Bravo Company Goes to War

The phone calls began on November 17,1991. Farmers, plumbers, teachers, salesmen, and dozens of students received the call from their platoon leaders and platoon sergeants. Bravo Company, Fourth Tank Battalion - a Marine reserve unit out of Yakima, Washington - had been activated in response to the crisis in the Persian Gulf. The company reported in on December 12, at 100 percent strength. The hectic pace of preparation continued for five days. The company had staged a practice mobilization, leaving little left to do. The unit briefed dependents and formed support groups. Author‘s tank, ‘Rockin’ Reaper,’ on the southwest edge of Kuwait City. Crew is, from left, LCpl Sean Edler, loader; LCpl Rick Frs ier, driver; Cpl James Bracken. gunner; and SSG Dacus. the TC. The biggest change the company with years of experience had antici-faced was the transition from two pated theircountry’scallandretumed five-tank platoons to three four-tank to the unit just before mobilization, platoons, increasing the required tank after several years of inactive duty. crews from 12 to 14. There were They would prove invaluable. From more than enough tank crewmen Oklahoma, anew platoon commander available, but tank commanders might arrived. Anew first sergeant also be hard to find. Bravo w.as lucky in joined the unit as it prepared for its that two trained tank commanders first extended active duty since World ARMOR - September-October 7997 9

War II. As company first sergeant, Master Sergeant R. D. Martin would also prove a very valuable asset. With last-minute preparations for duty complete, Captain Ralph F. Parkison took the company south to Twentynine palms, California, for the next step in mobilization, transition training from the M60 tank to the new MlAl. On December 17th. the company arrived at Twentynine Palms in anticipation of final mobilization processing and the beginning of MlAl training. Because the New Equipment Training Team would not begin instruction until December 26th, the company used the interim time to shake down its new platoons, draw additional gear, and conduct training in areas not previously covered in any depth. There was time for a series of NBC warfare classes, conducted by CWO Norwood of 2d Tank Battalion, combined with a great deal of practice. The UCOFT simulator was used for gunnery training. Training also included desert survival, Arab customs and culture, land navigation, and armored vehicle recognition. The three platoon commanders, WO Larry E. Fritts, Captain Alan R. Hart, and Captain B. Cline, conducted classes in tactics. Platoon sergeants or section leaders conducted other classes on subjects such as motor transport and tracked vehicle repair. NET" training, methodical and well-coordinated, began on schedule. When not actually training on the new tank, the Marines of Bravo Company saw fdms and attended lectures, often accompanied by hands-on instruction using oversized training aids that enabled them to quickly adapt to their new weapons system. Bravo Company's Marines completed basic NET" training on January 2, and moved to the field the following day to begin applying what they learned on the ramp and in the classroom. With the assistance of the NETT instructors, the company completed individual, section, and platoon gunnery runs, as well as completing Gunnery Tables VI and VII during both daylight and darkness. This phase ended with a company exercise over very demanding terrain. NE= training ended with a formal graduation on January 13th. Now the company was eager to try its skills on the battlefield, the so-called Gunnery Table XIII. I Above, Bravo Company receives its new M1 A1 tanks on January 22. Below, the company practices battalion tactics in the Saudi desert less than a week later. After a great deal of last-minute gear issuance and double checking of seabag contents, Company B left Norton Air Force Base for Saudi Arabia, arriving at Al Jubail January 17th. The company linked up with its tanks and its parent regular tank battalion on January 21st, only to find its tanks without most tools, nine of the 14 had no radios, and the grenade dischargers were all missing. After replacing necessary equipment, the company moved on January 23d to Thunderbolt Range and boresighted all weapons. On January 26th, the company arrived at battalion assembly area Crush. The next three days were spent in large-scale, battalion exercises that allowed the company and each platoon to practice basic tactical movements. Bravo Company, attached to 6th Marines on January 30th. moved into position to support 2d Bn., 2d Marine Regt. just south of the Kuwait border. Despite several Iraqi attempts to cross the border and engage 6th Marine positions, Bravo Company was not engaged, due to superb aerial support that blunted enemy incursions. February 2d found Bravo Company rejoining its parent tank battalion as division reserve. The following week was spent moving the battalion forward and training the company in breaching techniques. Two tanks in each platoon were fitted with mine plows, the last two receiving theirs on February 12. February 5th was spent acquainting the crews with mine plow employment. On February 8th, the battalion assembled to prepare a giant ambush to forestall a possible Iraqi invasion, but the threat never materialized. The following day Bravo Company was attached to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. During the period of February 11- 13, the company practiced breaching operations with 1st Bn., 8th Marine 10 ARMOR - September-October 7991

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Path to Victory Map outlines Bravo Company’s progress and major engagements as it fought its way north. Regt. Engineers, TOWS, Amtracs, and infantry were all involved in the training, which covered minefield and berm breaching as well as exploitation of the resulting gaps. The company moved into its final assembly area on February 15th. approximately eight kilometers from the Kuwaiti border. At this position, the unit made last-minute preparations, completed preventive maintenance, and conducted tactical briefings on its role in the upcoming offensive. At approximately 1900 on February 23, Bravo Company moved into a position next to the Saudi berm. One of the tanks, When’s Chow, commanded by SGT John Gibbert, had been left in the assembly area because of a fuel leak. This tank appeared at the attack position at 0415 on the morning of the 24th, just 15 minutes before the offensive was to begin, thanks to superhuman effort by company maintenance personnel and the tank’screw. The company moved through the berm at approximately 0430 and moved across the Kuwaiti border at

