Most of the units in the general vicinity of Al Jaber have recorded this alert in the unit logs. Note that the 3rd Tank Battalion did not record the event in their logs.
The 7th Marines (Task Force Ripper) noted the alert as follows:
1910 - WENT TO MOPP-4
1920 - ALL CLEAR SOUNDED[98]
The 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion recorded it as follows:
1908 Fox vehicle detected and identified Lewicite [sic]agent. Ripper6 believes that chemical weapons were used but not sure if Ripper was the target. These chemical munitions could have been exploded by our own artillery, thus causing secondary explosions.
1910 Going to MOPP-4
1920 All clear sounded.[99]
The 1st Combat Engineer (CE) Battalion recorded it as follows:
1910 - Fox vehicle detects Lewicite [sic]. TF Ripper returns to MOPP 4
1920 -All clear[100]
The 11th Marines Command Chronology, which had one battalion (3/11) assigned to Task Force Ripper reports:
1911 - 3/11 REPORTS POSSIBLE GAS ATTACK; UNITS GO TO MOPP LEVEL 4. TF RIPPER FOX VEHICLE REPORTS DETECTING BLISTER AGENT LEWISITE AT 1918. AT 2030 DIVISION REPORTED THAT BLISTER AGENT WAS FALSE ALARM. UNITS RETURN TO MOPP LEVEL 1.[101]
The 11th Marines War Journal also reports:
1911: 3/11 RPTS A GAS ATK. PRIDE MAIN ALSO RPTS A GAS ATK.
1918: RIPPER RPTS A BLISTER AGENT WHICH IS CONFIRMED BY A FOX VEHICLE. RPT SENT TO ALL BNS.[102]
The 11th Marines War Journal entries imply that multiple attacks/alerts are happening at the same time. Actually, 3/11 was on the Task Force Ripper communications net and would have passed along the Fox alert to its regimental headquarters. PRIDE MAIN was the call sign for the 1st MarDiv Headquarters Command Post-Main. They did not report a chemical alert at their location but were probably passing the Fox alert along. They received the Task Force Ripper report at 1918 (or possibly 1908 with an error in the time reporting) and recorded it without realizing that all were the same alert.
| First Page | Prev Page | Next Page |