European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 07, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Report three soldiers s continued from Page 1 edging his troops up toward the double berm of Sand that marked the iraqi Border. Somewhere to the East the marines were kicking off the ground War and Reese wanted to be ready. But he found that his sense of foreboding had returned. Sgt. Hager was t much concerned about himself. After 16 years in the army the Section sergeant knew what was what. He had already scrounged some sandbags and ringed the cockpit of his Bradley with extra Protection. It just made sense when you were going out there with the Armor 1 but these kids Man they did no to know what they were in for. Positioned Well Back in the formation pygmies amid giants his platoon consisted of 39 men packed into six Bradley fighting vehicles. They would move Forward Between two columns of heavy tanks a kind of mechanized Buffer that was expected to expand or contract As necessary if the tanks should begin to Drift off course. It was nerve racking work. Success depended on Good communications and superiors following plans exactly. Not something you could Bank on in the army Hager thought. In the end the most critical thing about Rebecca Creighton s War against Iraq May have been that on this particular saturday morning no one taught her How to put a six Axle fuel truck in reverse Only a month earlier Back Home in Martinsburg w.va., the army and the persian Gulf crisis had seemed far away to her. Although she had spent three years in the service she was now a special needs Trainer in a school. Then at the end of january the army was Back in her life. She was still a member of something called the ready Reserve. By that weekend Quot miss Rebecca Quot was spec. 4 Creighton once More. The first time around the army had been order and rules. Now All seemed hurry and chaos. And nothing was More bewildering than the nets that she was being assigned to drive a fuel truck. No matter that Creighton slim and shy and of barely average height had never before driven so much As an army jeep. It was simple with a brigade of tanks trucks and copters gulping 100,000 Gallons of fuel a Day no one knew for sure whether support units could keep the attack moving. Whether the fuel trucks could traverse the open desert at All was another question. A rupture in the fuel line could stall the Blitzkrieg and open the door to disaster. And where grand strategy came Down to Creighton there was a shortage of Drivers. On saturday when she climbed into the cab of the truck she would take to War it was for driving lessons. Nor would she get one of the smaller a easier driving Hemet heavy expanded mobility tactical truck usually called a Quot Hemal Quot tankers made for Cross country travel she was assigned to a towering 5,000-gallon Behemoth intended for the autobahn of Europe. Her teacher sgt. Christopher Uriegas said there was plenty of time the army was not due to head North until monday. With Uriegas at her Side Creighton spent a bumping grinding hour struggling with unfamiliar gears. By noon both had had enough. She could make he Tanker lurch Forward Blackhawk Quot a major was sent racing Forward in a humvee to find Reese. To the cavalry commander it was an old Story. The tanks and infantry hungry for better information but always afraid of losing Contact with their scouts were forever spurring them Forward then yanking Back on the reins. At 40, with a dark visage and troubled gaze. Reese did not usually Taf let Well to criticism. But this time he was contrite intent on getting closer to the berm he had not noticed How Long his radio had been silent. He had outrun his communications. The damned radios. He would have to reposition to restore the link yet the news the major carried left Little time to backtrack he was to be in Iraq by Early afternoon. Creighton and her fellow haulers awakened Early. She remembered the old army line that soldiers got More done by 9 . Than most people did All Day. And word was spreading that the plan had changed no time for her second driving lesson. Together with the other truckers she synchronized her watch at noon and swallowed her first Tablet of atropine to guard against nerve Gas. She pulled on the charcoal lined suit that turned hands and body Grimy but was supposed to offer safety from a chemical attack. For fuel truckers it was like being elephants in a Parade each clutching the Tail ahead. Her company was on the left divided into three lines. But to the right there were so Many More columns that from