European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 07, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Special report two . Soldiers warm themselves at a campfire in the iraqi desert at Sunrise reflecting on the filled Blitzkrieg that routed Baghdad a soldiers on the desert Battlefield Long after the cheers have faded it is in the memory of individuals that wars endure. Like bits of shrapnel buried too deep for surgery fragments of personal experience remain lodged inside those who did the fighting. Several Hundred thousand americans outwardly untouched by the persian Gulf War have been changed Quot Quot Douglas Jehl was one of a handful of journalists who saw the ground War in the persian Gulf from beginning to end. He accompanied troops of the 1st army div on the daring end run that took them deep into the heart of Iraq. This is his account of the personal experiences of three Douglas Jehl los Angeles times even now they remember a shallow Basin of Sand stretching away to Low dunes it was the gathering place in Northern saudi Arabia the Dusty jumping off Point to a War they could As yet Only imagine. There was something mystical about it. A lonely Day s travel from what was supposed to be the extreme Edge a of the american lines it was like a scene from the old. West a one of those places far out on the Plains beyond the last army Post where Wagon trains and scouts paused one final time before plunging into Indian country. The same wind the same sense of being alone. An entire armoured division 18,000 soldiers had crowded into the Basin a a vast and astonishing secret. Tanks and fighting vehicles hunched together like squat dinosaurs. Behind them were Row on Row of Field guns. This was the vast litter and confusion of an army pulling itself together to fight. Quot Quot and so far the enemy appeared to have no idea they were there. This immense Force had Slid far to the West of the fearsome iraqi defences along thei persian Gulf and was poised for a flank attack that would be one for the books. It. Col. William Reese drawn and Haggard had come to Garcia Early out in front of a tank column where his battalion of mechanized cavalry belonged. When the ground War began Reese and his 800 scouts would be a rolling tripwire roaming ahead to detect trouble a if Only by stumbling into it. But Reese and his men would not have to stumble Over the trouble that waited for them. As staff sgt. Robert Hager 34, waited for action he saw himself As a seasoned Soldier. He was also a Man who always found something to worry about. In a few Days at the moment when the rest of the world was admiring America s great Victory from afar he too would see a in a sudden blossoming of flame and Greasy smoke a the pain and horror that Lay beneath the surface of operation desert storm. It spec. 4 Rebecca Creighton snatched from civilian life and dumped in saudi Arabia Only Days before arrived in Garcia with other raw recruits in a requisitioned tour bus its neat window curtains Stilt in place. Soon alone in the cab of a lurching truck lashed by rain and left by her unit in the farthest reaches of Iraq she would emerge a in. Her own Small Way a a hero. From Garcia Onward Creighton and Reese and Hager a and thousands More a would begin to see the True face of War. It reflected worry isolation the violence that came and As suddenly was gone the Way surviving or dying could be so haphazard it was hard to see the Point. Now each company was drawn into a circled Camp tanks and vehicles facing outward. From the air they resembled Flowers or giant gear it feels packed close together. A a Quot this was the most sophisticated fighting machine on Earth but it had never really been tested in War. For the first time it was about to face a real , feb. 23 Quot do not take counsel of your fears Quot Reese had admonished his officers again and again but his own mood was grim. As he began the Blind and bumping ride through pitch blackness Back to his Camp from the nightly brigade meeting he was also so exhausted he could barely stay awake. The corps commander himself a three Star general had paid a Surprise visit to the meeting. Inside the dimly lighted tent with the brigades officers grouped around a Horseshoe of tables on the dirt floor the general s tone was strangely somber. Quot Good Luck Quot he had said at the end of his remarks Quot Good Luck and Reese knew what that meant. Some of his men Flat were not going to make it. The intelligence briefings had predicted chemical weapons at first Contact with the. Republican guard. was endless concern about Friendly fire. Reese commanded the Blackhawk Squadron Lineal descendant of horse soldiers whose exploits in the Indian wars had made them among the most decorated in the army. More than 100 years later Blackhawk s troopers Rode helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles but their steeds were still chosen for their ability to ferry keen eyes Forward. There seemed too Little time by Dawn he would begin continued on Page 2
