. >> reporter: it's been a lot of years since fred wellman has flipped through the old photos of his first tour in the middle east. as a young army lieutenant he flew scout missions in operation desert storm. >> we were facing the fourth largest army in the world at the time. iran and iraq had fought for eight years. >> reporter: the war sent nearly 700,000 american troops to the persian gulf after iraq occupied kuwait. desert storm was a short war that started with an air assault on january 17th, 1991, and ended four days after ground forces went in to iraq on february 24th. victo victory, but not one without costs. >> had two of my men unfortunately crashed. >> reporter: wellman says they were two of 383 fighters who didn't come home. >> we feel it belongs here close to the others, especially vietnam. >> reporter: here is the north western corner of the national mall where marine corps vet scott stump is spearheading the effort to build the national storm memorial. within steps of the vietnam memorial and in the shadow of lincoln's memorial. >> and it would be something that people

. >> reporter: it's been a lot of years since fred wellman has flipped through the old photos of his tour in the middle east. as a young army lieutenant, he flew scout missions in operation desert storm. >> we were facing the fourth largest army in the world at the time. iraq had fought for eight years. >> reporter: the war sent nearly 700,000 american troops to the persian gulf after iraq occupied kuwait. desert storm was a short war that ended in 90 days. it was a decisive coalition victory, but not one without costs. >> weather went bad. two men crashed their helicopter. >> reporter: wellman says they were two of 383 fighters who didn't come home. >> we feel that close to the others, especially vietnam. >> reporter: here is the northwestern corner of the national mall where they're spearheading the effort to build the national desert storm war veterans memorial. >> it would be something that people would be able to see the history of our country kind of chronologically. >> reporter: stump and the memorial association have congressional approval to build. a massive curved wall will