afar they would appear a vast Shadow across the Sand. Al the big truck Drivers were shunted to the outside away from smaller vehicles that could not Brave the ruts the behemoths would create. The Novice found herself last in line. She crossed into Iraq alone in the cab of a truck she knew almost nothing about. Her Only thought was not being left behind. Up ahead among the tanks the Section sergeant had Booby traps on his mince it was what everyone Tiad been talking about while they loaded up. As he crossed through the berm it was All that he could think about. Enemy prisoners were wired to explode everyone said what would the iraqis think of next a the next Day they agreed she could learn How to Back it up sunday feb. 24 an operations officer slammed his Field Telephone onto its Cradle. The Battle plan was accelerating. A full Day before anything was supposed to happen the 1 St army div s War was beginning. The order had come to prepare to move out and the cavalry was nowhere to be found. Quot goddamn it Quot he swore. Quot where the hell is photo Courley of staff sgt. Robort Hager a i got a lot of valuable lessons. I Learned a lot a says staff sgt Robert Hager of the War. Used to the Days when the cavalry Rode tanks Reese was a Little ill at Maisie with the lighter Bradley. His seat was on the right inside the two Man Turret but he and his gunner preferred to stand each Man looming Waist High through an Iron Hatch. The Driver sat ahead in a cramped compartment of his own. The machines were not much larger than panel trucks but Well armed and equipped with Thermal gun sights that enabled them to see an enemy that could not always see them. And in motion they still had the constant Clank and Clatter of Armor. Even to the gunner beside him Reese had to speak by intercom. Special helmets made it simple push a lever Forward As an intercom push it backward to reach the whole Squadron. He was also juggling two handsets links to the brigade and the division. He was doing his Best to stay in touch. When Blackhawk pushed through the berm in a formation 10 Miles wide it reported a desert As empty As the saudi soil it left behind. Creighton watched the terrain grow rougher rockier littered with heavy Brush the weather Windy from the a outset turned rougher still. Swaying Back and Forth As the Tanker rocked along its path at times she Felt the Back in a Schaffenburg Germany staff sgt. Robert Hager cleans out the locker of his former platoon sergeant who lost his leg when his Bradley was attacked in Iraq. Disconnection that was vertigo. Warned about mines the Drivers stuck to one another s tracks. Creighton stopped when the truck in front of her stopped when it moved she hurried to catch up. Her horizons narrowed further As darkness began to fail the truck ahead now a pinprick of Green taillight. Sometimes she focused so intently that the Green Light seemed to swim. When the Supply columns halted for the night a dozen Miles inside Iraq there was no appetite for the Jet fuel Creighton carried. She was left in peace to Marvel a the empty quiet of the desert. Then she curled up inside her cab and went to sleep. A Civ monday feb. 25 a a the cavalry scout columns moved North a a Dirst Light toward iraqi outposts dodexng�6sd ear Bifi and dog. It was. Here that intelligence had predicted the division would meet its first opposition. What the cavalry found instead is prisoners. The consensus in All those prewar meetings had been that this was. Not the cavalry s business. At one session Reese had even rehearsed the Battle plan aloud Quot i see Guys raising their arms and i just keep  but the size of this capitulation was beyond All imagination. The iraqis stood in ragged clusters plaintive and pitiful. There was no one else to pick them up. For each group of prisoners the colonel left a Cavalryman behind As guard somehow they would have to catch up to the main Force later. Still depleting his Force was worrisome. He remembered maps that showed Iraq s most potent units lying farther on. What he had faced so far was nothing but the Dregs. Sis Vine Crowley an american Soldier watches artillery tire being launched against iraqi troops. Hager also encountered a surrendering iraqi Soldier but the sergeant was t worrying about How to care for a prisoner of War. His mind was on Booby traps. If he moves his hands Hager decided in a going to have to shoot him. But the iraqi was Only too glad to lie spread aged the Sand. The sergeant began to wonder whether the Rumor was founded on any truth. In the afternoon it began to rain and the hard packed Sand dissolved