender deck. If you look at pictures you will see our Eagle Globe and Anchor painted between the gun barrels. When all that happened it happened fast and I can remember the Glouster shooting the missile out of the sky and we were all”Gold save the Queen” we owe those boys a beer. Plus when we were Strafed by the CIWS. Some people thought that that Shrapnel would be a cool souvenir until they were informed it was radioactive. Depleted Uranium is pretty dam hard and there is a dent on turret one or two. I can’t remember now. But we’re they hit the superstructure and the steel wasn’t nearly as thick they went through like butter. Sorry I type like crap

Omg I heard Paul Charlton as was like “I know that name…” The Old Man has one hell of a story here, and it’s excellently retold.

I never would have thought that the mighty jingles was a radio operator on a royal navy ship, thats so cool!

Ok everyone telling The Operations Room to get his facts straight about when he said that Exocets had previously damaged and sunk both USN and RN warships, take a breath already. He was clearly talking in general about the previous incidents of them being both damaged and sunk (during the Falklands War and the USS Stark incident of 1987) and not talking at all about it happening during the Gulf War.

I was in the Combat Engagement Center (CEC) on the Missouri during both incidents. Our CIWS didn't engage because the Iraqi missile hadn't reached the preprogramed firing range, but we did have a solid track. For the USS Jarrett, this was just a first of many incidents with her weapons systems. The issue that complicated things more than any other was that we were in a narrow naval gunfire support track, swept for mines to 80% confidence. Our embarked EOR team was put in the water to destroy floating mines ten times during the early stages of the war.

Iraqi military: Jingles too STRONK, we attack Missouri instead.

"Protocol demands that he hand deliver this message to the ship's operations room." hey! that's the name of the channel!

Sees the incoming Mirages, has compromised defenses, sees the defenseless hospital ship, immediately puts themselves between the hospital ship and the hostile forces. the HMS Brazen certainly lives up her name. Brazen, v.: to face with defiance or impudence

i was there on the Missouri, and saw the missile flying at us. it was a bit more after of us. almost like it was following us. i was up at the citadel, and heard one of the guys looking at radar talking about something coming at us. i looked aft and saw what looked like a really slow moving sparkler. it didn't seem fast moving at all it was dark, but created quite a bit of light. anyhow, a couple of use began hand cranking closed the hatch, which is like 3 feet thick. and is not something that closes in a couple of seconds. the missile crept closer, and we were hand cranking as fast as possible, the hatch only moved millimeters at a time, so we saw it continuing to come at ass... after only getting that hatch about halfway closed, we saw it get shot down, and it was all over in an instant. there were only a couple of us topside to see the whole thing, i knew it was serious towards the end, as the marines that guard the captain, all piled on top of him with all their protective gear on, he wasn't thrilled about it at all. and he was down on the bridge, which is rather cramped with his chair right there, and crew all around. all in all, it's a day not forgotten, obviously. but things like this is something you don't know the details for, for years. props to the mighty jingles, i probably would have made it through the explosion, inside that thick steel, but not sure to what extent. i did get pictures of it, but i think my shots are in the national archive somewhere.

British shoot down a missile to protect a US fleet. Americans celebrate by firing 500 rounds of CWIS into the air, almost causing a blue on blue. Most patriotic thing I've ever seen, for the UK and US. lol.

Jingles moment

Some corrections on the story - The initial report of the ASM launch was not from an A-6E. It was from an EA-6B Prowler from VAQ-141 off of TR. I was in ECMO 3 (left rear) and saw the launch. We were south of Failaka island between the battle group and the shore in an orbit at perhaps 15K waiting to escort our 2nd strike of the night into Kuwait. We immediately maneuvered to start a SAM evasion but then it became clear the missiles were staying low and you could see the rocket exhaust of both reflecting off it the water. We began jamming on some specific frequencies. The Gloucester's missile launch was clear and it looked very video game like as the intercept occurred. The flash was bright enough to light up the bottom of our jet. We lost sight of the 2nd missile at that point and assume the blast from the intercept put it in the water (or just as likely out went in on it's own). We reported the specific launch site and the A-6's that did bomb in that area were considerably after the event.

