exploding Scud. Relief swept the room when we realized the smell came from the rubber masks—not mustard gas. Soon the radio announced in Hebrew that the Scuds had landed in Tel Aviv—all was clear in Jerusalem. We had survived the first of many alarms. Saddam’s “mother of all battles” was under way—the first Gulf War. The invasion of the coalition forces occurred at 3:00 a.m. Israeli time January 17, 1991. The Scud attacks began to rain down on Israel from Iraq in the early hours the following day.