more than twenty feet off the ground, the Blackhawk barreled back toward coalition lines.
It made it home safely, but was so badly damaged it didn't fly again during the war.
DECEPTION ON KUWAIT BEACHES
Even though the main allied ground attack came from the west, General Schwarzkopf's plan included a direct attack on southern Kuwait, a mission tasked to the Marine Corps 1st and 2nd Divisions, along with Kuwaiti and Arab units. This attack would tie down Iraqis as the 'hook' was launched; it would also aim to eventually capture Japer airfield, Kuwait International Airport, and Kuwait City, all strategically and symbolically important.
One option that was also seriously considered was a Marine amphibious landing on Kuwait.
However, reconnaissance of the beaches during the fall and winter months by SEALs, as well as by Marine and Navy units, made it clear that an amphibious landing would be bloody, and result in the destruction of a considerable amount of Kuwait's infrastructure. Reluetantly, the Marines settled on a land assault from the south, itself no picnic. To make it work, the Iraqis had to be convinced the Marines were coming from the sea.
Special Forces SEALs played an important role in the deception. Lieutenant General Walter E. Boomer, the Marine Corps CENTCOM commander, asked Navy Special Warfare Task Group commander Captain Ray Smith to develop a plan to help divert Iraqi armor in the Kuwait area. Boomer wanted to draw the Iraqis tanks and guns away from his own units and tie them down near the coast. The general suggested a diversionary landing operation; the SEAL leader quickly accepted.
After the air war began, the SEALs began looking for a beach where they could stage their mock invasion. Fifteen reconnaissance missions were undertaken in the area between the Saudi border and Ra's al Qulay'ah on the Kuwaiti coast. Pave Lows supported some of these missions, inserting the SEALs on 'soft duck' operations; the others were made from patrol boats. On at least one occasion, the Iraqis fired at the Special Forces troops, but no casualties were sustained. But neither could the SEALs find the right kind of beach.
One night, on patrol, Lieutenant Tom Dietz and his men spotted three Iraqi patrol boats near the naval base at Ra's al Qulay'ah. Excited, they called for air support. But the controller informed them that no airplanes were available. While no doubt tempted to take them out themselves, that would have potentially compromised their own mission. So they turned their patrol craft southward toward Mina Su'ud. Looking out toward the dark Kuwaiti shore, Dietz saw something he'd been hoping to spot for days — a long, empty beach. He made a note to come back as soon as possible. They did so a few nights later.
The winter water off the Gulf was cold, but the SEAL swimmers were used to dealing with considerably worse. They slipped off their rigid-hull inflatable boats quickly, pulling themselves quietly through the water to the Kuwaiti shore. Lieutenant Dietz saw a low-slung shadow as he paddled; he kicked for it, then made his way out of the water onto a boat ramp.
For an hour, he lay at the waterline, watching in the darkness. There were buildings nearby, and the beach was littered with obstacles and other Iraqi defenses. But there were no patrols.
'I have a good feeling,' he told himself when he slipped back into the water. Mina Su'ud would be the perfect beach to hit.
The plan was approved on February 19, and the SEALs conducted a dress rehearsal on February 22. Time was of the essence: The ground war, and thus the SEALs' mission, was set to begin on the night of February 23 and 24.
Leaving Ra's al Mish'ab in four small, fast Special Operation Crafts (powered by twin 1,000-hp Mer-Cruiser engines), the SEAL platoon sped through the mine-filled sea on the evening of February 23. Mines and the Iraqi shore defenses weren't the only hazard; the Special Operations boat crews were going to be extremely exposed to potential 'blue on blue,' or friendly-fire incidents. For that reason, they'd been supplemented with communicators who were assigned to help fend off their friends who might bomb them by mistake.
Twelve and a half miles off the target areas, the crews cut their engines. Four abreast, they drifted toward their launch point, while the SEALs broke out and inflated their rubber Zodiacs. At 2100, a six-man SEAL demolition team boarded its Zodiac. The coxswain then fired up the small, quiet motor. Trailed by two of the patrol boats, the rubberized assault craft headed toward the beach.
Precisely forty minutes later, Lieutenant Dietz and five of his men slipped into the water. Each swimmer's weight had been augmented by twenty pounds of C-4, the charges already prepared. Their emergency gear included bottles of air for use in escaping underwater, pistols at their belts — and MP- 5Ns and M-16s in case things got truly hairy. The six SEALs paddled steadily toward the beach, then crawled up on the sand in the shallow water. The timers were affected by the water temperature, and so Dietz had to consult a chart to work out when to set them. They pulled the pins at exactly 2247 for the planned 0100 detonation. The charges were set to go off in the shallow water as the tide rolled out, maximizing the effect of the explosions.
The swimmers were back aboard their rubber boats by midnight. The speedboats came forward and placed orange buoys, as if marking the boundaries of a landing area. Then they dashed toward shore, machine guns blazing at a building on the left bank of the target area. Intelligence believed that it was used for weapons storage.
Soon Navy ships and airplanes were delivering bombs and shells to the general area, heating up the show. As they turned away from the beach, boat crew members tossed off four-pound floating charges timed to go off at various intervals. The planted C-4 packets went off at 0100.
As far as the Iraqis knew, the Marines were on their way
Elements of two Iraqi divisions rushed to man defensive positions near the beach. While the Iraqis waited for an attack that would never come, the Marines and their Arab allies blasted into Iraq and Kuwait.
The SEAL deception was part of an overall disinformation campaign that drew attention away from the main areas of attack. The campaign included everything from PSYOP leaflets in bottles supposedly dropped from ships offshore to commanders' 'leaks' to news media. All this helped convince the Iraqis that the 'real' invasion would come from the sea.
SEAL teams were involved in several other actions during the war, including the boarding and capture of seven oil platforms in the Durrah oil field after U.S. helicopters had come under fire there on January 18.
Eight special boats supported a contingent of thirty-two Kuwaiti Marines during an operation on February 8 —14, when the Kuwaitis seized Qaruh, Maradim, and Kubbar Islands. These were nonetheless the first reclamations of Kuwaiti territory by coalition forces, and therefore symbolically important. FROM January 30 to February 15, SEALs used their Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs — wet submergibles) to conduct six major mine-hunting missions in hostile Iraqi waters, ten-hour dives using the vehicles' onboard sonar. Because the vehicles are literally full of water, SOVs require SEALs to wear scuba gear. Though they cleared twenty-seven square miles of water, the Iraqi mining operations were so pervasive that amphibious operations in those waters were still considered high risk.
Throughout the campaign, explosive- and detonator-equipped Navy SEALs also conducted mine countermeasures by helicopter — flying on a total of ninety-two helo sorties. They were dropped into the water to place charges directly on the mines. Twenty-five Iraqi mines were destroyed in this manner.
On the night of February 22–23, a SEAL team landed a group of CIA-TRAINED Kuwaiti guerrillas near Kuwait City in preparation for the start of the ground war.
SEALs, working with Marines and British forces, also helped enforce United Nations trade sanctions in the Gulf. A total of eleven 'takedowns' — forced boardings of ships that refused to submit to inspections — were initiated during the war; all were successful.
Captain Smith's men also helped restore and train crews for three Kuwaiti navy ships that had escaped the invasion. All told, the Navy Special Warfare Task Croup brought two hundred and sixty people to the Gulf, the largest SEAL deployment since the Vietnam War.
