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

126 The Road to Safwan
observer, monitoring his sergeants and lieutenants taking
charge of their platoons and vehicles and performing exactly as
he had prepared them. 28
On the squadron’s right flank, A Troop moved out of the
passage lane and encountered sporadic resistance. MAJ John
Burdan, a key figure in developing the attack plan, followed behind
A Troop’s lead platoons. He was struck by the primitive
nature of the Iraqi defenses. He had expected to find elaborate
defenses along the lines of World War I battlefields, complete
with wire and mutually supporting firing positions. Fortunately
disappointed, he discovered little more than shallow
ditches and small mounds. What serious dangers he did discover
were caused not by the Iraqis, but by American troops.
First were the unexploded munitions or “bomblets.” As Burdan
traveled in his Cavalry Fighting Vehicle over to the contact
point to meet a representative from 1-34 Armor on the
squadron’s right flank, he kept hearing popping sounds that resembled
small-arms fire. He asked his gunner, SGT Bradley Carpenter,
to scan to see if they were taking fire; they were not. Just
then another M3 drove by and Carpenter pointed out the little
explosions near that vehicle’s tracks that were crushing the little
shiny balls on the ground. A large portion of the munitions fired
by army artillery and dropped by supporting aircraft were not
the high-explosive rounds of previous eras, but canisters that
dispensed a wide array of miniature munitions on the battlefield.
Because of the soft sand, many had not exploded on impact,
and now constituted a hazard to friendly as well as enemy
soldiers. While most of the bomblets the troops encountered
were not powerful enough to hurt an iron track, they were a serious
danger to unsuspecting soldiers on the ground. Ultimately,
the small shiny cylinders would be a serious cause of
death and injury among soldiers and civilians alike. 29
The second problem was friendly fire. This is nothing new,
as any student of war knows. The accuracy and lethality of
modern weapons make it all the more frightening for those receiving
the fire. As John Burdan waited at the contact point, he
watched 1-34 Armor , the exploiting battalion on the squadron’s
right flank, move out of its passage lanes and begin its attack to
Objective 5K. Suddenly it became dangerous as the tanks began