A Line in the Sand: Planning to Defend Saudi Arabia

Three of the ships assigned to the brigade’s Military Sealift Command support squadron were leased vessels with foreign flags, and they were unable to be employed in a combat zone. With the prepositioning ships now emptied of gear, two vessels from Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Two—the PFC William Baugh Jr. and the 1stLt Alex Bonnyman Jr.—were assigned to the brigade’s support squadron instead. Throughout October and November, the three leased vessels—the Bassro Polar, Pheasant, and Aurora T—were off-loaded in al-Jubayl, and their cargos were combat loaded onto the two roll-on/roll-off

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prepositioning ships. Major General Jenkins explained, “This was the first time that [Maritime Prepositioning] ships had ever been combat loaded to support a general landing plan for the amphibious force.”

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While the amphibious forces trained and reorganized themselves, they also had a more active maritime mission to prosecute against Iraq. UN Security Council Resolution 661 established an embargo on exports from Iraq and Kuwait, as well as on imports of most cargo except medical supplies and food. The U.S. Navy took the lead in an international naval effort to enforce this embargo, but the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) was tasked, per doctrine, with providing a maritime special purpose force for conducting opposed boarding operations against underway vessels. The USS Ogden detached to conduct these operations with a heliborne force from 1st Force Reconnaissance Company and a Naval Special Warfare Command (Sea, Air, and Land [SEAL]) detachment.

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The first interdiction occurred on 13 October against the Iraqi vessel Al-Mutanabbi, and the next on 22 October against the Al Sahil Al Arabi. On 28 October, the 13th Marine Expeditionary Force’s maritime special purpose force made its last interdiction against the Amuriya, an Iraqi vessel that refused to stop despite warning shots fired by U.S. and Australian frigates and low-level passes by U.S. Navy aircraft. The successful boarding party insertion finally persuaded the vessel to stop and allow an inspection. None of the boarding actions resulted in any casualties.

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With Lieutenant General Walter Boomer at the helm

*Roll-on/roll-off ships are designed to carry wheeled cargo such as trucks, automobiles, or railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship. of both Marine Forces Central Command and I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marines continued to deploy to the Gulf and to solidify the defenses of Saudi Arabia. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade deployed to Saudi Arabia by air and met the ships of Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three at alJubayl. The brigade did not operate independently when it arrived in Saudi Arabia, however. Instead, it combined with the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade upon arrival, as planned, forming the I Marine Expeditionary Force, the primary combat arm of Marine Forces Central Command.

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I Marine Expeditionary Force officially took over as the controlling Marine air-ground task force in Saudi Arabia on 3 September. The staff of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade was combined with incoming staff to form the new headquarters, and Major General John Hopkins became the deputy commander, I Marine Expeditionary Force. Major General Jeremiah W. Pearson III was the deputy commander, Marine Forces Central Command. He remained in Riyadh at Central Command headquarters, serving as the senior Marine on staff there and coordinating with the other services.

The ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force during this initial phase of Operation Desert Shield was the 1st Marine Division, commanded by Major General James M. Myatt. The division’s regiments were initially the 7th Marines, led by Colonel Carlton Fulford; 3d Marines, commanded by Colonel John H. Admire; and 11th Marines, led by Colonel Patrick G. Howard. In addition, the division had the 3d Tank Battalion, 3d Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, and the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion. Because the division deployed in waves, several of its regimental units were comprised of battalions from different regiments. This lack of unit coherence extended to the company level for some of the attached battalions. Lieutenant Colonel Clifford O. Myers III of the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion responded to having companies from multiple battalions by designating the light armored infantry force as Task Force Shepherd; later this practice would spread to the entire division.

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The I Marine Expeditionary Force air combat element was the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing; it initially comprised three air groups and their supporting logistics and air defense units. Colonel Manfred Rietsch commanded Marine Aircraft Group 11, which controlled most of the fixed-wing squadrons of the wing at Shaikh Isa Air Base and Bahrain Interna-

Adapted from a Central Intelligence Agency map by Marine Corps History Division

tional Airport. These squadrons included F/A-18 Hornets, A-6E Intruders, Grumman EA-6B Prowlers, and Lockheed KC-130 Hercules. Eventually the group would total 10 squadrons. Colonel John R. Bioty Jr. commanded Marine Aircraft Group 13 at King Abdul Aziz airfield. Colonel Bioty commanded the rest of the wing’s fixed-winged squadrons, flying AV-8B Harrier IIs and North American OV-10 Broncos. By the end of Desert Storm, Bioty’s group comprised four Harrier squadrons and two Bronco squadrons. Colonel Larry T. Garrett commanded Marine Aircraft Group 16 with its rotary-wing squadrons based at the al-Jubayl Naval Air Facility. His seven squadrons flew CH-46E Sea Knights, CH53D Sea Stallions, CH-53E Super Stallions, AH-1W Super Cobras, and UH-1N Hueys. Later Garrett’s group would expand their operations to Ras al-Ghar and Manifah Bay.

