to ten divisions, totaling 80,000 men, to the      and Air Force F-I 17 "stealth" fighter-bombers
defense of the Kuwait coastline. In addition
they garrisoned troops and equipment on                  The initial ThAM attack was followed
Bubiyan and Faylaka Islands which command          by nearly 600 coalition aircraft striking from
sea approaches to vital areas.                     desert bases and carrier flight decks. `LAM's
                                                   outstanding performance and accuracy -
        About 7,500 Marines from the 5th MEB       about 85% of the 288 missiles fired during the
were off-loaded from amphibious ships at           war hit their targets - helped neutralize Iraqi
Saudi Arabian ports at the beginning of the        defenses and paved the war for coalition strike
ground attack to serve as the 1st MEF reserve      aircraft. While avoiding the necessity of risk-.
force.  Marine AV-8B Harriers, AH-i Cobra          ing the life of a pilot in attacking a heavily
helicopters and special operations units from      defended target, `LAM further minimized the
the 4th MEB aided the Arab forces in the east      loss of life on both sides by reducing unin-
coast drive. on the second day of the ground       tended collateral. damage to civilian targets
war, both Marine Divisions faced sporadic          and reducing or eliminating the threat to allied
resistance as they pushed further into Kuwait.     aircraft.
They fought some intense battles along the
way, and by the time Kuwait's International              The success of `LAM validated the re-
Airport was secured on the fourth day of the       sults of years of operational testing. "Toma-
ground war, the two Marine divisions had           hawk doesn't know the difference between
defeated an Iraqi force of 11 divisions.           war and peace," said one officer describing its
                                                   baptism in combat. "It just does its job."
        At 0800, Persian Gulf time, 28 February,
American forces ceased offensive combat op-              The `LAM uses an array of advanced
erations by order of the President. In 100 hours   technology to reach its target. Launched with
ofoffensivecombat,theMarinesandoneArmy             a solid-rocket booster and propelled by turbo-
Brigade, supported by Navy, Marine and coa-        fan engine, the missile follows complex guid-
lition aircraft, destroyed or damaged 1,060        ance directions from its on-board computer.
tanks, 608 artillery pieces, five Frog launchers   Skimming the ground at 100 to 300 feet, it
and two Scud launchers, and captured more          literally reads the terrain to avoid enemy ra-
than 20,000 Iraqi soldiers.                        dar.  Although the TLAM warhead is fairly
                                                   small in comparison with some bomb pay-
THE WEAPONS OF WAR.              The coalition     loads, it is highly accurate. It also has the
attack on Iraq began early on 17 January when      advantage of being fast, hard to detect or shoot
U.S. naval forces launched a barrage of Toma-      down and immune to human traits such as
hawk land attack cruise missiles (TLAMs) from      nervousness. More importantly, it can fly day
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea against stra-     or night, in all weather, to safely attack targets
tegic targets in Iraq and Kuwait. As Ameri-        deemed too dangerous for human pilots.
cans watched the evening news, we heard the
the correspondents in Baghdad say, "I hear               The overland routes flown by Toma-
bombs but I don't see any planes." The reason      hawks are developed by theater mission plan-
they saw no planes was because the only sys-       ning centers at Atlantic and Pacific Fleet Head-
tems sent to destroy the critical, but heavily     quarters with the help of the Defense Mapping
defended targets in Baghdad were `LAMs             Agency. Programming the missile's flightfrom
                                                   ship to shore is done aboard ship.

                                                -47-

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