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Posted on 05/10/2005 10:14:10 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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While the army swept around Iraqi defenses during the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. Marines drove straight ahead.  As twilight approached on February 23, 1991, U.S. Marine Colonel James A. Fulks was getting desperate. Although the ground campaign of Operation Desert Storm would not begin for more than twelve hours, Fulks had nearly twenty-seven hundred U.S. Marines a dozen miles inside of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and had orders to move that night through the first of the two thick minefields the Iraqi army had planted just to the north. After days of searching, however, his scouts still had not found a path through the mines. Now Fulks was preparing to order a rapid and potentially dangerous effort to clear a way through the deadly obstacle belt. At about the same time ten miles to the east, Corporal Michael Eroshevich was hunkered down in a small, hastily dug hole on the edge of that same minefield, trying to stay unseen until night fell. The twenty-one-year-old marine was tired, cramped, cold, and a little nervous about his unit's exposed position.  Fulks' marines, designated Task Force Grizzly, and Eroshevich's unit, Task Force Taro, commanded by Colonel John H. Admire, had marched into Kuwait two days earlier. Alone, with no tanks and few heavy weapons, the fifty-three hundred marines were vulnerable to an attack by any of the five heavily armed Iraqi divisions waiting on the other side of the mines. Admire recalled that "We were essentially up there alone." Admire and Fulks had orders from the First Marine Division commander, Maj. Gen. James M. "Mike" Myatt, to infiltrate through the first minefield well before the start of the ground war. They then were to march farther into Kuwait to shield the breach of those mines by Myatt's two powerful mechanized regiments the next morning. In the midst of the most technologically advanced conflict in history -- the so-called Nintendo War -- most of the marines in the two task forces marched the twenty miles from the Saudi border to their blocking positions, carrying their gear on their backs or pulling it in crude handcarts.  According to Fulks, the risky infiltration "was part of our strategy in the division to be very aggressive." The idea was to mentally overwhelm the Iraqis, who had shown little ability to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Task Force Grizzly commander, who had conceived the infiltration plan months earlier while he was the division's operations officer, conceded that initially "it was not a very popular idea." But it embodied the boldness that enabled two marine divisions to punch through the Iraqi minefields on "G-day," February 24, jump-starting the allied ground assault that ended with a crushing victory in one hundred hours. That attack was the culmination of the largest deployment of U.S. Marines in history, which had started six months earlier, just days after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's army overran Kuwait on August 2, 1990. President George Bush, backed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, quickly decided that the West had to respond forcefully to Iraq's aggression, which threatened neighboring Saudi Arabia and much of the world's oil supply. But the allies could not effectively help unless Saudi Arabia's King Fahd was willing to accept an army of Christians flooding into the home of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. After a briefing in Jeddah by Defense Secretary Richard Cheney and U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, Fahd agreed on August 7 to accept allied troops.  Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Myatt Bush immediately ordered forces to the Persian Gulf under the label Operation Desert Shield. Air force fighters, army paratroopers, and navy aircraft carriers started arriving the next day. The Seventh Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), commanded by Maj. Gen. John I. Hopkins, began flying into Saudi Arabia on August 14, while three ships of Maritime Preposition Squadron (MPS) 2 sailed toward the gulf with the unit's heavy weapons, vehicles, and supplies. Within two weeks, 15,248 marines were deployed in the desert north of the Saudi port of Al Jubayl, learning to cope with 110-degree heat and talcumlike sand that covered their bodies and fouled their weapons and equipment. According to Lt. Gen. Walter E. Boomer, who as commanding general of the First Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) would lead most of the U.S. Marines' Gulf War contingent, "The quick arrival of the 7th MEB and the MPS squadron must have put Saddam Hussein on notice that our president was serious about defending Saudi Arabia." As more marines arrived from their bases in California, Hawaii, and Okinawa, Hopkins' brigade was integrated into Myatt's First Division. It was the first time a full marine division had deployed overseas since Vietnam. At the same time, helicopter, fighter, and attack squadrons of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing, under Maj. Gen. Royal Moore, flew from air stations in California and Arizona to occupy airfields prepared by marine engineers and navy Seabees.  