WITH THE 2D MARINE DWISION IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM             15


                                       Depanment of Defense Photo (USMC) 0026 20 91
in an early rehearsal for the assault on iraqi defrnses in Kuwait, Marines of "Task Force
Breach Alpha "fire mine-deanng line charges from special trailers towed by AAV7Al
vehicles. The explosions clear vehicle-wide lanes by detonating, disabling, or moving the
mines.

exercises. Each infantry regiment which was task organized for mechanized and
breaching operations was to conduct a combined arms mechanized assault and
breaching exercise on the division mechanized assault course.
    The course was built on the "Thunderbolt" range, where the division's
major training exercises took place. The course covered approximately 250
square kilometers, and was designed to provide the division's unit commanders
a realistic setting in which to exercise command, control, and fire support
coordination, as well as complex obstacle breaching by mechanized forces. The
6th and 8th Marines, the Tiger Brigade, and the 2d Tank Battalion were each
assigned a block of six or seven days in which to exercise these functions.61
    The course contained several obstacles, much as those used by the Iraqis:
a berm, a tank ditch, some trenchlines, and two minefields. There was also a
sand-table model.  It  was  used  by  unit staffs for their   own  training.
Unfortunately, this course required the use of the specialized engineer equipment
which was already identified as necessary to successfully conduct a breaching
operation. Much of this equipment -- tank kits, armored combat earthmovers,
track-width mine plows, armored vehicle launched bridges -- was either still on
board ship, or yet to be sent by the Marine Corps Research and Development
Command. Prior to the division's movement to Kibrit, the only unit to gain an
appreciable amount of training on the course was the 6th Marines.     Other
division units conducted tactical exercises without troops when they could.62
    One of the division's most important training evolutions occurred on 22
January. A major sand-table exercise was held for I MEF commanders. Officers
of both divisions were to walk through their roles as assigned in the MEF
operation order.63 The concept of operations tasked the 1st Marine Division with
conducting the breaches through both obstacle belts, and the 2d Marine Division
with conducting a passage of lines and continuing the attack. It was here that,
as the participants walked through the scale model of the breach sites, they
concluded that not only was the passage of lines a difficult maneuver, but that
the area assigned was too congested for the maneuver of two divisions. As a