I knew Jingles was in the Royal Navy, and I've heard bits and pieces of numerous stories of his time in the navy, but I didn't know he was in the last military operation that had active serving battleships. It's almost 100% certain he seen both Missouri and Wisconsin and also seen their beautiful display during Desert Storm.

I recalled hearing this on Mingles with Jingles ages back, and when you namedropped the mightiest gnome I was pleasantly surprised. Even more so when his voice kicked in!

Fun Fact: During the Korean War, the USS Wisconsin came under fire from a North Korean 152mm battery and responded by firing a full broadside to silence the North Korean battery. On of the destroyers escorting the battleship responded in Morse code, "Temper, temper."

I was a CIWS tech for over 20 years. I am not only qualified on every iteration of the weapon system, but I also trained others on them. While I am familiar with the story of weapon system firing on the Missouri, the incident was caused by incompetent leadership aboard the Jarret. On an Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate, the CIWS is located aft and has about 270 degree engagement arc. While in formation sailing, it is the responsibility of the officers to maintain correct navigation with respect to these firing arcs. Every detection system for any weapon system onboard any US ship has the ability to be easily programmed with a no-engage sector within their firing arcs. This is especially critical while ships are in formation. This was a massive screw-up of the officers not the weapon system. Here's why. 1) CIWS can only engage things that are incoming at a particular speed. Specifics can be added to specific engagement sectors to engage targets with specific criteria, but only incoming targets. It is odd that CIWS engaged the chaff. It must have detected chaff briefly inbound at a certain speed, which meant the engagement speed was set too low or even worse erroneously picked up on an outbound radar signature from the Missouri itself, which should have been blanked out the very first day the two ships joined together for formation. These types of things are established via battle orders prior to entering a potential hostile area. How the officers told the techs (aka battle orders) to setup the engagement protocols was amateurish. Had a senior enlisted fire controlman (FC) been consulted on the battle orders, such things like this would have never happened. It took an FC to realize what the officers ordered was wrong to correct the problem and minimize the damage. Take notice that there was no mention of any officer getting reprimanded or fired for being incompetent and nearly costing lives. 2) There clearly was no no-engage sector programmed or at least not programmed correctly. If the Jarret had changed positions in the formation rendering the no-engage sector obsolete, the sector could have been re-programmed in seconds. This is one the reasons why every station, including CIWS, is manned during battle stations and training is so critical. So such things can be done quickly as the situation arises. US naval officers are often arrogant and ignorant at the same time. Almost every major incident that the US navy has ever had whether it was in combat or other incident is due to this arrogance and associated ignorance. There is a huge social rift between the enlisted and officer ranks in the US Navy. There is a prevailing attitude that enlisted are lowly, foolish peasants who exist to do the bidding of their master officers. When in fact, the enlisted are the ones who diligently train to maintain and operate the very ship and systems the officers command. Most officers, even the commanding officers, are aboard for only 18 months, while a standard tour for enlisted is twice that. As an E-6 during my eighth year in the navy, the ship I was on, there were 50% more officers than E-6s. We E-6s had more collective education, (yes college degrees), and experience (years in the navy and operating aboard a ship) than the collective education and experience of the officers. The span of this difference increased as my career increased. In the days of sail and even 50 years ago, officers presiding over enlisted made sense. Today, the manner in which officers are chosen and the divide between officers and enlisted is obsolete, remnant of the days of educated lords over their uneducated worker surfs. Naval leadership is very broken. Stories like this, to the USS Fitzgerald collision in 2017, to the most recent USS Connecticut incident are testaments to this.

Missouri: *Deploys Chaff to throw off potential anti-ship missile* Jarrett's Ciws: *OH BOY A MISSLE TO SHOOT DOWN*

What’s very nice about these documentaries is that they clearly show the information gap present in a warzone. It isn’t something that is usually well presented so thanks to the team for this care put in the work

Detection of threat, classified as a actual threat, targeted, engaged and destroyed the threat...all in 89 seconds, including fly-out time of the Sea Dart missile. Well done boys, God Save the Queen. That's being on your toes!

