Skybreak: The 58th Fighter Squadron in Desert Storm

The top MiG-killers of Operation Desert Storm.

August 1990: Iraqi forces under the command of Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny emirate of Kuwait. Within hours, the Kuwaiti defenses collapsed under the onslaught of the Iraqi Army. In response, the US military led a coalition of thirty-four nations in what became known as Operation Desert Storm—a violent air and ground campaign to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait. At the tip of the spear were the men of the US Air Force’s 58th Fighter Squadron.

Mounted aboard their F-15C fighter jets, these young aviators took to the sky against the Iraqi Air Force. Although confident in their capabilities, these untested American pilots were flying into combat against the latest-and-greatest of Soviet-built aircraft – including the MiG-29 ‘Fulcrum.’

Despite the odds, however, the men of the 58th Fighter Squadron decimated the Iraqi Air Force in one engagement after another. On the first day of the air war (January 17, 1991), Captain Jon “JB” Kelk claimed the first aerial victory of Desert Storm, downing a MiG-29 in combat. In less than 30 days, the 58th Fighter Squadron flew more than 1,600 combat sorties and destroyed 16 Iraqi aircraft – more than any other coalition air unit.

Based on hours of interviews and archival research by author Mike Guardia, this book reveals an intimate, no-holds-barred account of modern aerial combat…as told by the men who lived it.

Skybreak is their story.