Myatt organized his division into five task forces with different capabilities and purposes. The first was Task Force Shepherd, which would use its nimble eight-wheeled light armored vehicles (LAVs) for screening and scouting. Myatt then formed two assault units, Task Force Ripper, commanded by Colonel Carlton W. Fulford, and Task Force Papa Bear, led by Colonel Richard W. Hodory. In anticipation of a fast-moving battle in the desert, these units were equipped more like army mechanized brigades than the usual marine light infantry regiments. Each assault force had two infantry battalions plus combat engineer and reconnaissance units. For the mobility essential in desert warfare, each had two companies of thinly armored, tracked assault amphibious vehicles. Ripper also had two companies of M-60 main battle tanks, and Papa Bear had one. Task Forces Taro and Grizzly were more typical marine units, with two battalions of infantry but no tanks or armored vehicles. While the marines of the First MEF were moving into defensive positions in the desert, fifteen thousand more leathernecks were sailing for the gulf aboard ships. And tens of thousands of soldiers of the U.S. Army's Eighteenth Corps and hundreds of U.S. Air Force warplanes and support aircraft flooded into Saudi Arabia and neighboring nations. Military forces also came from Great Britain, France, and several Arab countries.  As their military strength in the Persian Gulf region grew, the allies began to shift their focus from the defense of Saudi Arabia to an attack against the Iraqi army in Kuwait. General Boomer recalled that he and his commanders "began to think and talk among ourselves about offensive ops as early as October." By November, President Bush was doing the same with his advisers. He ordered Schwarzkopf to begin planning for an offensive to liberate Kuwait. At Schwarzkopf's request, Bush authorized additional deployments that nearly doubled the U.S. troops in the gulf in order to provide the combat power required to defeat an Iraqi force estimated at more that six hundred thousand men. The reinforcements included the U.S. Army's Seventh Corps, with two divisions from Europe and two from the United States. Boomer's First MEF was strengthened by the Second Marine Division and the Second Marine Aircraft Wing from bases in North and South Carolina. The Second Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. William M. Keys, was augmented by hundreds of reservists, including B Company, Fourth Tank Battalion, from Yakima, Washington, which was the first marine unit to get modern M1A1 Abrams tanks. In all, Bravo Company had fourteen of the powerful armored vehicles. The Second Division was also reinforced by the army's First Brigade, Second Armored Division -- the "Tiger Brigade" -- with their M1A1s and Bradley fighting vehicles. When fully assembled, the division had 20,500 personnel and 257 tanks, including 185 Abrams, some 170 of which belonged to the Tiger Brigade. "It was probably the heaviest marine division, with the most combat power, ever to take the field," Keys recalled. The First Division, meanwhile, had 19,500 marines and sailors and 123 of the older and less potent M-60A1 tanks. With his air and support units, General Boomer would command about seventy thousand marines and navy personnel at the start of the ground war. Counting U.S. amphibious forces in the Persian Gulf (some twenty-four thousand marines commanded by Maj. Gen. Harry Jenkins), the corps had nearly ninety-four thousand men and women in the Gulf War -- more than in the biggest battles of World War II.  Just after midnight on January 16, 1991, Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm, with attacks into Iraq and Kuwait by allied aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from navy warships and submarines. Marine aircraft joined the air war the next day, with pre-dawn strikes against targets in Iraq and subsequent attacks against enemy troops in southern Kuwait. The First Division later used its 155mm artillery in a series of combined-arms "raids" with marine aircraft, aimed mainly at the estimated twelve hundred artillery pieces arrayed against them in Kuwait. The much-feared Iraqi artillery would have little effect during the ground war. The Iraqi army, however, staged poorly coordinated multiple attacks into Saudi Arabia on the night of January 29, triggering a three-day fight known as the Battle of