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

The Basra Highway 163
ing the border into Kuwait by 1130 and halting about fifteen
miles into Kuwait an hour later. 9
Wilson’s axis of advance cut across many Iraqi escape
routes to the north. The area was littered with destroyed or
abandoned equipment. Leading his supply vehicles through
this wreckage and surrendering Iraqi soldiers, CPT Doug Morrison,
the Headquarters Troop Commander, struggled to keep
the squadron’s vehicles full of fuel and ammunition. 10 Thanks
to experience, the re-supply task was much easier now than it
had been when the squadron first moved out to the desert. After
several weeks of combat operations, beginning in the middle
of January when the squadron patrolled the Saudi Arabian-
Iraqi border, the unit’s troopers were now veterans. Conducting
re-supply operations was one of the key ways in which they
displayed the competence and precision of a seasoned unit. Vehicles
backed off the battle line, moved to the fuel tankers, and
refueled. They then went to the rearm point where they picked
up additional ammunition. Finally, they headed for unit supply
trucks where they received an allotment of water, food, and
other supplies. Each vehicle then returned to its original position
on the battle line, allowing another to replace it in the supply
queue. Although tired after almost four days of offensive
operations, the troopers’ morale was high as they moved closer
to the Persian Gulf. 11
As soon as it completed refueling, at around 1300 hours, B
Troop moved forward and destroyed several Iraqi armored vehicles
that were trying to pass through the squadron’s area. A
short while later, the 1st Infantry Division resumed its attack,
now to the northeast. The Big Red One’s mission was to attack
and seize a large objective about fifty kilometers north of Kuwait
City, called Objective Denver, which controlled the Basra Highway
and numerous small roads that Iraqi units could use in
their escape to the north. As the 1st Infantry Division moved out
in front of the VII Corps, the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry continued
its mission of screening the left flank of the division. It
needed to destroy enemy reconnaissance elements and provide
the division sufficient warning of any possible counterattacks. 12
Meanwhile the combat trains under CPT Harmon were racing
to keep up with the squadron. They had fallen behind ear-