WITH THE I MARiNE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM        51


Iraq and the Kuwait Theater of Operations.      If General Boomer needed the
JFACC sorties however, General Moore did not hesitate to use them or go into
a "surge operation" to provide them.
   As it developed,   during the Phase I      Strategic air   campaign,  most of
MarCent's offensive missions were flown in support of JFACC while the smaller
fraction went to I MEF.   The latter were mainly AV-8B Harrier sorties in
southeast Kuwait.  In Phases II and III, the ratios gradually reversed so that by
the commencement of the ground assault on 24 February, "0-Day," nearly 100
percent of the wing's missions were in support of MarCent.
   The three phases of the air campaign overlapped in execution and continued
until the conclusion of the ground campaign 43 days later.      As the first strikes
were being flown, Iraq replied by launching a number of Scud ballistic missiles
at area targets in Saudi Arabia and shortly at Israel as well.  Marines were also
on the receiving end of the large Frog rockets as well; three impacted on Mishab
early on 17 January followed by 16 more the next night.         They caused little
damage but their spectacular detonations could be heard           at Safaniyah 20
kilometers away.   Although these weapons were rarely destructive, the Scuds
had a certain terrorizing effect on civilians.  To mitigate this threat, Central
Command dedicated considerably more assets than planned for the prosecution


                                                                                {`j

                                                                             7


Scene of the death of a corps commander? This crater and ruins of a structure mark the impact
of a laser~guuted GBU-10 2,OO~pound bomb delivered by a Grumman A~6E intruder of Marine
Aircrafl Ornup 11 at about 1925 on the evening of 31 January 1991 during the Khafli actions. A
flight oftwo nightMll-weather attack intruders were scrambled from Shaikh isa Air Base, Bahrain,
to attack a command and control site at a fo~ner Kuwaiti mihrnry base about 22 kitometers
southeast ofAl Ahmadi. The Kuwaiti Resistance had reported a high-level meeting was in progress
there. Shonly afler this, intelligence reports indicated ate iraqi iii Corps commander had been
killed in a bombing attack.