As far as the ground troops were concerned, Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm as the soldiers began making their moves through the desert. It has always been indicated that the foot soldier will never become obsolete, as there will always be a need for confrontation on the personal level. To this point, the aerial missile assaults from the Navy in the Persian Gulf and from the Air Force had concentrated on pinpoint targets, which accomplished many things. Disruption or destruction of supplies and utilities had been imposed. Iraq’s elite Republican Guard headquarters had been relentlessly subjected to intense bombings. The entire Iraq Air Force and Navy had literally been eliminated from participation. Mobile scud launchers were located and destroyed. Aircraft conducting bombing raids and sorties were visible from our skies, and had increased in frequency and intensity as they flew their formations over our compound. With the remote Iraqi troops being cut from supply lines, there were food and water shortages. The Republican Guard would have been kept awake literally for days with the constant explosions of various warheads. It was now time for the soldiers and Marines to do their job.
From our vantage point, the black night desert sky was suddenly illuminated and the floor of the desert shook as tanks announced their intentions, rolling quickly through Iraq. I was able to tune in to English speaking radio reporters describing the action in tones usually affiliated with sporting events. There was a full-scale move underway in Kuwait by the Marines. The war was less than a day old and announcements were indicating that our troops were advancing at a fast rate. Interviews with pilots described the retreating Iraqi motor convoys as “…scattering like cockroaches when the refrigerator light goes on.” There was chaos as the enemy troops were trying to turn around on the Iraqi roads. Low flying aircraft would hit the tanks and trucks with warheads made with white phosphorus, which would penetrate the vehicle armor, killing the occupants.
We continued with our job functions, with a noticeable heightened alertness. Rumors began to circulate that we would once again be moving. Captain Grimalda was able to confirm that plans were being made which would move us through the desert in convoy fashion, placing us in or near Basra.
Sergeant First Class Steele gathered his troops and began preparing for the move. “You are going to be seeing dead bodies- lots of them. So prepare yourselves.” Having been in police work for a while, I had been exposed to the dead and dying on numerous occasions. I had adopted a philosophical approach to the matter, which I told Steele I would share with those who he might see as having a problem with the matter. His response was a wait and see approach, which was consistent with everything else that was happening.
Reports from the field were positive, assuming one was pro-American. The amazing part of the war was the quickness with which the Iraqis were displaying the white flags and other signs of surrender. One story evolved around an American whose vacation plans landed him in a foxhole with Iraqi troops. He was in Baghdad visiting his father when the war began and was sent to join the war effort and found himself in the middle of the ground attack. It was his Chicago Cub uniform shirt that was displayed for surrender. He was not alone. The number of troops that were giving up actually created a logistical situation that no one had considered. The word coming down was that the Iraqi troops were attempting to fight a World War II battle against contemporary warfare.
There were stories of our tanks driving over enemy fortifications and bunkers, literally burying troops alive. In Kuwait, the Marines met stiff opposition. Reports had them engaged in short range combat. The stranglehold did not last long. The Marines managed to enter Kuwait City, leaving a trail of enemy troops in their path. On arrival, they made short work of forcing the opposition to flee. Those who managed to escape the city would still have to elude forces, with limited options. Each morning officers were in our work area getting briefed from the trusty shortwave. They would, in return, take the information to the command structure. These reports now included the deployment of Special Forces, Rangers, Airborne and Air Mobile troops to the north, south and between Baghdad and Basra. Things were looking good strategically, but there was plenty of other activity to keep the media busy. On the down side, there were stories about how smart bombs had struck civilian structures and stories of soldiers being killed by friendly fire. There were stories of downed friendly aircraft, and American troops being taken prisoners of war, as well as American and allied casualties. Mobile scud launchers were still operational, which could be loaded with nuclear, biological and chemical substances. As usual, my day was starting in routine fashion, finding a radio station for war status before breakfast. The voice, sitting in a broadcast booth somewhere far away, changed our day’s outlook completely as he announced: “President Bush has announced a cease-fire in the Middle East crisis!” Okay, what’s next, we wondered? I flagged a passing officer to let him know the latest, but he had already been informed. On this morning, our formation took on a different look. There were hopeful and cautiously optimistic tones in the message delivered to us. There were matters involving tentative agreements between all parties, which could instantly go sour. We listened throughout the day as plans started to materialize for the meetings that could put this entire episode behind us. During Vietnam, meetings like this would result in dashed hopes because no one could agree on the furniture used at the point of negotiations. There was the surrender of Japan in World War II, which seemed to be accomplished without much of a hitch.