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

The Basra Highway 177
was there, in spite of the fact that the squadron had by then regained
radio contact with 2nd Brigade. 47 These errors reflect the
fatigue of the division’s small tactical command post staff. For
almost forty-eight hours they had been controlling the 1st Infantry’s
attack without the help of the division main command
post, still moving across the Iraqi desert. Like other headquarters
across the battle front, they were simply exhausted.
By approximately 1915 hours the 2nd Brigade Commander,
COL Anthony Moreno, was back in contact with the cavalry
and was preparing to continue the attack toward them. Just as
his commanders were returning to their units from a short
planning meeting, the division commander called Moreno and
told him to withdraw twelve kilometers, to comply with the recent
orders from corps headquarters. The incredulous Moreno
argued with MG Rhame for permission to continue the attack
to no avail. The best he could get was permission to remain in
place and not pull back. 48 Rhame, who was forward commanding
his division from inside a M1A1 main battle tank, did try to
get permission from corps to continue, but as mentioned earlier,
was told to remain in place and he did not, as he later wished
he had, challenge the order to stop directly to Franks. 49 However,
with the suspension of hostilities announced at 2245 and
scheduled for 0500 hours the next morning, neither Rhame nor
Franks felt any reason to change the tactical alignment that
night. 50 For the next twelve hours, therefore, the 1st Squadron,
4th Cavalry would be the easternmost, and most exposed, unit
in the entire VII Corps, essentially surrounded by the Iraqi
Army on the Basra Highway.
The problem back at the squadron’s defensive perimeter on
the Basra Highway was quickly becoming one of handling Iraqi
prisoners of war. In accordance with standard procedures, the
cavalry troopers segregated the captured or surrendered soldiers
into groups of officers and enlisted. The Americans and
Iraqis in the compound now began to interact with each other
in interesting ways. SFC Molitor, 1st Platoon, A Troop, encountered
one Iraqi officer who spoke English, and who had been
trying to move his air defense artillery battalion, which had
been stationed outside of Kuwait City, back to Iraq. When he
encountered the squadron, he surrendered but complained