into soup. The first time Creighton s wheels spun she jammed her foot on the Gas. That Only dug her in deeper. The truck shuddered to a halt. Darkness had fallen the column ahead continued faint Green dots disappearing in the night. Remembering snowdrifts Back Home she thought of rocking the truck Back and Forth she also remembered what she had missed when Uriegas second lesson was cancelled she still could not find  she thought beginning to take Stock she had res and 3 Rifle a but this was Iraq. For a moment she considered leaving the truck and roofing it across the desert in search of another Convoy s then out of the wind and rain Camp Quot the army a Good Samaritans a roving Crew of wreckers armed with Winch and Hook. In minutes she was headed North again squinting against the darkness a lost caboose Rushing to catch up with its train. Tuesday feb. 26 waiting in the wet darkness outside Al Busty Yah Hager saw the first rockets of the bombardment Streak overhead each Ball of fire rising slowly upward like a Golf Ball from a tee. After years of practising for Battle the sergeant Felt the exhilaration that could Only come from the real thing. The rest of the artillery joined in a Little later. He could see the Bright muzzle flashes Long before the big guns Thunder made its Way across the desert. The platoon began to Roar to award Al Busty Yah and info a firefight. Quot Hager could hear Ever louder the pop pop pop of Small arms fire from iraqi bunkers. Outside bullets began to slam into his sandbags ripping through the Canvas but unable to Pierce the armoured vehicles Ste i skin. In the distance Hager spotted an _ armoured target of his own. After so Many shots at training Range targets he thought what the hell. He could t believe he had scored a hit until the iraqi track came to an abrupt halt a the cavalry moved into the driving rain at 10 Mph. The desert was no longer empty. Recognizing at last that the americans had outflanked them Republican guard units were racing to close the Donand cover the Retreat. From the right flank there came reports of iraqi tanks moving North and West to Cut off the american Advance. The colonel could feel his apprehension bite. The whole division was counting on Reese to find them. And the Best tools for that Job would be the ah-1 cobras. To Send helicopters aloft in such weather would violate peacetime rules. Yet without them Reese worried he might Lead the division into an ambush. As he pondered Over the radio came a request from the air Force. A pair of fighter planes peering through the tattered Clouds had spotted what might have been a line of tanks dug in about six Miles ahead. Covill someone move in for a. Closer look with misgivings., the colonel sent the cobras of Charlie troop into the fog what was out there the first reports were inconclusive then just Over the horizon the vague shapes took Fank form. Within minutes the count reached 25. A a a f. A the general wanted such iraqi forces destroyed from afar. For Reese this would be the first test of the doctrine. Fighter bombers would1 carry the fight tanks and Apache attack helicopters would mop up. All the cavalry had to do was keep out of the Way. But Reese s helicopters still hovering reported that the iraqis seemed to sense something. Their tank commanders were peering Westward through binoculars. Though they Hadnot seen the choppers through the Clouds iraqi tanks on full Alert could be dangerous. If the cobras fired their rockets they might create a protective diversion for the air Force. The choppers inched slowly Forward and opened fire just More than 600 Yards shy of the iraqi line. If the fog should lift the pilots would be silting ducks. And almost immediately the kind Oft news he had feared a Pilot in distress his chopper Landing roughly in the Sand. The air Force was beginning its attack and the downed helicopter Lay in a deadly no Many a land within Point 1 Blank Range of the enemy guns. The chopper was still functioning but unless the Load could be lightened its engine was too Wejak to lift the Bird into the air. The Only Way was to fire the missiles that were racked to the fuselage half a dozen to a Side. As the Pilot began his Salvo from the ground Reese steeled himself in his Bradley or the moment the iraqis would spot the source and begin to fire Back. The ploy worked. The chopper unburdened began a crippled hop backward toward safety. There was Little time to dwell on a close Call. As dusk began to Settle division radio was Quot 7 alive with reports of the iraqis on the run cutting Loose abandoning positions. The