WrrH THE I MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM    37

                                The First Plan

   On  1 January   1991,   Lieutenant  General Boomer      signed USMarCent
Operation Plan Desert Storm.   In consonance with General Schwarzkopf S plan
for Desert Storm, the I MIEF plan consisted of four phases.    The first three
phases were a combined air campaign that primarily involved the 3d Marine
Aircraft Wing, which received its theater air tasking orders from the Joint Force
Air Component Commander.      The air campaign included the striking of targets
selected by MarCent in its assigned future area of operations in Kuwait. During
this period, I MEF ground combat and combat service support elements were
to move into forward assembly areas.    The four phases of Operation Desert
Storm were:

       I. Phase I, a strategic air campaign to attain air supremacy,
       attack Iraq's warmaking capability with missiles and aircraft
       ordnance, cut its supply lines, and destroy the Republican Guard
       Forces Command.     This phase was expected to last three to six
       days.

       2. Phase II, the attainment of air supremacy in the Kuwait
       Theater; i.e., the suppression of the enemy's integrated air
       defense system sufficiently to permit tactical air and attack
       helicopter operations.  This was planned to take two days.

       3. Phase III, preparation of the battlefield to reduce the combat
       effectiveness of the enemy in the Kuwait Theater of Operations.
       The goal was to reduce tanks, artillery, tracked vehicles, and
       infantry in the breach area by SO percent and reduce Frog mis-
       siles and multiple rocket launchers by 100 percent. This was to
       last eight days.  The duration of each phase was notional, and
       General Boomer was informed on a "close-hold" basis that the
       air campaign would last at least 30 days before commencement
       of any ground campaign.

       4. Phase IV, the ground offensive campaign.  General Boomer's
       initial concept operations for the liberation of Kuwait comprised
       four stages: penetration, exploitation, pursuit, and consolida-
       tion.

               a. Stage A was to be a rapid penetration of
               forward   Iraqi  defenses by  the  1st Marine
               Division between the Al Wafrah Oilfield and the
               coastline, which was to hold open the shoulders
               of the breach while assisting forward passage of
               the 2d Marine Division.