 Arthur Galvan was an up-through-the-ranks military success story suddenly cut short.
At 33, the son of a Mexican immigrant who had come to Costa Mesa in the 1950s, Galvan had risen from the lowest enlisted ranks to a captain in the Air Force. As fire-control officer of a AC-130 Spectre gunship, Galvan was in charge of selecting Iraqi targets for the heavily armed turboprop to hammer in the opening days of Operation Desert Storm. While attacking a FROG missile system in Iraqi-occupied Kuwait on Jan. 31, Galvan's gunship was hit. The plane crashed into the Persian Gulf, killing all 14 aboard. (On March 6, the gunship was found off the coast of Kuwait and all aboard will be listed as Killed in Action when their remains are identified.") Galvan would be the only person born and raised in Orange County to die in the Persian Gulf war.

Silver Star Citation https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/7465

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