`WrrH THE I MARINE BxPEDrrIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM               71


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Aerial view photographed looking east on 21 February 1991, of the 1 MEF main command post
located about eight kilometers south of the Al Khanjar Combat Service Support Base. Concentric
design of blastwa ii benns was for ease of defense by the command element's small security force.
The site was located wid~in a slight undulation of the terrain and could not be seen on fool beyond
about two kilometers. The CP's radio antennas were reinoted away from the site.

nearly six months now and chances for gatherings like this were rare.             He then
informed them that the "next stop is Kuwait" and that "We're going to go fast
and go violently" which brought forth a loud roar of approval.35
   The combat operations center at Al Khanjar was established in a large
quonset style tent.  Due to its high noise level, General Boomer was persuaded
by his staff to establish a command center adjacent to the COC which would be
a quiet area for himself, General Hearney, and his senior operations staff to
discuss matters.   Alongside a few maps, a computer was set up on a plywood
table whose monitor displayed a map with the decoded symbols of position
locating and reporting system-equipped units.        This had come about as a result
of a recommendation of the Tiger Team's antifratricide report.                  The team
discovered that PLRS was being used more as a navigation device than as a
command   and    control  tool.  Within         a week  of the          team's report, the
manufacturer's PLRS expert, a retired Marine major by the name of John P.
O'Connor, had arrived and tapped into both divisions' PLRS networks. For the
first time in combat, a Marine force commander would be able to track in real
time the progress of his units on the battlefield.


   O'Connor had intended to use a spare Master Station display unit which could display up to
999 stations simultaneously to depict both divisions' situations.  However, there wasn't enough
time. Instead, he uscd a receiver repeater unit attached to a computer to display 64 selected un'ts
of each division, one division at a time.  The MEF continued to receive the division's PLRS
networks until the final day of the ground campaign when they ran out of range.