The Road to Safwan: The 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1991 ...

90 The Road to Safwan
corps and army orders, the cavalry was bringing M3 Cavalry
Fighting Vehicles up to the border area, advertising to the Iraqis
that they no longer faced Saudi border guards but mechanized
troops of the United States Army. The last straw was when the
commanding general realized that his cavalry commander was
out acting like a junior patrol leader. Rhame, who would later
command the division amongst its attacking brigades in an
M1A1 tank, understood how important it was to lead from the
front. He also knew that the job of the commander was to fight
his entire command and use all of the material and human assets
at his disposal.
The division commander flew out to CC Carter’s headquarters
to convey his displeasure with Wilson in person. In his
pointed Louisiana drawl, he made it painfully clear that this
was the last time he wanted his commanders emulating Hollywood
heroes such as Rambo or John Wayne. He had some darn
good soldiers in his squadron and Wilson needed to use them.
“If you go too far forward,” Rhame told him, “you run the risk
of becoming personally involved in the fighting and losing
sight of the need to fight the entire squadron, not just the piece
in your immediate vicinity.” The commanding general would
make a point of talking to each of his other battalion commanders
in the next few days and pass on the same guidance about
commanding from the front. Dave Gross, Wilson’s partner in
CC Carter, remembers Rhame telling him to “keep your hand
off the trigger,” and “don’t break trail,” or try to get out in front
of your subordinate units. He made it clear that there were
plenty of other soldiers to do the killing; the commander’s job
is to get them to the right place and right time on the battlefield
and let them do their jobs. 18 Rhame liked Wilson and after his
dressing-down sent him back to the Quarter Horse to get back
to work.
There was no question, however, that there was more activity
in the border area. During the night of February 7–8, there
was a rash of remotely piloted vehicle, or RPV, sightings
throughout the command’s sector. The coalition had used RPV
in the area for several weeks but this time no one at senior headquarters
accepted responsibility. As they flew around, observers
noted that the small propeller aircraft made a buzzing