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

Objective Norfolk 149
Shortly after the brigades began their passage of lines, LTC
Wilson and his 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry began its own movement
through the 2nd Cavalry. Initially behind the defensive
line established by the 2nd Squadron, each troop moved
through a designated passage lane into the division’s zone. CPT
Bills was a little uneasy as his troop approached the lane. He
did not have the frequency of the unit they were passing
through and had to rely on the squadron TOC to notify the 2nd
Squadron headquarters of his unit’s movements. As it entered
the passage lane and moved through it, the units on the north
side of the lane ceased firing. The 2nd Cavalry units on the
south side of the passage lane, however, continued to engage
targets to their front, creating some confusion for the passing
troops. As the ground troops entered the division battle zone,
the eastern horizon was aflame with tracers and explosions.
Captains Bills and Pope essentially had their troops execute a
left face and traveled north in column towards their assigned
sectors, with A Troop leading the way. Shortly after the passage,
while the Cavalry Fighting Vehicles headed northeast to establish
the screen line, the command’s always-thirsty M1A1 tanks
moved towards a refuel point established by CPT Morrison.
Once the tanks were “topped off,” they traveled to rejoin their
platoons, none getting lost in the darkness and confusion. 47
The sector the squadron occupied was adjacent to the 3rd
Armored Division’s 4-7 Cavalry, a unit that had been shot up
earlier in the day when it had made initial contact with the Iraqi
battle line and got caught between the enemy and approaching
friendly tanks. 48 Now, in the ten-kilometer gap between the 1st
Infantry and 3rd Armored Divisions’ main combat troops, these
two cavalry squadrons struggled to maintain contact and identify
any further Iraqi threats. Each unit’s use of different scale
maps and the 4-7 Cavalry’s lack of GPS receivers accentuated
these problems. Throughout the night, MAJ Bill Wimbish and
the TOC crew worked to resolve movement problems between
the two units. 49
While maintaining contact with the 4-7th Cavalry to the
north of the 1st Infantry Division zone, the squadron established
a screen line north and west of Objective Norfolk, with B
Troop assuming the western sector and A Troop the east. Each