Khafji. The initial attacks by Soviet-made Iraqi T-62 and T-55 tanks and BMP armored personnel carriers against U.S. Marine border posts were stopped by marine LAVs equipped with 25mm guns and TOW (tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) anti-tank missiles, attack helicopters, and marine and air force fighters. But two LAVs were destroyed by friendly fire, killing eight marines and wounding others. Another Iraqi armored column survived air attacks to occupy the abandoned Saudi town of Khafji, trapping two marine recon teams. American commanders realized that U.S. forces should not dominate a fight in which Saudi territory and Arab pride were at stake. According to Colonel Admire, "We decided we would be the supporting force" during the recapture of the town. The attack to liberate Khafji and to rescue the trapped marines was conducted by Saudi and Qatari units, backed by marine aircraft and artillery.  Although a relatively small engagement, Khafji had a major impact on the planning for the ground war. The Iraqis' poor coordination and lack of aggressiveness persuaded the marine commanders that the attack into Kuwait would not be as difficult as they had feared. "At that particular point, there was a significant psychological change in all of us," Task Force Taro commander Admire recalled. "We realized that if we hit the Iraqis hard and fast, they would back down. There was no fight in them." According to Admire, the successful counterattack by the previously untested Arab troops also emboldened their commanders to offer to make their own attack up the coast highway during the ground war, instead of following the marine assault. That allowed Boomer to move the focus of his attack about eighty miles to the west, into the area of Kuwait known as the "elbow," and to revise his battle plan.
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The two marine division commanders devised different plans for breaching the minefields, but with similar goals. The First Division would use Task Forces Grizzly and Taro to protect the main assault forces -- Ripper and Papa Bear -- which would conduct their own breaches. The Second Division would rely on artillery and air cover to defend against counterattacks and assigned only one regiment -- the Sixth Marines -- to make their breaches. Each of the regiment's three battalions would cut a single lane. The desire in both cases was to move through the minefields quickly. "We were concerned about speed, and building momentum going north, to get through those two obstacle belts, because the worst thing that could happen was to get trapped between them," Myatt said.
Corporal David Jackson, a radio operator with Grizzly, recalled that the task force's marines felt "a lot of excitement and some confusion" but "not a lot of fear" about their mission: "People asked me if I was afraid. The honest answer was ‘no.' Our battalion had trained so hard....By the time we got to the Gulf, we really were family."
After daylight, the Iraqis apparently became aware of the marines' presence and fired poorly aimed artillery at them. Return fire from the marines' 155mm howitzers back at the border, however, quickly silenced the enemy guns. Iraqi tanks then approached Grizzly's position, and Fulks had to withdraw, covering his movement with artillery and air attacks.
Eroshevich called the trek "the most grueling physical experience of my life. Each of us carried over 100 pounds of equipment and our ammo for 30 kilometers." The fire team leader's load consisted of his own gear, including chemical protective suit and gas mask, his M-16 rifle, and three bandoliers of ammunition. In addition, Eroshevich carried a vest with ten 40mm grenades for his M-203 gunner, a two-hundred-round magazine for his team's M249 squad automatic weapon (SAW), and two 60mm mortar rounds. Some men also carried night vision goggles, telephones, and extra barrels for the machine guns. "The guys I really felt sorry for were the Dragon [anti-tank rocket] gunners and the machine-gunners," Eroshevich said. (Each Dragon weighed fifty pounds, while an SAW weighed fifteen and an M-60 light machine gun twenty-six.) When the marines started to march from the border, Eroshevich recalled that "we had to help each other stand up. I thought: ‘There's no way in hell I'm going to make this.'"
The unusually cold and damp weather may have prevented the heavily burdened marines from overheating during the strenuous march. But when they stopped, the cold cut through their sweaty clothes and chilled them. The only casualty of the potentially dangerous movement was a young marine killed by an accidental hand-grenade blast. By midnight, Taro had reached the edge of the minefield and then hurried to get into defensive cover before daylight. Most of the marines then dug fighting holes into which they squeezed, knees against their chests. They remained in the tight foxholes all day.