HMS Gloucester extensively recorded the Silkworm engagement, including actual Ops Room footage. A VHS video was created which the ships captain was to present and narrate at a Commanders Conference at the America Naval Base (ASU SWA) in Bahrain. As a LT, I was just there to flesh out the badly-out numbered RN contingent! The start time came and went, and after 20 minutes the august gathering of Admiral's, Commodore's and numerous full Captain's was getting restless. Finally, the facilitator came out and announced that VHS tape was in a UK PAL format, but the conference room's video player only supported the US NTSC format! So moving on to the next item on the agenda ....

USS Jarrett: BRRRRRRRR USS Missouri: Bro, there's NO FULL AUTO!

A big thank you to our British allies. Well done lads.

I was in turret 2 USS Missouri, I remember that day as it was yesterday.. Somethings last in your heart and mind forever. There was rumors of were the rounds landed from the USS Jarrett, but I can say we are blessed no one was hurt. A special thanks for sharing this it brought a new light into what I was experiencing.

I knew Jingles was a Navy man, never thought I'd see him appear in a war doc though. Epic!

"Radio operator 2nd class Paul Charlton..." nearly fell off my chair there

All the hairs on my arm stood up when you said, "Paul Charlton", knowing who that was. Excellent collaboration.

That’s a incredible story. After all this time mother Britain still looks after her wayward, most cocky and arrogant and wreckless child. Thanks mama, much love.

Cool that my grandad was captain of HMS Gloucester. He always tells me the story of the missile attack, it's very cool

This is one of the best history animation channels

"our job was to put ourselves in the way". the bottom freaking line. gotta have Studs to do the hard jobs. and that includes Studettes. thanks to all of you.

That was an interesting night. I was flying a Sea King and was vectored down the bearing line towards the incoming aircraft. My mission was ASMD... to launch a chaff cloud between the fighters and the battle group to spoof the Exocets. Before I could get there the USS Caron launched MK 36 Chaff Mortars into the bearing line in front of us and we flew right through the mortar explosions. Luckily the ice shields deflected the chaff so the engines did not ingest all that metal and flame out. I've always wanted to shake the hand of that Saudi F-15 pilot!

They feared those huge 16" guns on the Mighty Mo. They could be sitting out in the middle of the desert far from anywhere and shit would just fall out of the sky at any time. Those 9-16" guns could fire a 2,700 Lb shell at a target over 20 miles away. (Accuracy even included allowing for the rotation of the Earth.)

The fact that that the US NAVY damaged more US ships then the Iraqis says a lot about this war…

My shipmate colleague was on Missouri when Jarrett opened fired on the chaff!!! I never knew until we were docked in Pearl Harbor and decided to go to USS Missouri; and we got in for free because he was crew. He was explaining the holes inside the ship!! We were able to get inside in areas inaccessible at that time, because the museum volunteers got wind of my colleague’s presence and followed him around taking lots of notes of his time aboard the Missouri during the Gulf War. I’m very happy to report that he’s still around, and he’s happily retired in the Philippines with his wife just living out his days near the beach. It was an honor working with you Rick, and we do miss you haha.

This is extremely well done. Because of the overall success, both in success and swiftness, it has been far too easy for people to forget (or to understand) how large, how complex, and how dangerous Operation Desert Storm actually was. Your work here is essential to keeping the guides of reality and context of this conflict in place to prevent the historical record from becoming mythologized. Thanks for the good work.

The CIWS was not confused by the chaff and the reason why CWIS was not engaged is because the AN/SQL-32 was able to decoy the missile onto the chaff using a combination of RGPO and the missile being forced from Home on Jam (HOJ) to acquire mode and there by locking onto the chaff. Same technique used to defeat the Exocet export addition. The French uses dual 14G frequencies to prevent the HOJ to acquire switch we exploited which is immune to it. As for the CIWS and Chaff issues. During 1992 deployment of the USS Antietam (CG-54) I was onboard as Electronic Warfare Technician and proved with NavSeaSys that the placement of the CIWS and SQL-32(V3) with active jamming or just having the SQL-32 in active mode but not jamming and launching chaff would cause the CIWS to open fire on the departing chaff round. CIWS never tracked or engaged the departing Chaff as long as there was no jamming. This was increased if we launched the rocket assisted chaff. Hence the movement of the SQL-32(v)3 aft on the Ticonderoga class cruisers 1993 and later

Still waiting for Mogadishu pt.2 I'm so excited for it.

