ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                         175

                                  Training

   After receiving a warning order from the 11th Marines Commander, Sierra
Battery began training for the raid mission.    Because we had yet to receive a
specific target for the first raid, the battery only had my commander's intent: be
prepared to move under an LA! screen during hours of darkness to a point
within one or two kilometers of the Kuwaiti border, fire approximately 15
rounds per howitzer at a high-value target and withdraw when rounds are
complete.   Some restrictions applied:     no lights would be used-no vehicle
blackout lights, flashlights or collimator lights; VHF radio silence was imposed;
no advance party would be used; no soft-skinned vehicles would go forward of
the final assembly area; and speed was essential.
   Battery S honed skills to perfection, and soon it was occupying in complete
darkness in less than half the Marine Corps combat readiness           evaluation
(MCCRE) time standard for daylight occupation.      In addition, the battery em-
ployed several innovative techniques.

                                 Positioning

   Because we wanted no soft-skinned vehicles, we looked for a substitute for
the high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV)-mounted position
and azimuth determining system (PADS).        We chose the hand-held Rockwell
global positioning system (OPS), an expensive but totally reliable system.   We
drew   it and an operator    from  1st     Division's communications   company.
Normally used to survey PLRS master stations, it provided 10-meter accuracy
and tracked up to 16 navigational satellites.    It never failed to provide posi-
tioning data.
   A reliable navigational aid was critical in helping the raid force move into
position in the darkness.   Just imagine the challenge of navigating across as
much as 25 miles of trackless desert on a moonless night with your ultimate
destination within one or two kilometers of enemy territory.     The reliability of
the Rockwell GPS was worth the price.        We could have used cheaper, more
readily available GPS models, but they occasionally suffered outages due to bad
satellite "health" or signals interference. We simply couldn't take the chance.

                             Directional Control

   With its  10-meter accuracy,   the Rockwell (3PS     was good enough for
establishing battery location but not good enough for establishing an accurate
known direction for laying the battery.    So the battery trained for two methods
of lay. The first option, if stars were visible, was celestial.  If there were no
visible stars, the battery laid magnetically.
   Celestial skills were honed to perfection.   A computer program was used to
determine azimuths to easily identifiable stars.  In a few days, the battery was
establishing directional control in less than one minute, and accuracy, when
compared to PADS, checked within one mil.         The battery used the magnetic