ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                            219


forces, regimental combat teams, and forward command elements to cross the
breach at first light as we attacked into Kuwait.

                                 Media logistics

   At that point, the biggest concern to I MEF's public affairs officers was de-
livering media pool products several hundred kilometers from the battlefield in
Kuwait to the distribution point in Dhahran with the immediacy with which
today's media are accustomed.    We knew that dedicated helos would not be an
option, at least initially, in the high-threat environment we faced during the
early stages of the attack.  Instead, we devised a system that exploited existing
logistical channels to return the video, film, and print articles to the rear.  We
strategically placed about a dozen people as couriers at key points in the
resupply chain.  This allowed our couriers to piggyback aboard medevacs, fuel
trucks, and ammo wagons returning from the battlefield to rear areas where
other Marines were waiting to rush them by air or ground to Jubail or Dhahran.
   Much of the time we were also able to exploit the MEF's electronic mail
system. Print journalists composed their reports on their laptops and filed them
on discs that we in turn loaded onto tactical computers that transmitted the
documents via the electronic mail system's satellite link to terminals in the I
MEF Rear headquarters at Jubail.     They were then immediately faxed by the
public affairs office there to Dhahran for dissemination to an eagerly awaiting
mob of media.

                                   Problems

   Two days before the ground war was scheduled to commence, I asked the
CentCom Public Affairs Office whether there would be any embargo of media
pool products.  "Do we want Saddam to find out about the assault over CNN?
I asked. I was also mindful that our media pool reports could easily upstage any
official pronouncement concerning the ground war that might be made at the
seat of government.   I was told not to expect an embargo.     Nevertheless, at
about the time Marines were beginning to traverse the breach with media in
tow, we received a flash message from the Pentagon directing us to hold all
media products at forward staging areas.  At about the same time, Secretary of
Defense Dick Cheney announced a blackout on all war news.        Although his
announcement stated that all sensitive reports would be withheld from the public
for at least 48 hours, the embargo was lifted later that day. But initial media
reports were held up for several more hours while they were reviewed in
Dhahran and Riyadh.
   The pool reporters were enraged and their escorts exasperated by these
delays, but they were short-lived. By the time most Americans were getting out
of bed on 24 February, the pool reports were beginning to reach them through
the media.  There were other delays during the campaign, due in part to the
rapid advancement of our divisions, which outran our system for returning the
pool products.