Barlow (left) on the bridge of the USS SPRUANCE in battledress.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the day on which two graduates of the Notre Dame NROTC program (and former residents of St. Edward's Hall) participated in a joint Tomahawk missile strike against Iraq's largest oil refinery located in Bayji.
Andrew Barlow, Class of '88, was communications officer on USS SPRUANCE (DD 963), a destroyer home ported in Mayport, FL. John Mullane, ND '87, was a lieutenant on the Los Angeles class attack submarine, USS PITTSBURGH (SSN 720).
Both ships were on patrol in the eastern Mediterranean Sea when the deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait set by President Bush (41) passed. Along with the cruiser USS VIRGINIA, the ships were awaiting orders to conduct the first and only Tomahawk strikes from that area. However, negotiations to secure Syrian permission to fire missiles over their sovereign territory took longer than expected.
On January 22, 1991, when permission was finally granted, the three vessels conducted a joint firing mission with SPRUANCE following VIRGINIA in sequence. Barlow then watched with binoculars from the starboard bridge wing, tracking the periscope wake that was the only visible sign of Mullane's submerged submarine, when its missiles broke the surface in sequence, booster rockets burning brightly, transitioned to level flight and disappeared over the horizon, leaving twin smoke trails.
Historical accounts indicate only one of the six missiles reached its target, but both are confident their it originated on their respective vessels and was the sole reason for Saddam Hussein's imposition of fuel rationing just a day later.
On the event, Barlow said, "As a good Catholic boy who had discussed the concept of 'just war' during my time at Notre Dame, I reconciled my role in an action that likely took life with the assurance that it not only contributed to the liberation of an oppressed people in Kuwait, it would hopefully improve the survival odds of a fellow Stedsman, Brian Maher, who would be leading a platoon of Marines in AMTRACs (amphibious tracked vehicles) into Iraq not long after. It made my embrace of the phrase over the basilica door, "God, Country, Notre Dame" more tangible than ever."
