WITH THE I MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM    91

"Gangster" Gangle, informed his officers of their new, and heretofore closely
held, mission by announcing simply:    "Gentlemen, the enemy is northwest.
That's where we're going.  Move out. ii4S The brigade's Marine Aircraft Group
50 commanded by Colonel Randall L. "Grit" West flew the brigade's heliborne
assault unit, Battalion Landing Team 3/1, to positions occupied by Task Force
Troy, the deception unit located south of Al Wafrah.     The next day the team
conducted a raid towards Al Wafrah to keep up the deception, taking        13
prisoners in the process.  The rest of the regimental team and its equipment
came ashore in LCAC air-cushioned landing vehicles in the first such landing
ever conducted during a combat operation.    After unloading on the narrow
beach at the port of Mishab, the remaining three battalions embarked on a 70-
kilometer road march to blocking positionS north of Kibrit.    Marine Aircraft
Group 50 based itself at Tanajib Airfield while Brigade Service Support Group
5  worked   to unload   sustainment  and equipment      at Jubayl and Mishab
respectively.
   At the I MEF evening brief, the reactions of the force commander and the
staff were muted.   General Boomer told his staff that he thought the attack "was
going too well" and counseled that it "can't continue.  You need to prepare for
that.   Keep `worst-casing' it."46  It was much too early for anything like
exultation and Boomer worried aloud that there could be surprises ahead.

                       Counterattack and Exploitation

   During the night of 24-25 February, both divisions assumed defensive
postures.  There were only 1,100 sets of night vision goggles available in the
force and apart from Tiger Brigade neither unit was particularly well equipped
for night fighting.  General Myatt established the 1st Marine Division forward
command post at the southwest edge of the Burqan Oilfield next to a large tract
of tamarind groves nicknamed the "Emir's Farm."      The trees were interspersed
with burning oil wells, some of which shot out roaring flames more than a
hundred feet high. General Keys set up 2d Marine Division's forward command
post a few miles northwest of Al Jaber Airfield.    That night there were many
electronic sensor warnings that indicated vehicle movements north of the 2d
Marine Division.     Before they could be checked out, two precious pioneer
remotely piloted vehicles crashed around midnight during landing in difficult
weather.  The accidents ruined their night reconnaissance equipment.
   At 0400, the I MEF Marine all-source fusion center for intelligence reported
that the Iraqi 3d Armored Brigade and 8th Mechanized Brigade were on the
move in the southern Burqan Oilfield near Myatt's CP and also moving south
along the division boundary north of Al Jaber Air Field.        At about 0415
elements of an Iraqi counterattack encountered forces on the left flank of 1st
Marine Division.    Then the main Iraqi counterattack, obscured by smoke and
fog, blundered into the right flank of the division. Shortly after that, a second
Iraqi force came in contact with the division's center.