the road to safwan

THE ROADTO SAFWAN

THE 1ST SQUADRON, 4TH CAVALRYIN THE 1991 PERSIAN GULF WAR

Stephen A. BourqueJohn W. Burdan III

University of North Texas Press

Denton, Texas

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©2007 Stephen A. Bourqueand John W. Burdan

All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.

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The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of theAmerican National Standard for Permanence of Paper for PrintedLibrary Materials, z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosenfor durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bourque, Stephen A. (Stephen Alan), 1950–The road to Safwan : the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1991Persian Gulf War / Stephen A. Bourque, John Burdan.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-57441-232-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Persian Gulf War, 1991—Regimental histories—United States.2. United States. Army. Cavalry, 4th. Squadron, 1st. I. Burdan,John, 1955– . II. Title. III. Title: 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the1991 Persian Gulf War.DS79.724.U6B683 2007956.7044'342—dc22

2007022336

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Introduction

In the early morning hours of March 1, 1991,Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Robert Wilson andhis 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry arrived at a

small airstrip outside the Iraqi village of Safwan. A temporarycease-fire following Operation Desert Storm had been in effectfor almost twenty-four hours and his division commander, Ma-jor General Thomas G. Rhame, had told Wilson to secure therunway forward of the American battle lines, for the upcomingnegotiations between Iraqi officials and American General H.Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of the allied coalition.Unfortunately, a large Iraqi force occupied the directed confer-ence site. Wilson, in his M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle,drove onto the airfield, dismounted, and approached the seniorIraqi officer at the site. He told the colonel that the airfield atSafwan was now under the control of the United States Armyand he must move his men and equipment immediately. Obvi-ously disturbed by the American’s words and unaware thatthere even were negotiations scheduled between the two forces,the Iraqi officer left to speak to his commander. As he departed,four Iraqi tanks moved in front of Wilson’s vehicle and loweredtheir gun tubes.1

The 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry’s encounter on that small air-field in southern Iraq was one of hundreds of similar dramasthat played out that winter during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Tothe generation of Americans who came of age during that con-flict, it was a whirlwind of television images of sand, airpower,and precision technology. Countless articles, television shows,and documentaries obscured the context and content of Opera-tion Desert Storm by burying it in a haze of smart bombs, Tom-

1

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1 The Quarter Horse to 1990

The military organization that arrived on theIraqi airfield that winter day was the heir toover 135 years of American military tradi-

tion. Battle streamers on the squadron’s colors attested to par-ticipation in wars around the world. While the nature of theseconflicts ranged from insurgency operations against lightlyarmed foes to combat against sophisticated armored units, thesingle unifying theme throughout its history was that thesquadron fought as a mounted force.

While military purists might argue that this mounted her-itage may somehow be traced to knights on medieval Euro-pean battlefields, American cavalry units developed in re-sponse to a specific need: the rapid movement of troops toprotect settlers as they migrated to the West. Their NativeAmerican foe, whether in the swamps of Florida, the mid-con-tinent plains or the desert Southwest, moved with a speed andcunning that regular infantry simply could not match. Far dif-ferent from the European hussars and lancers, it was dragoon-style cavalry that policed the West and fought in the AmericanCivil War.1 By 1942 at the beginning of World War II, the Amer-ican cavalry had turned in its horses for a variety of light ar-mored cars and jeeps. Its primary role was now reconnais-sance, or finding the enemy, and providing security or earlywarning to the main body. Because cavalry commanders wereprone to act independently, senior officers often gave them athird type of mission: economy of force. Reinforced with themeans of heavy combat such as tanks and artillery, cavalry

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Notes

Introduction

1. Robert Wilson, “Note to Author: Some Comments Ref Safwan,”1997.

2. Robert H. Scales, Jr., Certain Victory: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War(Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General StaffCollege Press, 1994).

3. Stephen A. Bourque, Jayhawk! The VII Corps in the Persian Gulf War(Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2002).

Chapter 1

1. Hussars, essentially an honorific name identifying light cavalrydesigned for war of raiding, reconnaissance, and security. Lancers,as the name implies, used a long lance or spear as their primaryweapon. These elite troops, usually clad in gaudy outfits, re-mained in European armies until the Great War of 1914 confirmedtheir obsolescence. Dragoons have always been mounted infantry-men, who traveled on horseback but fought on foot.

2. Comments made by Colonel Robert Wagner during his tenure ascommander, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, in Germany, from1980–1981.

3. Mary Lee Stubbs and Stanley Russell Conner, Armor-Cavalry, PartI: Regular Army and Army Reserve, Army Lineage Series (Washington,DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1969), 128; Robert M.Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian,1848–1865, ed. Louis Morton, Macmillan Wars of the United States(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981), 22-23, 121-26, 39-40.Robert W. Coakley, The Role of Federal Military Forces in DomesticDisorders, 1789–1878, Army Historical Series (Washington, DC: U.S.Army Center of Military History, 1988), 143–59, 65–72, 82–88.

4. Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee, Vol 1 (New York: CharlesScribner’s Sons, 1934), 432–35; Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 212–13;Richard J. Zimmerman, Unit Organizations of the American Civil

247


Infantry Division was commanded by MGThomas G. Rhame during Desert Storm.

DSA Division Support Area. Location of most ofthe division’s logistics units, fuel, andammunition.

DTAC Division Tactical Command Post. A moremobile CP than the division’s MainCommand Post.

EPW Enemy Prisoner of War.

FAA Forward assembly area. A VII Corps termused to describe locations west of the Wadi alBatin in preparation for the corps attack.

FIST Fire Support Team. Coordinates artillery fireat the company and troop level.

FIST-V Fire Support vehicle. It was a modified M3.

FRAGO Fragmentary order. A change to the standingoperation order or plan.

FSE Fire Support Element. Coordinates artilleryand aviation fires for the squadron orbattalion.

GP General Purpose, as in “GP medium tent.”

GPS Global Positioning System.

GSR Ground Surveillance Radar.

HEAT High Explosive Antitank. An explosivemunition designed to penetrate an armoredvehicle by chemical (explosive) energy.

HEMTT Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.Large trucks that could be configured tocarry fuel, cargo, or ammunition.

HETS Heavy Equipment Transporter System. Truckdesigned to carry tanks and other largevehicles.

Glossary 283


Final rehearsal by Squadron Commanders and staff prior to the GroundWar, 23 February 1991. JOHN BURDAN PHOTO

Squadron Commander and Staff after the final rehearsal, 23 February1991. JOHN BURDAN PHOTO

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the road to safwan

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