89 seconds from detection to interception...that's some fine seamanship Gloucester!

The CIWS reactions are typical when panicked sailors put the Phalanx into Full AUTO Mode, it will target any radar return traveling towards the ship with extreme prejudice, including friendly chaff and even chaff from it's own ship! Proper protocol is to input gimble/arc sweep limits outboard towards the incoming threat vector or Semi AUTO Mode where the sailor has to confirm the target and grant the Phalanx permission to fire.

The background music is very fitting to the topic at hand, and I hadn't noticed this until the engagement was over, but it succeeds extraordinarily well at keeping the tension palpable *without* being annoying or noticably present. It's just a very well thought out music pairing that throughly elevates your videos to a higher standard! Well done, thank you very much for these gloriously epic videos of yours! 👍😊

Suddenly, a wild gnome overlord appears!

I remember hearing Jingles telling that story. Glad to see the story be animated and brought to life.

I knew Paul served on a RN ship in the Gulf War, but I had no idea he witnessed such an important moment like that. I certainly didn't expect the name drop in this video.

Cheers mates to our cousins across the pond 🇬🇧!!! From Milwaukee Wisconsin 🇺🇸🍺!

"All of a sudden, Uday shows up in a coke-fueled rage..."

Very cool to hear the story of a sailor actually witnessing this event. I think a distance scale (as in a bar showing a km, mile etc. proportionate to scale) on the screen would be awesome, as distances especially at sea between ships are hard to perceive. Awesome video as always.

So very cool to hear the British guy giving the account of the operation. When I hear the beautiful British names for there war ships it practically brings tears to my eye`s. These illustrious names represent the pinnacle of over five hundred years of Britain`s great navy. Thank you from your prodigal sons the USA.

The attack of the F-1's was quite a bit more exciting from my perspective. The F-1s were initially detected on takeoff, however it was not clear what they were. Not noted in the narrative here, their takeoff was timed concurrent with a flight of F-18's headed inbound to another target somewhere in Iraq. In addition to the F-1's, two Iraqi Mig-23's launched and joined them, escorting them to the coast, where they broke off to RTB. This caused confusion onboard the US AWACS as to the type, number, and IFF of the threat. The mention that they danced right down the line of division of responsibility is quite correct. At the time the F-1's initially cleared the coast and went feet wet, there was a two ship of F-14's on defensive Combat Air Patrol over the northern Gulf, reaching the east end of their orbit track. As REDCROWN, the Navy control has not received the message that the F-1's were not returning US strikers, and the AWACS was still classifying them as "unknown" because of the questions of type and number, the F-14's were not alerted, and many of us watched in astonishment as they casually turned back to the East, away from the F-1s. The actual target of the F-1's was never clear, but from the time they went feet wet, their RWR gear was likely screaming at them, as they were being lit up by USMC IHawk batteries on the Saudi Coast. who held fire, due mainly to the IFF confusion, not wanting to create a friendly fire incident. With the F-18s that had gone by earlier, and the F-14's obliviousy heading out of the area, the only thing left was a flight of 4 Saudi F-15's in the "Goalie CAP" position guarding the Saudi Capitol of Riyadh. When AWACS directed the Saudi flight into the fight, only two actually headed towards the threat. The joke afterwards was that the other two heard to voice of Allah direct them to fly elsewhere. As the 2 F-15's approached the coast, and the WEZ (weapons engagement zone), the F-1's did attempt to threat react - and were probably way too distracted to employ their Harpoons. They were locked up by so many shooters at that point that their RWR gear was probably screaming at them.I have seen 'official accounts' that when the lead Saudi was authorized to take they shot, he calmly pickled off the appropriate ordinance, and successfully engaged the targets. As I recall it happening in real time, he was given clearance to fire, acknowledged, and the next call I recall from him was "Winchester", indicating he was out of ammo (i.e. launched everything he had). Either way, two f-1's were splashed, with no launch attempts made before they were shot down. Everybody got pretty lucky that day, except for the Iraqis, who were basically sent on a suicide mission.