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The 1st Force Service Support Group was commanded by Brigadier General James A. Brabham Jr. and provided the logistics element of I Marine Expeditionary Force. When the two brigades were

combined, General Brabham, a veteran of service in the Middle East who had been working in Saudi Arabia preparing for the Marines’ arrival since early August, organized the support group into a direct support group, a general support group, and a headquarters and services group. Colonel Alexander W. Powell, the former commanding officer of Brigade Support Group 7, commanded the direct support group, which was charged with sustaining the 1st Marine Division and the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing. Colonel Thomas E. Hampton commanded the general support group, which provided general support to I Marine Expeditionary Force. The Headquarters and Support Group was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry T. Hayden. Among other duties, it coordinated port security.

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In addition to the three large units, I Marine Expeditionary Force controlled several smaller units, including the 1st Radio Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas A. Flaherty and the 1st Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Intelligence Group commanded by Colonel Michael V. Brock. Colonel Brock’s group was a new organization, adopted in the late 1980s and based on concepts developed during the Vietnam War; it served as a regimental-sized umbrella organization that brought together previously independent intelligence collection and analysis organizations that served the expeditionary force.

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During the course of the Gulf War deployment, the group would double in size as new units arrived from the United States, including the Marine all-source fusion center, fleet imagery intelligence unit, and topographic platoon as well as communications battalions, remotely piloted vehicle companies, air and naval gunfire companies, an intelligence company, and force reconnaissance companies.

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When I Marine Expeditionary Force began deploying its forces to Saudi Arabia, the need for the naval mobile construction battalions, better known as “Seabees,” to reinforce the engineers of the 1st Force Service Support Group was apparent, and the commander of Naval Construction Battalions, U.S. Pacific Fleet, ordered four battalions to Saudi Arabia for this purpose. Captain Michael R. Johnson, USN, commanded this force, which ultimately became the 3d Naval Construction Regiment. From August 1990 until June 1991, the regiment completed 6 million square feet of aircraft parking; built 9.9 million square yards of ammunition storage; erected camps

*By the end of the 1990s, the Marine Corps had abandoned the surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence group concept. for 37,500 people; set up mess halls that fed 100,000 people; maintained 400 kilometers of road; and laid out two airstrips, in addition to myriad smaller tasks. The close cooperation of Captain Johnson’s Seabees and the Marines of the 1st Force Service Support Group continued the long tradition of Marine and Seabee cooperation and comradeship, as well as the important doctrine of Navy support for Marine Corps operations.

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General Boomer also received tactical command over an allied contingent, the British Army’s 7th Armored Brigade, the famed “Desert Rats” of the North African campaign of World War II. Commanded by Brigadier Patrick Anthony John Cordingley, this brigade provided a boost to the Marine tank battalions with 170 FV4030/4 Challenger I main battle tanks. The 1st Force Service Support Group provided logistics for the British brigade, which formed an additional maneuver element for the Marine defense sector.

On the ground, Saudi Arabia was defended from a possible Iraqi invasion in September and October 1990 by the I Marine Expeditionary Force; the XVIII Airborne Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Gary E. Luck, USA; and Saudi Arabian and allied forces. The Arab forces, which were arranged along the frontier, acted as a buffer and trip wire against any Iraqi movement south, but the primary defense of the Desert Kingdom lay with the American forces. The U.S. Army’s primary troop contribution to the defense of Saudi Arabia—the XVIII Airborne Corps— consisted of the 82d Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), and the 1st Cavalry Division.

There were three potential avenues of approach for an Iraqi force invading Saudi Arabia. One route lay out of Iraq and Kuwait along the Wadi al-Batin (a “wadi” is the Arabic term for a shallow desert depression, often a dry river- or streambed) and directly across the desert to Riyadh. The next route passed from Kuwait and down the “Tapline Road” (so named because it followed a pipeline) across the desert to the Gulf, and the third route lay along the coastal highway south from Kuwait. The Tapline Road and coastal highway routes formed what was commonly referred to as the “Triangle,” whose southern point was near Abu Hadriyah and whose two northern points were near an-Nuayriyahand Manifah Bay, respectively. Both Marine and Army planners saw the Triangle as the key region for the defense of Saudi Arabia.

The Army’s plan for defending Saudi Arabia called for the 101st Airborne to screen to the west, while