wITH THE I MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM         3

time in its 58-year history.  Although Marines had been deployed to the region
a number of timeS since World War II, in later years they found operations there
to be frustrating, inconclusive, and at times, tragic.  Memories of many Marines
were still fresh with the 444-Jay Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81 and the
ill-fated attempt to rescue them.  More searing was the 1983 disaster at Beirut,
Lebanon, where 241 Marines and sailors were killed in a terrorist suicide attack
while on a peace-keeping mission.1
    By coincidence, some of the members of the staff had recently returned from
Florida where they were involved in a U.S. Central Command exercise known
as Operation Internal Look.     Its scenario was remarkably similar to the one
now unfolding in the Gulf.     During the course of the problem, Marine forces
were assigned to defend the port and industrial complexes around Jubayl (Al
Jubayl) in Saudi Arabia's eastern province.
    Central Command was the unified command that had evolved from the Rapid
Deployment Joint Task Force.       Its primary responsibility involved contingen-
cies in the Middle East.    It was normally headquartered at MacDill Air Force
Base in Tampa, Florida, and the billet of its Commander-in-Chief (CinC)
alternated between an Army and a Marine general.            The current CinC was
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA, a Vietnam war hero who later served
alongside Marines as during Operation Urgent Fury on Grenada in 1983.

               7th Ma tine ~pedillonaty Brigade Deploys

    Central Command's spearhead Marine Corps formation was the 7th Marine
Expeditionary Brigade based at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center
at Twentynine Palms in California's Mojave Desert.           Its leader was Major
General John!. Hopkins, a craggy, highly decorated veteran of 34 years service
with a raspy Brooklyn-accented voice.      The ground combat element (GCE) of
this Marine  Air-Ground      Task  Force    was  Seventh    Marines  (Reinforced),
commanded by Colonel Carlton W. Fulford, Jr.          Although his team specialized
in combined arms in a desert environment, nearly all of the Marines of the Fleet
Marine Force, Pacific, had experienced some form of desert warfare training.


    ~There is little standardization in the transliteration of Arabic names and places. Thus, Juball,
Al Jubayl, and Jubaul are all the same place. The article in front of place names such as Al
Mishab, Ar Riyadh, Ad Dammam, and Ash Shu'aybah is usually omitted in English as is Ras
(point or headland) in the names of coastal places; e.g., Ras Al Mishab becomes simply Mishab.
Hereafter, place names will be rcfcrred to by their common English spellings. If their formal map
transliterations differ, they will be placed within parentheses in the first usage; e.g., Safaniyah
(Ra's as Saffaniyah) and Kibrit (Abraq al Kibrit).

     Marine formations deploy as integrated Marine Air-Ground Task Forces (MAGTFs) of
various sizes: Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) commanded by a colonel, Marine Expeditionary
Brigade (MEB) commanded by a brigadier or major general, and Marine Expeditionary Force
(MEF) commanded by a lieutenant general.  Each has a Command Element (CE), a Ground
Combat Element (GCE), an Aviation Combat Element (ACE), and Combat Service Support
Element (CSSE).