I would love to see the Apaches from our Cav in Kuwait land "Downtown" the first night. If they don't have the "legs" for it, they could do a desert refuel.
[Gulf News Online Edition] U.S. troops learn to avoid mistakes of last Gulf war Umm Al Madafi | By Michael Smith | 19/02/2003
The angry Bronx accent cuts through the agitated conversations in the Kuwait desert. "Cease fire. Cease fire. Over."
The platoon sergeant bawls out the order. There is a brief burst of static followed by confirmation that his words have had no effect on at least one of his tank crews. "Target sighted," the senior crewman reports excitedly. "Am engaging. Over."
"Cease fire," the platoon sergeant bawled again. "Cease fire. Over." But it is too late. The scout who reported the enemy contact had become disoriented in the featureless desert. The enemy APC he thought was ahead and to his left was in fact his neighbour, one of the troop's own Bradleys. He "fired" at the target.
The exercise observers, retired veterans of the 1991 Gulf war brought back to coach the new boys on the realities of desert warfare, move in. Fortunately, in the exercise, no one is deemed to have been killed. But the "blue on blue" induces a more careful approach and the rest of the exercise goes well.
Blue on blue is the military euphemism for shooting your own side. In the 1991 war, nine British soldiers were killed when an American A-10 aircraft mistakenly attacked two British Warrior infantry vehicles.
Apache troop, 3 Squadron, the 7th Cavalry, has been in Kuwait a month and only now are the cavalrymen getting a taste of what it is like to fight in the desert at night.
They are the reconnaissance scouts for the lead brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division. If war comes they will be among the first across the border into Iraq. This is a trial run for the real front line.
It was all going so well, until now. The full moon lit up the desert for miles around, reflecting off the sand and giving the landscape an almost magical feel.
With the 120mm guns on their M1 Abrams tanks enjoying a big range advantage over anything "the bad guys" had, the troop's hunter-killer platoons were expecting easy pickings.
With near perfect visibility, the scouts in their Bradley armoured personnel vehicles pushed rapidly through successive "phase lines".
The tanks, or horses as the United States cavalrymen still insist on calling them, followed close behind. Then shortly before 10pm, over on the left flank, a flare lit up the sky. One of the scouts reported an enemy APC ahead to his left.
"Apache 6 this is Red One. Contact. One enemy APC south-west of my position. Over." Almost immediately a tank crew reported seeing the target and opened fire. That was what provoked the furious order from the platoon sergeant.
No one had given any orders to open fire. The 7th Cavalry's role is to observe and report back, not to become involved in battles with large armoured forces. But now, despite his order, a second tank has opened fire, provoking an incandescent response from the sergeant.
"Cease fire," he bawls again. "Cease fire. Over."
There are two more contacts, this time both of them real, and as dawn breaks the cavalrymen rout a small enemy force, scoring eight kills with only three more losses. At the after-action review, the chief observer talks the troops' officers and sergeants through the exercise.
Inevitably, the blue on blue dominates the discussions.
The sergeant from the Bronx shakes his head."Just thank God it was in training," he says.
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