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| Problems with the explosive devices, however, slowed the operation and resulted in damage to several tanks that hit live mines while sweeping the supposedly cleared lanes with mine-clearing plows. The operation also was delayed by numerous false reports of chemical agents. With little Iraqi resistance, however, the marines pushed through the first minefield and reached the second barrier by noon, but they were then plagued with more defective line charges, more damaged tanks, and increased Iraqi artillery fire. The leathernecks' biggest problem, however, was what to do with the thousands of surrendering Iraqi soldiers, who threatened to bog down the advance. Commanders of the assault units soon turned the flood of POWs over to marines from the supply columns behind them. Others, recognizing that the dispirited Iraqis were harmless, had their men simply direct them toward the rear. Happy to be alive and out of the war, Saddam's soldiers marched to the south, waving dirty white rags and smiling at the marines rushing northward.  On February 24, 1991, the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions cleared openings in two Iraqi minefield belts in southern Kuwait The push through the two minefields had left eleven tanks damaged and fourteen men wounded. There had been concern about massed artillery fire catching them bogged down among the mines. But, "None of our fears materialized," Boomer said. Despite low clouds, scattered rain, and dense smoke from burning wells in the sabotaged Kuwaiti oil fields, the marine aviators did their best to support the ground forces. Cobra helicopters had to get under the clouds in order to attack Iraqi tanks or artillery firing on the marines. "I had six or eight Cobras air taxiing down highways in Kuwait with their landing lights on to get into the First or Second division areas to help them out," Moore recalled. The two heavy task forces ran into only scattered pockets of opposition from dug-in Iraqis, most of whom would surrender after being hit by long-range TOW missiles or tank fire. By late afternoon, Papa Bear had cleared its first objective just behind the second minefield belt.  Ripper had to postpone its move onto the sprawling Al Jaber Airfield about nine miles to the northwest due to premature darkness. Still, the marines' aggressiveness and light Iraqi resistance had put the advance hours ahead of schedule, creating a major problem for General Schwarzkopf. The marines' rapid drive increased the risk that they would expose their left flank or would push the Iraqi troops out of Kuwait before the main attack could hit them. As a result, Schwarzkopf ordered the U.S. Army's Seventh Corps to begin its assault by 3 p.m., about fifteen hours ahead of schedule. After a relatively easy first day, both marine divisions faced their toughest fights of the war on the twenty-fifth, when Iraqi armored units staged strong counterattacks. For the First Division, the battle included a precarious defense of Myatt's forward command post, featuring an aggressive attack by a company of marine LAV-25s against a superior force of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles. The Second Division, meanwhile, was fighting off separate attacks from Iraqi mechanized and armored units in what was called the biggest tank battle in marine history. In one fight, the "Reveille Engagement," marines, including Bravo Company, the reserve tank unit with its M1A1s, were roused from their sleep to destroy thirty T-72s and four T-55s -- in minutes. Counterattacks and darkness, however, prevented both divisions from moving north.  Although the weather remained bad on February 26, Boomer ordered Myatt to move on Kuwait International Airport and had Keys sweep to the west of Kuwait City to cut off the highways out of the capital. With supporting shellfire from the battleships Missouri's and Wisconsin's sixteen-inch guns, the assault units broke through the defenses. Shortly after dawn on the twenty-seventh, marines raised the U.S. flag in front of the airport terminal. To the south, Grizzly had worked its way through the maze of bunkers and buildings at Al Jaber Airfield, meeting no resistance. Meanwhile, the Second Division quickly occupied a ridge northwest of Kuwait City, sealing off major roads and trapping hundreds of fleeing Iraqis. On February 28, Arab troops passed through the marines' lines and entered Kuwait City, which erupted in a joyous celebration. Later that day, President Bush ordered a cease-fire and the Persian Gulf War essentially ended for the marines. The U.S. Marines had driven about one hundred miles in one hundred hours, defeated seven Iraqi divisions, destroyed 1,040 tanks, 608 armored vehicles, and 432 artillery pieces, and taken 22,308 prisoners -- at the cost of five killed and forty-eight wounded. At a February 27 press briefing in Riyadh, Schwarzkopf praised the marines: "It was a classic, absolutely classic, military breaching of a very, very tough minefield....And I think it will be studied for many, many years to come as the way to do it." |
Hi Sam, Hi Snippy....bumpin' in for the evening.
