This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Baker, David Earle, Brig Gen USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town West Stewartstown, New Hampshire
Last Address Mitchellville, Maryland
Date of Passing Jan 29, 2009
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Gen. Baker was deployed to South Vietnam in January 1972 and was captured that June after his aircraft was shot down. He spent the next eight months as a prisoner of the Viet Cong in Cambodia. During captivity he tried to escape but he was shot and recaptured. In February 1973, one month after a peace treaty was signed between the North and South Vietnamese, he was released. According to the Air Force, he was the only Air force prisoner to be repatriated from Cambodia, after the war ended.
In April 1973, he told the Associated Press that during captivity he was paraded past Cambodian villagers who beat and threatened him. He was denied medical treatment for a bullet wound in his leg. He said that because he would not make antiwar statements he was given rice only and pork fat to eat.
After the war he was a pilot instructor and later a fighter pilot in the Netherlands.
Source: The Washington Post Obituaries, February 15, 2009.
1994-1997 Served as support staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gulf War/Liberation and Defense of Kuwait/Operation Desert Storm
From Month/Year
January / 1991
To Month/Year
February / 1991
Description Just after midnight on January 17, 1991 in the U.S., Bush gave the order for U.S. troops to lead an international coalition in an attack on Saddam Hussein’s army. U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf led “Operation Desert Storm,” which began with a massive bombing of Hussein’s armies in Iraq and Kuwait. The ensuing campaign, which is remembered in part for the United States’ use of superior military technology, introduced the term “smart bombs” to the global vernacular—precision-bombing devices aimed primarily at destroying infrastructure and minimizing civilian casualties. In response, Hussein launched SCUD missiles into Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iraq’s use of SCUDs, notoriously inaccurate weapons designed to terrorize civilian targets, nearly succeeded in inciting the Israelis to retaliate. Hussein hoped an Israeli military response would draw neighboring Arab nations into the fight on Iraq’s side, but he again committed a grave miscalculation. Bush reassured Israelis that the U.S. would protect them from Hussein’s terrifying SCUD attacks and Israel resisted the urge to retaliate. Soon after, U.S. –installed Patriot missiles destroyed SCUD missiles in flight and further foiled Hussein’s plan to goad Israel into a holy war.
Following an intense bombing of Baghdad, U.S.-led coalition ground forces marched into Kuwait and across the Iraq border. Regular Iraqi troops surrendered in droves, leaving only Hussein’s hard-line Republican Guard to defend the capital, which they were unsuccessful in doing. After pushing Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait, Schwarzkopf called a ceasefire on February 28; he accepted the surrender of Iraqi generals on March 3.