Missouri: sends out chaff pods Jarrett: Finally! Something to shoot! BRRRRRRRRR

Missouri: Disperse chaff CIWS: .. and I took it personnaly.

You have quickly become my favorite channel on RU-vid. The historical information you provide along with the visuals are absolutely fantastic. Thank you!

9:00 As a Phalanx technician, (veteran) if the missile was 4 nm away, the Phalanx didn't engage because the missile wasn't close enough yet.

Jingles need to be commended. He went “All the way!”

I was a young Royal Navy Radio Operator aboard RFA Argus. There were actually THREE Mirage aircraft, each armed with two Exocet. Two were splashed by a SINGLE Saudi F15 and the third escaped. I seem to recall Exocet was actually launched but didn't lock onto its target. Certainly a tense time. I remember shouting "Die you f@(£ers" when they were splashed, such was the sense of relief

I just want to say you are my absolute favorite channel for war history with the specifics you go into with these specific battles or days of incidents/operations (like Desert Storm). Especially with your videos on naval combat. I would love to see some videos involving naval combat from you (especially of WW2 battles, even if the naval combat side is just bombarding shores or supporting ground troops on the island hopping campaign of the pacific). I’d find even more interesting a video of the civil war battle Monitor vs. Merrimack battle (the first battle of ironclad ships, leading to the modern metal ship design era). Keep up the amazing work!!!

Well done production on an often overlooked aspect of the Gulf War, I both enjoyed it and learned something. Shout out to The Mighty Jingles!

I knew jingles served on a ship but never knew he had a story as cool as this

I knew Jingles was in the Royal Navy, but I didn't know he was so close to some action in the Gulf. Thank you for you very detailed videos. Keep it up.

Me and the rest of the comment section: Wait Jingles is a gulf war vet?!

It's so cool that you either managed to find and come into contact with Paul or that you two already knew (of) each other! Very nice video going into some lesser known details of the Gulf War!

HMS Gloucester would later be nicknamed “The Fighting G” for this and other actions in the First Gulf War - an homage to the previous HMS Gloucester, which had won 5 Battle Honours in less than a year during WWII

Granddad was filming the event the day the Japanese surrendered aboard the Missouri. Although an aviator, he had been in reconnaissance throughout the theater and had all the cameras! He survived WWI and WWII retired in 55

Gave a "Thumbs Up" for hearing The Mighty Jingles' voice alone. I was in Riyadh just west of the main ARAMCO oil refinery serving in a Charlie Battery 3rd Battalion, 43 Air Defense Artillery Regiment (11th ADA Brigade) (See "A Report from Charlie Battery" posted in Popular Mechanics Magazine MAR 1991) a Patriot Missile Battery out of Fort Bliss, Texas. We were breathing the smoke plume from from the burning oil wells from Iraq and Kuwait that was blowing South and some what Westerly at the time. Still having breathing and health issues to date.

First I've heard of these engagements...just goes to show that the two arguably, best naval forces on Earth, the US Navy and Royal Navy, were squared away and did what they do...in just a few minutes. This is totally my opinion and not a slight toward any other forces that made up the Coalition. One could argue that keeping such a wide array of forces in order, and doing what was intended for the duration of Desert Shield, and Desert Storm, was a top-notch effort by the military leadership of every country involved. And also, one of the best efforts ever put forth in the history of warfare. A fine example of ass-kickery.

USS Jarrett: "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrttttt....." USS Missouri: "WTF, bro?!?!?"

Imagine using the entirety of your armed forces against a portion of your enemy and the best you can manage is to slightly inconvenience them, I remember jingles sharing this story years ago on a mingles with jingles but only now do I realise the sheer hopelessness of trying to fight the coalition with 2nd rate equipment and a 3rd rate army.

