OUR FIRST TV WAR....TWENTY YEARS AGO

Yesterday (January 17th) was a significant day in our country's history.  We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday.  King was the chief spokesman for non-violent activism in the civil rights movement.  In respect to Mr. King and all he meant to the struggle of the civil rights movement, I held off mentioning one other piece of noted importance to the day.

On January 17th, 1991.....we saw Live TV of War for the first time.  Do you remember that night when people huddled close to their television sets, much like they did around the "old" radio of yesteryear?  What a night that was.  CNN became the focal point of the evening, not only for Americans, but for leaders of some of the countries most affected by the assault.  It has been well chronicled that leaders of nations (Egypt and Saudi Arabia) were informed of the invasion beginnings by the United States Government while others like Jordan's King Hussein found out while watching the cable giant's news program.  Let's relive a part of those moments......

In the following days, the World continued to be fed information via CNN.  When final results were tabulated from the Gulf War is was estimated the  U.S. led coalition flew over 100,000 sorties,  dropping 88,500 tons of bombs, and widely destroying military and civilian infrastructure.  The air campaign was commanded by USAF Lieutenant General Chuck Hornerorld, who briefly served as Commander-in-Chief - Forward of  U.S. Central Command while General Schwarzkopf was still in the United States.  Horner, born in Davenport, Iowa was an Air Force ROTC graduate from the University of Iowa. 

Yes, January 17th has a very special place in the our country's history.  Not only from a military standpoint, but without question, in our ways to disseminate information through video.  War became more real, if that's possible, that day. 

YGG,

John