2 HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ, 1991: Incirlik TURKEY -~ SOVIET UNION Caspian Sea Air Base thwestAsla Sou M*diter~nean ~~ SYRIA . Kir~k (Arabian PenInsula 0~ K and Adjacent Areas) 4114,,0 200 400 ISRA L ~~, oBaghdad IRAN Cairo Aqaba~~J Khorrarnshahr I Strait -~ ~U~WAIT KuwaB ~~ City Khsfjl ~radan S trait Jubay ~ut~ of SAUDI ARABIA Ad Dammarn BAHRAIN 4**Hormuz Dhahran~ (i Medina QATAR ~anbu al 8e~r Riyadh a ~~aUffofOatn 7 UNITED~~~~--~ ARAB EMIRATES ! - I I `OMAN f P- V YEMEN -Arabian Sea ETHIOPIA Mandab More than 750,000 refugees were starving. Relief workers reported about 1,500 refugees were dying each day. By early April, two out of three people in northern Iraq were dislocated civilians. The situation seemed hopeless. In an act of desperation, Kurdish leader Moussad Barzani made an uncharacteristic plea for help when he publicly asked the United States for assistance. At first, American President George W. Bush was reluctant to intervene, but he eventually reacted to public pressure to join relief efforts underway from Europe. The decision to commit American resources was made on 5 April 1991. Urgent orders for action flashed to American military units around the world. The first Marines to be alerted were 19 parachute riggers from the Air Delivery Platoon, 1st Landing Support Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group at Camp Pendleton, California. On the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) [MEU (SOC)] was ordered to sail for the eastern Mediterranean. On the Pacific island of Okinawa, a contingency Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) was created from the 3d Force Service Support Group (FSSG). At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, members of an unmanned aerial vehicle detachment from the 2d Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) Company, 2d Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Intelligence Group (SlUG), dumped desert sand out of their seabags and mountedFirst Page | Prev Page | Next Page | Src Image |