Amazing performance by Sea Dart, considering it was designed for high level interception and never really as an anti-missile system.

Appreciate you having Jingles along. Cheers.

My dad was on his first deployment in the RFA on Argus during the gulf war. Can’t thank the guys on the Brazen enough for looking after them.

So cool that you had an actual eyewitness interview in this video. Splendid work as always!

USS STARK (FFG-31), an O.H.Perry Class frigate (our smallest blue-water combatant) was struck by two Exocet missiles, both port side, while sailing in the Persian Gulf. She was heavily damaged, but was repaired and sailed again. That’s a finely-made little ship. 🇺🇸⚓️

Thank you, HMS Gloucester! Born and raised in Missouri - just an old battleship but she's kinda special to us.

Iraqi Missles: We will sink the USS Missouri! USS Missouri: Are the you the Yamato? No? Then get out of my sight, you worms.

Holy crap ive been a fan of The Mighty jingles for ten years and I’ve never known this. This crossover was mind blowing. Amazing work!!

10:32 Missouri: *launches chaff* Phalanx: So you have chosen *DEATH*

Very fine details. 11:14 Hopefully the alert sailor received some recognition for taking the initiative.

Never knew Mighty Jingles was navy

Gotta love a good battleship especially the USS Missouri

Total time of that missile engagement was 89 seconds.!?! I need more than that to warm up my leftovers for lunch.

I knew Jingles was a radio operator. But didn't know he was involved with the invasion of Iraq. Awesome!

If you are interested in more Navy stories I suggest you have a look at Sub Briefs submarine operations during the Cold War. I think it will give you a opportunity to do your first submarine animation.

The tension must've been something knowing those Mirages were coming before being suddenly taken out by the Saudi F-15s. The eagles swooped for the scorpions.

Excellent collaboration, fan of both channels. Never knew that about the Mr. Jingles. Awesome bit of history.

I guess he had his first “Jingles landing” from being tackled by the OPS room manager.

Things you didn’t know about on RU-vidrs: Mighty Jingles was a radio operator during the invasion of Iraq in 1991.

I believe there is a recording from the Arab F-15 pilot getting a double kill on the Mirages. I'll reply to my comment of I find the link

I absolutely adore your modern conflict analysis, I need more of them. I mean, sure the WW2 ones are really good as well, but as the child of someone who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I've always been obsessed with modern military conflicts, so your videos about them are greatly appreciated.

A work colleague was on HMS London during this period. Cool stories and some of yanks being pig headed and not wanting to wait for mine clearance.

Ahhh, Jingle, you honor us with two video appearances today. Well done, lad! ... For any that don’t know, Paul “The Mighty Jingles” Charlton has also narrated, or at least participated in, other videos. He’s got a great voice for it.

Thank you for protecting our Battleship Britain!

just found your channel tonight, really enjoying it! learning the Jingles was in the Royal Navy clearly explains his sense of humor :)

You don’t damage our ships. WE damage our own ships!

I never thought The Mighty Jingles once served part of the Royal Navy. I remembered that I used to watch his World of Warships gameplay.

To keep the Jingles theme going.. "Actually Operations Room, I do not believe that an Exocet 'sunk' a USN ship. 😁" And I look forward viewing each of your videos. 👍 Disclaimer: That was mostly sarcasm, if you fallow Jingles he gets post that start, "Actually Jingles..." and has been a point of comedy on this channel.

One thing I feel very privileged to have achieved was to have done ships tours of both the HMS Gloucester in 1997 and USS Missouri in 2004.

Interesting story. We helped destroy silkworm and Exocet missiles in southern iraq after the ground war. They were daisy chained on a beach and blown up. I never knew any were fired. We also discovered an ADA site north of Kuwait City with massive craters which imploded former Kuwaiti bunkers which housed Iraqis. I guessed 16inch craters. At gulf war parade I encountered Missouri officers and asked if they fired on a complex like that and they confirmed it. I’m grateful no ships were hit!