0458. Weather was poor, oil smoke and rain limited visibility. At 0636, the battalion encountered the fmt minefield and commenced breaching operations, opposed only by light and inaccurate enemy fire. The breaching proceeded slowly. Line charges proved ineffective, and three M60 mine plows and an Amtrac fell victim to the well laid minefield. When a lane finally cleared, Bravo’s first platoon pressed forward to exploit. After the entire platoon was committed to the lane, the first tank, Four Horsemen, commanded by SGT Robert Trainor, hit a mine. Despite the huge explosion, the crew was uninjured and joined the platoon’s other three tanks as they exited the minefield. It was not until 0834 that another lane was cleared, and the company proceeded through the minefield. Once through, the company took up position to support the advancing mechanized infantry, which quickly seized the first objective. At 1140. Bravo Company reached a second minefield and assumed an overwatch as the engineers breached the field under sporadic sniper fire. At 1445, the company moved through the second minefield in the m e of the two mechanized companies. At 1605, the company was on the left flank of the two mechanized companies, which reported enemy armor and entrenched infantry to their front. After Bravo Company’s right flank platoon opened machine gun fire on the entrenched enemy troops, resistance in front of the mechanized companies collapsed. Iraqis poured from bunkers and weapons pits, hands raised. Bravo Company then surged into the attack, moving up onto a slight rise and taking up a position to take on the enemy armor that had threatened the Amtracs and TOW

HMMWVS.

The tank gunners systematically destroyed the outgunned enemy at ranges out to 3800 meters. Beginning at 1650, with the destruction of an Iraqi tank by WO Fritts’ Hot Bitch, and including a T-55 obliterated at the amazing range of 3750 meters by SGT Glen Carter’s Stepchild, the tanks ripped apart the enemy position until past dark. In the Battle of the Candy Canes - so-called because of the red and white stripes painted on towers running parallel to the Iraqi positions - the company was credited with the destruction of ten tanks, four jeeps, 12 trucks, and a ZSU-23-4 ARMOR - 11 antiaircraft vehicle. Bravo Company received credit for 396 of the nearly one thousand prisoners taken in the battalion area. Enemy return fire, limited by range and lack of observers, was desultory and ineffective. Marine artillery quickly silenced any mortar fm. The company was withdrawn from this commanding high ground late that evening to take up a position at the head of the battalion column. After a night of confusing movement, including the capture of eight more prisoners, the company formed its coil. Early the next morning, at approximately 0545, February 25th, several Marines on watch reported hearing the sounds of Soviet-made vehicles to The Battle of the Candy Canes The nickname stemmed from one of the few visible features on the desolate battlefield, a row of red-and-white-painted transmission towers. The range from Tank 33. at right, to the cluster of T-55s at top right was approximately 3.750 meters. The map greatly oversimpli-;ers and fighting holes present on the actu fies the extensive network of bunk ial battlefield. the east or Me coil. Due to early morning fog, dust, and oil-smoke, the enemy could not be immediately identified, even with thermal sights. At 0550, CPT Hart spotted enemy vehicles and passed on the alarm to the awakened company. Hart's platoon was already in a position to engage the enemy with frontal fire, and he directed the rest of the company to uncoil and bring 3d Platoon on line to the right of 2d, and 1st on line to the left, slightly refused to the north. As the first rounds were flying down range from Hart's Crusader and SGT Gibbert's When's Chow, sleepyeyed tankers were greeted with the sight of an Iraqi tank battalion boiling up and over a slightly raised, hard-surfaced road running north-south about 1800 meters to the east of Bravo Company's position. Within 90 seconds, most of Bravo Company had engaged the enemy formation and destroyed it. Within seven minutes, as individual enemy tanks and Chinese-built personnel carriers continued to come into sight out of the dust and smoke, over 30 enemy vehicles were destroyed. 12 ARMOR - September-October 7997

The Reveille Battle At dawn on February 25th, Bravo Company destroyed 30 Republican Guard T-72s as they tried to counterattack through Iraqi positions that induded bunkers and dug-in T-55s. The enemy tanks attempted to move at an oblique angle across a slightly raised roadbed, and Firing continueduntil approximately sonnel carriers from the Iraqi 3d

