Persian Gulf War: U.S. Marines’ Minefield Assault

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In preparation for the next night, Admire had his combat engineers and some infantrymen begin marking the task force’s path through the minefield. With no mine detection equipment, they advanced on their knees, probing into the sand with bayonets and listening for the clink of metal on metal. Mines would be marked with glowing chemical light sticks.

Task Force Grizzly, meanwhile, was still attempting to find a way through the mines. Its latest attempt was curtailed when allied aircraft started bombing Iraqi positions just across the barrier and Fulks withdrew his men to avoid the risk of friendly-fire casualties. With only hours left before the ground war was scheduled to start, Fulks was getting desperate about being able to complete his mission. As sporadic Iraqi artillery fire landed nearby, the colonel called his battalion commanders together to plan a rapid breach, using explosives to clear a path through the mines. Before he had to launch that effort, however, Fulks received a radio message that his scouts could see Iraqi defectors walking through the minefield with their hands over their heads. Thinking quickly, Fulks told the recon teams to run down and give the surrendering Iraqis chemical lights to mark the lane through the mines. Three Marines followed the defectors’ path and attacked a bunker, killing three Iraqi soldiers and capturing others. At last, Grizzly had a way to get to its blocking position.

But then the two task forces’ leaders received a disturbing radio call from Myatt, who relayed word from Boomer that President Bush wanted to give Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev more time to attempt to persuade Saddam to withdraw his army from Kuwait. That meant Taro and Grizzly were not to push any farther into Kuwait until the deadline passed, about midnight.

Both commanders protested that the delay would not give them time to reach their assigned positions before the division started its attack. Fulks, moreover, was reluctant to pull back the company of marines he already had on the other side of the mines, guarding the lane. ‘Boss, you can’t do this to me,’ he told Myatt.

After a brief delay, Myatt called back to tell him that Boomer had given permission to put a reconnaissance team across, but not to do anything irreversible. Fulks said he quickly ordered an entire battalion through the mines, as ‘a recon in force.’ Given the same warning, Admire said he told Myatt: ‘I will do nothing irreversible. But I can’t guarantee that the Iraqis won’t.’

While Taro and Grizzly were making their difficult treks deep into Kuwait, the two U.S. Marine divisions moved toward the border, reaching their assault positions on February 23. That night, Boomer sent a message telling his marines that they would attack into Kuwait the next day,

not to conquer, but to drive out the invaders and to restore the country to its citizens….We will succeed in our mission because we are well trained and well equipped; because we are U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen, and because our cause is just….May the spirit of your Marine forefathers ride with you and may God give you the strength to accomplish your mission.

Semper Fi.

As night fell on the twenty-third, the marines and navy corpsmen in Taro and Grizzly climbed out of their holes, pulled on chemical protective suits, and checked their gas masks and weapons. Suddenly an explosion stunned the marines of Task Force Taro and destroyed their artillery fire-direction radar van, killing one marine and wounding another. A U.S. HARM anti-radar missile had caused the explosion, another of the friendly-fire incidents that were to blame for nearly half of the marines’ casualties thus far.

Shortly before midnight, Corporal Eroshevich and the rest of Taro shouldered their heavy loads and started following what they hoped was a clear path through the minefield — a narrow route outlined by chemical lights. Once through the obstacles, the marines formed into a wedge and moved north, reaching their blocking position about six miles beyond the minefield well before dawn.

The cold, misty, rainy weather was miserable but ‘almost ideal for an infiltration,’ Admire said. It reduced visibility, limiting the chances that the Iraqis would spot them. The Taro commander hoped for better weather the next morning, when marine air cover might be needed if Iraqi tanks attacked.

While Taro had reached its position without major incident, Task Force Grizzly’s troubles continued. First, the march through the mines was delayed when the lead elements had to deal with more Iraqi defectors. Corporal Jackson, driving a communications vehicle carrying two of his battalion’s staff officers, had followed a barely visible light on the vehicle ahead of his. ‘My biggest worry was the guys off to the side on foot,’ he recalled of the slow advance. ‘I thought about them, hoped they didn’t step on anything,’ meaning mines.

Grizzly passed through the first minefield belt without incident. But about eight hundred yards farther, they ran into an unexpected belt of anti-personnel mines. A team of engineers led by Staff Sgt. Charles Restifo crawled through the field probing for mines with bayonets, as TOW gunners used their thermal sights to watch for any Iraqi movement. Restifo earned the Silver Star for his actions.

Despite the new delay, Grizzly was at its blocking position near the second minefield by dawn. The ground war officially began at 4:30 a.m., with the Second Division and the First Division’s Task Forces Ripper and Papa Bear starting their penetrations at the first minefield. Rocket-propelled mine-clearing line charges, or ‘mick licks,’ were used to make the initial breaches. Each line charge consisted of a 110-yard-long cable along which explosives were attached. A rocket on the cable’s end would carry the line across the minefield, and the subsequent detonation of the charges was designed to set off any nearby mines.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts

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