24
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Goedkoop and my corps planners had on their own initiative named all the assembly areas and attack positions of the VII Corps after World War II Medal of Honor winners: Garcia, Butts, Henry, Thompson, Roosevelt, Keyes, and Ray.
25
On a visit to Fort Huachuca on 19 December 1991, I was surprised to receive a UAV propeller blade from one of the task force members with the inscription 'Thanks for the TANKS, Sir.'
26
After the war, I learned from the USMC history that a decision to go early really did not happen until early afternoon — despite the flurry of phone calls in the morning. The 0930 phone call from John Yeosock was therefore a 'what if'… a trial balloon. In other words, contrary to some postwar analyses and commentaries, the decision to attack early was not predicated on some kind of perception of a rout of the Iraqis or that the Iraqis were getting away. The motive for the early attack was protection of the Marines' left flank. That makes sense.
27
Easting lines — north/south grid lines — were another means of orientation. As you moved from west to east, the numbers grew higher. Thus 60 Easting was farther west than 70 Easting.
28
FRAGPLAN 7 had originally been the proposal of my chief of plans, Lieutenant Colonel Bob Schmitt, and British staff planner Major Nick Seymour, a fact that accounted for some British names for objectives, such as Norfolk and Minden.
29
Division Support Command, of four battalions, responsible for the resupply of the division.
30
LORAN is a commercially available system used mainly by the oil people in Iraq. It depends on signals sent from towers and uses triangulation to get accurate readings. There are, however, delays in getting signals back from towers.
31
Special Operating Forces — Mark had flown with Task Force 160, an elite Special Forces unit.
32
'Eavesdropping' is important, and should be constant during a battle. You 'eavesdrop' by listening to a radio net for significant information passing between two other stations on the net; another technique is to turn to a subordinate radio frequency and listen to what is going on. That way you can get a feel for their situation without calling them.
33
In case you need your memories refreshed, here is the layout of the Iraqi frontline divisions: West to east were the 26th, 48th, 31st, 25th, and 27th Divisions, with the 52nd mostly positioned in reserve behind the easternmost divisions. One of their brigades was farther west, however, behind the 48th.
34
Long-haul comms to Riyadh and the VII Corps main CP.
35
We had a company of these large cargo helicopters in our aviation brigade that were used for emergency resupply.
36
I should make clear that the term RGFC connotes their command HQ, not individual units; the RGFC HQ controlled all the operational reserves, including non-Republican Guards subordinate units.
37
