Preface

Soon after Iraq invaded Kuwait I was on a staff visit to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, when I was notified by the MTU (History) DC 7 commander, Colonel Charles J. Quilter, to prepare for deployment to Saudi Arabia. Since I had previously deployed as a historian in support of a NATO exercise and was employed at a major Army command headquarters as a historian and museum specialist, I felt well prepared for my duties with I Marine Expeditionary Force. My instructions from the Director of Marine Corps History and Museums, Brigadier General Edwin II. Simmons, were to assist Colonel Quilter in establishing a historical collection program, conduct oral history interviews, write the I MEF command chronology, and ensure the quality of subordinate unit command chronologies. Because of my museum background I had the additional assignment to establish the historical property collection program for the Marine Corps Museum.

The historical program grew as I MEF expanded. Colonel Quilter and I originally divided oversight of I MEF headquarters and anticipated covering I MEF operations according to our military specialties. As an aviator he was to cover 3d Marine Aircraft Wing operations. My background as a tracked vehicle officer made it obvious that I should cover ground operations. Accordingly, in late November 1990, I began a series of visits to the 1st Marine Division to test the feasibility of our plan. I quickly concluded that the distances between ground units and the pace of mechanized operations made it clear that I needed to remain `forward deployed" to properly follow events. In late December, I conducted our historical coverage plan as the historical annex to the I MEF offensive plan and worked on the assignment of a third historian, Lieutenant Colonel Dennis P. Mroczkowski, to manage coverage of the newly arrived 2d Marine Division. I transferred to the 1st Marine Division in January 1991.

The 1st Marine Division had been in Saudi Arabia since August 1990. For its Marines, the months continuously in the desert were well spent getting trained and conditioned for any contingency. Division Marines and sailors had become lean, sun-tanned, and confident, and they were anxious to defeat the Iraqi Army so they could go home. Yet, there was an awareness that an attack into Kuwait would go up against forcible defensive pOsitionS, large concentra- tions of artillery, and hundreds of thousands of heavily armed Iraqi soldiers supported by tanks, heavy machine guns, personnel carriers, and attack aircraft. Any force assaulting the Iraqi positions was believed doomed to suffer very heavy casualties.

There existed in the division a great sense of history in the making. All were aware that they were a part of one of the largest deployments in Marine Corps history and that the eyes of the world were on them. They knew their loved ones were anxious for the job to be finished and for them to return. For those reasons they were determined to make the nation proud of them.

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