army would give Chase even if it took All night. And As Reese a would discover nothing could be More dangerous than a headlong Rush to Victory. It in Creighton had escaped her first false step into the quagmire but it would not be her last. Soon her truck was splayed in an awkward Jackknife a sad and funny Laljit once. There was a shovel in the Cater Arr she began to dig with a Verdi glance. This time when the wreckers showed up to pull her out they had news that turned her embarrassment to Pride. Other Drivers had just Plain Given up. Of the four big tankers in the battalion Only hers was left. Now the schoolteacher began to think of War As a personal struggle. The storms a the worst in two decades a had made a shambles of the division s refuelling plans. With Many trucks hopelessly mired and plans or regrouping lost in the Rush to smite a reeling foe the entire division was Quot Nail biting close on  the agile Hetts were sent scurrying Back to scavenge. They were like leeches and when they came upon a stalled tank truck they would suck it dry. But not Creighton s. Against All Odds still carrying Jet fuel that no one seemed to want she was moving Forward. Only the Pale Green pinprick of the taped Over taillights on the Bradley fighting vehicles relieved the blackness. At a distance they dimmed to nothing. Even through Thermal sights armoured vehicles were visible Only As murky hot spots All but unidentifiable. Even so around Midnight Reese s cavalry found what it was looking for a line of iraqi Armor screening a Road and on the Road itself a Stream of enemy trucks and jeeps in desperate Retreat. The scouts task was not to fight. Instead alerted by Blackhawk the whole 1st army div would hurry Forward artillery rockets and assault helicopters hammering the enemy then the heavy tanks charging through Reese s positions to crush whatever remained of the foe s scattered battalion. Reese lightened his ranks hoping to make his units easier Lor Friendly gunners to identify. Across the Forward Edge the spread narrowed from 12. Miles to five. Sometime before 2 a or he decided to make a swing along the front lines he was almost Back less than a mile from his Headquarters when he heard the first whistling sound. He was Riding As usual with his head and shoulders above the rim of the open Hatch when the. Ground in front of him erupted he was ail but blinded by what seemed to be 10,000 flashbulbs going off at once.  he ducked into the armoured vehicle. Of inside clinging to his seat and looking upward he stretched his  to close the Hatch but had second thoughts. He pulled his hand away just before the next explosion. He stared dumbfounded at the damage where a he had been about to put his  Armor plate pocked with craters an Antenna sheared from its sturdy base. Instantly through his Headset came shouts of confusion and panic voices to recognized Yelling wounded men crying in anguish. The ground was alight again More Flash and Roar and Din a the explosions outside arid the shouting in his ear competing in a profane and awful Medley. Quot Goddam it Quot Reese himself was shouting Over the brigade Channel Quot turn it off Quot he was almost sobbing in frustration now7 unable to Stop the barrage. It was so relentless so accurate so precise that he Houghl if must be Friendly fire. Quot incoming incoming Quot he was Yelling too. Quot who a shooting Quot even Miles away in the Back of a Bradley the radioed shouts made your stomach clutch. The division had paused for fuel and it was raining softly some of us had begun to doze. But you knew instantly that the crackling in your ears was terror. Here was chaos horror and no one knew from whom or where it game., in Hagers platoon these had already been anxious Tours the division s Pace had been faster than Ever almost a Stampede. As keeper of the seam the platoon had become a Cowherd in danger of being trampled. Tanks from the battalions on either Side seemed Intenson crossing into each other s path. At the worst moments the a platoon had found itself squeezed to a single column the tanks on either Side passing a Bare 5 Yards away. Then in the Bliss of a fuel Stop came the news that the cavalry was hit 1 is Vinca crawly u. Col. William Reese commanded the Blackhawk Squadron whole troops manned ah-1 cobra helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles. Wednesday feb. 27 by morning Reese s fury had begun to Wear itself ouf. Dumbfounded the radio still in his hand. Reese had continued on Page 4 Page 2 the stars and stripes wednesday August 7, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 3