0630. Single enemy tanks were blown up as the battalion TOW vehicles joined in. Within 30 minutes of the last main gun round going down range, Iraqi survivors and infantry who had been frring rather ineffectively from trenches, began to surrender. Bravo Company suffered no casualties to the enemy’s few incoming tank and machine gun rounds. Bravo Company destroyed 30 T-72 tanks, three T-55s. a T-62. and seven Der-Mechanized Division “Tawakalna,” a Republican Guards unit. The company got credit for 72 prisoners in this “Reveille Battle.” The corpsmen of Bravo Company handled twelve enemy seriously wounded, performing life-saving care in several instances. On the afternoon of the 25th, Bravo Company was assigned the base of the battalion vee. It remained in that Dosition until the battalion met retreating Iraqi units, and again Bravo took the point. In increasingly poor visibility due to rain and smog, Bravo engaged the enemy in a running battle, firing on the move at long ranges. Corporal Vem Forenpohar’s Torture Chamber and SSG Jeff Dacus’ Rockin’ Reaper destroyed a BMP and a T-62, respectively, at a range of 2,000 meters, while travelling at 20 mph. The company settled into its night position at an L formed by the junction of two roads, an east-west hard surface ending in a north-south route. Throughout the evening, enemy m o m e n attempted to harass the Marines, but Marine artillery again silenced the Iraqi supporting arms. ARMOR - 13

Aftermath of the Reveille Battle A grim wake-up call for Iraq’s Republican Guards Bravo company had a chance to return to the Reveille battle site a few days later, when these photos were taken by the author. Most of the T-72s had their turrets blown off by secondary explosions. Older T-Ss, including one hit five times, retained their turrets, although in some cases KE had passed through both sides of the turret casting. 1 I - -. 1 The T-72s destroved in the Reveille battle were moving toward allied troops and through a densely bunkered Iraqi position when spotted. This accounts for why some T-55s are dug in while others, and the T-72s, were on the move. T-55 at left was one of the dug-in tanks. At 0230 on February 26th. the out the early morning hours. A count slum-like built-up areas, Bravo Com-enemy made a concerted attempt to pass the road intersection and retreat farther north. The darkness, and the fleeing Iraqis were ripped apart by the flashes and explosions from Bravo’s 120-mm guns. Machine guns mixed in, and tracers burned through the night as individual Iraqis attempted to fight back. The enemy was slaughtered in the “Battle of the L,” fought in poor weather and visibility through-credited Bravo Company with nine T- 62s, 12 BMPs, three BTRs, one MTLB, and four trucks destroyed. The company also captured two prisoners. Daylight on February 26th found the company moving out in the base of the battalion vee again as the attack pushed toward Kuwait City against dispersed enemy tanks and personnel carriers. Past a radio station, through cultivated fields, open desert, and pany went from the tail of the vee up to the tip of the battalion wedge and then back to the tail, engaging a variety of targets. Evening found the company in an ambush position along the southern edge of the 6th Ring Motorway on the edge of Kuwait City, anticipating a column of T-72 tanks that never materialized. During the day, it destroyed six tanks, one BMP, three MT-LBs, and four trucks. 14 ARMOR -

Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti units arrived late in the morning of the 27th to liberate Kuwait City. Bravo Company remained in place until March 1st. The company then moved approximately one kilometer south to a bermed position amidst the carcasses of some 70 dead cows, horses, and ze-bras. The company remained in “Pet Cemetery” until March loth. The company then moved to a position with its original parent tank battalion. This involved a short move about ten kilometers to a position in the desert southwest of Kuwait City. The company left Kuwait on March 12th, moving to an ammunition drop point at AI Mishaad, Saudi Arabia. Ammunition was off-loaded, and the tanks were mounted on Army HETS for the trip farther south to AI Jubail. On March 16th, the men of Bravo Company arrived at Camp 15, just High Praise... “Consider one of my favorite stories, about the Marines of Company B of the 4th Tank Battalion. They’re combat reservists from Yakima, Washington, not active duty personnel. They were activated last December and went into battle with their Abrams tanks when ground operations began into Kuwait on the 24th of February. Before dawn, moving north inside Kuwait, Company B discovered a large formation of Iraqi tanks. They saw some of the top-line T-72 tanks heading straight toward them through a large group of dug-in Iraqi armor. All told, the Marine company with 13 tanks faced 35 oncoming Iraqi tanks, outnumbered nearly three to one. But when the encounter was over, the Marine reservists had destroyed or stopped 34 of the 35 enemy tanks. In fact, in a total of four engagements in four days, Company B stopped 59 Iraqi tanks, 30 of them top-line T-72s. What makes it all the more impressive is that Company B had never used those Abrams tanks before they arrived in the desert. That was their first exposure to the new equipment. And they trained on it, acquired the capability to operate it, and then performed superbly in combat.” - Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense outsibe of Al Jubail. The tanks arrived returned to the United States on April a day later after spending the night at 18, the remainder flew to Camp the port, At Camp 15, Company B Lejeune the following night. After completed its plans for return home. completing processing, the company The first members of Bravo Company flew home to Yakima on April 25th. ARMOR - September-October 7997 15 Author’s tank crew looks over a captured T-55/59 in Kuwait City, March 3d. Staff Sergeant Jeffrey R. Dacus sewed on active duty from 1971 to 1975 in Amtracs. He has been in the Marine Corps Reserve for almost 12 years sewing in a helicopter squadron, engineer battalion, and for the last eight years as a tank commander in Bravo Company, 4th Tank Battalion. He holds a Masters Degree in Secondary Education from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., and in History and Government from the University of Portland. He is currently an 8th Grade U. S. History teacher.