WrrH THE I MARINE EXPEDIrIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM      77

comanded by Colonel Patrick G. Howard, had moved up to positions about
four kilometers south of the first breach to provide support by 2200 the previous
night. The division encountered light resistance during the breach, mostly in the
form of artillery fire and a few tanks.
    Despite a CentCom forecast for 72 hours of relatively clear weather, light,
and at times moderate, rain began falling about 0300, as indeed it would every
day of the ground campaign.    The rain was accompanied by reduced visibility,
low cloud ceilings of 2,000-4,000 feet, and wind from the southeast. The wind
fortuitously blew dense smoke from the burning Wafrah and Burqan oilfields
across the force's avenues of approach, partially masking the movement of the
2d Marine Division attackers.   Masking of an electronic variety came from the
Grumman EA-6B Prowler jets of Marine Attack/Electronic Warfare Squadron
2.  The Prowlers' electronic countermeasures officers jammed Iraqi RASIT
battlefield surveillance radars just as effectively as they had done earlier to Iraqi
air defense radar and missiles in the air campaign.    Joining them in the arcane
electronic arena was the ground-based 1st Radio Battalion. Sadly, the electronic
battlefield also witnessed a fratricide incident:   at about 1900 on 23 February,
an AGM-88 high-speed antiradiation missile launched from an aircraft struck


Members of 2d Marine Division \s Breach Confrol Party are led by LtCol Howard P. Shores 17,
second from right in woodland anti-chemical suit, who selected the breach points and helped
implement the divts'on 5 assault, modeled upon an amphibious landing.


    *LtGen Boomer's own forecasters disagreed with CentCom's but were outvoted. The I MEF
weather specialists observed a weak mid-latitude front from the North Atlantic picking up moisture
from the sub-tropical jet-stream and correctly predicted it would intersect another weak cold front
then crossing Turkey. The ensuing cyclogenesis or "pseudo-occlusion" over the northern Gulf
produced thc characteristic rain and wind conditions of the ground campaign. (Source: CWO3
A. R. Davis).