How's everyone doing?
Truly awesome work freely done on behalf of your heart. Thank you so much.
A middle of the night bump.
Good morning Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.
There are two plausible explanations. In an ancient court of law, when defendants were condemned, they received a black stone with their name on it. If they were acquitted, they received a white stone. Similarly, those who have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation will receive an acquittal from the judgment of God. What a relief it is to know that our sins are forgiven! Another explanation comes from the ancient olympic games. When athletes won, they were awarded a white stone, which was a token of honor. Together, these illustrations show us the wonderful balance of the Christian life. We are saved by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Yet obedient Christians often struggle as they seek to serve the One who saved them. One explanation of the white stone is a picture of unearned acquittal. The other shows that we will be rewarded for acts of good works (1 Corinthians 3:13-14). Trusting Christ for salvation gives us a new identity. It's like receiving a new name written on a white stone, which shows that we are forgiven-completely. -Dennis Fisher
Good works can have no part; But God rewards each loving deed That's done with all our heart. -D. De Haan Jesus removes our sin and rewards our service.
The Forgiveness Of God Accepted By God |
Good morning ALL
A little Marine Air Action for the Sand Marines
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on May 11:
1568 Christian I ruler of Anhalt-Bernburg (Battle of White Mountain)
1654 Cornelis van Alkemade Dutch historian
1807 Ira Aldridge Great 19th century black Shakespearian actor (Othello)
1811 Chang & Eng Bunker Chinese Siamese twins
1821 [Carlos] Charles John Stolbrand Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1830 John Converse Starkweather Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1852 Charles Warren Fairbanks (R) 26th US Vice President (1905-09)
1854 Ottmar Mergenthaler Hachtel Germany, inventor (linotype)
1878 Mr Reyskens oldest male resident of Netherlands, ever
1888 Irving Berlin [Isadore Balin] Temum Siberia, composer (White Xmas)
1891 Henry Morgenthau Jr US Secretary of the Treasury (1934-45)
1892 Dame Margaret Rutherford Balham London England, actress (Murder Most Foul, Murder She Said, Arabella)
1894 Anton A Mussert Dutch Nazi leader (NSB)
1894 Martha Graham Allegheny PA, choreographer (Appalachian Spring)
1904 Salvador Dali Figueras Spain, surrealist artist (Crucifixion)
1907 Kent Taylor [Louis Weiss] Nashua IA, actor (Boston Blackie, Rough Riders)
1911 Doodles Weaver Los Angeles CA, comedian (Spike Jones & City Slickers)
1912 Foster Brooks Louisville KY, comedian/actor (Miles-Mork & Mindy)
1912 Phil Silvers Brooklyn NY, comedian (Sergeant Bilko-Phil Silvers Show)
1920 Denver Pyle Bethune CO, actor (Dukes of Hazzard, Code 3, Tammy, Doris Day Show)
1923 Joan Moriarty Brigadier matron-in-chief/director (Army Nursing Services)
1924 Antony Hewish radio astronomer
1927 Mort Sahl Montréal Canada, comedian/political satirist/beatnik (Big Party)
1933 Louis Farrakhan minister racist (black islam nation, million man march)
1934 Jumpin James M Jeffords (Representative-R-VT, 1975- )
1935 Doug McClure Glendale CA, actor (Checkmate, Virginian, Roots)
1941 Eric Burdon Walker-on-Tyne England, rock vocalist (Animals-House of the Rising Sun)
1947 Claude "Butch" Hudson Trucks drummer (Allman Brothers)
1957 Luca Urbani Rome Italy, MD/astronaut (STS 78-alternate)
1967 Kenneth Gould Chicago IL, Welterweight boxer (Olympics-bronze-1988)
Oh my goodness, PE just adores Spam. (Yuck!)
Son of "PUFF"
Ya think this what they had in mind, eh???
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Morning Snippy.
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Our Lord's message to the church at Pergamum has a curious reference to "a new name" written on "a white stone" (Revelation 2:17). What could this mean?