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Subject: COMMAND CHRONOLOGY FOR THE PERIOD 1 JAN TO 13 APR 91            

Unit: 2ND MARDIV  

Parent Organization: 2 MEF       

Box ID: BX600014

Folder Title: COMMAND CHRONOLOGY 2ND MARINE DIVISION 1 OF 10  JAN - APRIL 1991                                

Document Number:          3

Folder SEQ  #:          4




                                    UNCLASSIFIED

        delivered seventy-two ISSMK rounds and Battery R had fired thirty-six
        8-inch rounds. The batteries displaced and returned to their
        assembly areas. Throughout the fire mission there was no attempt by
        the enemy to conduct any counterfire.(38) From this initial
        offensive action (the first combat mission for the 2d Marine
        Division, as a division, since world War II), a measure of the enemy
        began to take form. Certainty began to grow of his inability to
        bring accurate artillery fire against the division. This belief was
        confirmed by subsequent actions.


        6. COMBAT OI?ERATIONS - IRAOI PROBE OF 29/30 TANUARY

            By the end of January, the division had begun planning to move
        forward to final assembly areas. A reconnaissance party from
        Headquarters Battalion had gone up to the vicinity of the berm, which
        marked the border, on 29 January to begin preparations for a new site
        for the division main command post.(39) However, after dark on 29
        and 30 January, Iraqi forces conducted a series of probes along the
        southern border of Kuwait. Although never seriously engaging 24
        Division forces, these actions by the enemy postponed the forward
        movement of the command post.

            At approximately 2100 on 29 January, the division became involved
        in its first skirmish of the war.(40) At that timai the first of
        several reports was received in the division combat operations center
        (COC) that large groups of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles were
        observed moving through the berm below the Saudi-Kuwaiti border# and
        that they were heading south.

            Such groups (the largest being originally estimated at 60 to 100
        tanks) were reported at several points along the ist Marine Divisi,-/
        2d marine Division/Eastern Province Area command (EPAC) zones. Of
rest to the division were the reports coming in from
        OP-2 and OP-4 of enemy armored vehicles entering the division's zone.
        Although these observation posts were actually in 2d DiViSion's zone#
        they were manned by elements of the lSt Division and ist Porce
        Reconnaissance Company. That was a result of the forward movements
        of the ist and 2d Divisions in preparation for offensive operations.
        The Marines at OP-7 wpvo fl%P first to engage the enemy# bringing the
        column under TOW fire and calli..4 in several air strikes.(41)

            At 2250, Company C, 2d LAI Battalion reported that they were
        engaging 29 enemy armored vehicles.(42) By 2345, 2d LAI was claiming
        one kill of a tank by an LAV-AT of Company A.(43) This Was       the
        division's first ground combat kill during operation Desert      Storm.
        The Iraqi tank had been attempting to pass through the only      cut for
        several miles in the berm that stretched along the border.       With this
        ho2e in the berm blockedo the Iraqis made no further drives      into the
        division's zone.

            At the same timef the Commanding General was making his
        preparations in the event of an enemy breakthrough into the
        division's zone. At 2316, in response to an inquiry from the
        General, the CO, 6th Marines stated that he could have an infantry


                                            ii-9

                             UNCLASSIFIED

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Document 31 f:/Week-35/BX600014/COMMAND CHRONOLOGY 2ND MARINE DIVISION 1 OF 10 JAN - APRIL 1991/command chronology for the period 1 jan to 13 ap:100196125355
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-35
Box ID = BX600014
Unit = 2ND MARDIV
Parent Organization = 2 MEF
Folder Title = COMMAND CHRONOLOGY 2ND MARINE DIVISION 1 OF 10 JAN - APRIL 1991
Folder Seq # = 4
Subject = COMMAND CHRONOLOGY FOR THE PERIOD 1 JAN TO 13 AP
Document Seq # =
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 01-OCT-1996