so                                    U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991


A McDonnell Douglas F/A-I SC Hornet ofMarine Fighter Attack Squadron 212 and two Grumman
A-6E Intruders of Marine Attack Squadron (All Weather) 533 wait at Shaikh isa Air Base,
Bahrain, in February 1991. All are part ofMarine Aircrafi Group 11. The ramp they are standing
on was constructed by constnwtion battalions (~eabee `5"), later designated the 3d Na "a!
Construction Regiment, of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

during the campaign.   The pilots and aircrews of these two aircraft groups had
the longest stretch of sustained combat of any Marines in the force; most of
them flew daily over the next 43 days.  General Moore, the wing commander,
flew a dozen missions himself during tile air campaign.
    As noted, MarCent's aviation forces were under the command of Major
General Royal Moore, Commanding Generai, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing. Under
procedures ironed out in August 1990, the wing received taskings from two
commanders.      All missions outside of the MarCent area of operations were
tasked by CentCom's designated Joint Forces Air Component Commander
(JFACC), Lieutenant General Charles A. Homer, USAF, who was concurrently
Commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command.         Missions flown by Marine
aircraft in the MarCent area of operations, which included southeastern Kuwait,
were tasked by General Boomer as commander of MarCent.        Other forces that
flew missions within the MarCent area of operations were tasked by JFACC but
controlled by MarCent.
    A   daily  air tasking order  coordinated  all in-theater missions except
helicopters."  While JFACC common theater taskings were known 48 hours in
advance, MarCent did not issue its fragmentary order until the night before in
order to give the ground combat element commanders maximum flexibility.    In
practice, the wing's operations staff constructed the wing's own schedule using
a set-aside for *`JFACC sorties." The balance went to the force. Nearly all of
the missions flown by Marines in theater support involved targets in southern


    ~The size of fl~e Air Tasking Order was immense. The AT0 for 1?Jan9 t ran to well over 700
pages.  Unfortunately JFACC transmitted it with "Flash" precedence across normal military
message circuits which blocked other traffic to the force for six hours. Colonel R. Glenn Hill, the
MarCentil MEF G-6 for communications and computers, neatly solved the problem by having
subsequent ATOs sent via computer wide-area network.