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

Safwan 197
colonel approached the American commander. He was angry
that they were feeding his soldiers on his land. As a response, he
directed his own men to brew some tea for the troopers of A
Troop. CPT Ken Pope told the Iraqi officer that they had to leave
the area because of the upcoming peace talks. The two leaders
exchanged map locations and the Iraqi colonel departed to confer
with his superiors. 41 So far, the cavalrymen had accomplished
their mission with skill. Their command discipline prevented a
tense situation from turning into a needless fire-fight.
Rhame was not waiting for this situation to continue. Now
that Wilson had accomplished his reconnaissance mission, he
directed COL Tony Moreno’s 2d Brigade, consisting of two tank
battalions, a mechanized infantry battalion, and a field artillery
battalion, to move into the sector. At 1009 hours the Dagger
Brigade started to move toward Safwan. Once Moreno was in
the area, Wilson’s cavalry squadron would come under the operational
control of the 2nd Brigade. 42
At 1020 hours, the Iraqi colonel returned to A Troop and
told its commander that he was not going to leave the airfield.
Just at that moment, a flight of two A-10 Thunderbolts flew
overhead. Pope, knowing the terrifying reputation of these aircraft
amongst the Iraqis, told the Iraqi colonel that if he did not
move, the aircraft would attack him. This Iraqi colonel again
went back to find his superiors, while Pope and several of his
soldiers finished the tea prepared by the Iraqis. 43 Meanwhile in
another portion of the A Troop area, SSG Donald Wehage was
examining the buildings located on the north side of the airfield.
He dismounted from his track and motioned it to follow
him as he walked in amongst the buildings. Armed with only
his pistol, he walked into an Iraqi heavy mortar platoon. They
seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Someone
in the platoon spoke English. SSG Wehage demanded that they
surrender. When they looked at him in confusion, he turned
around and discovered that he was all by himself. Somehow he
had been separated from his vehicle. Just as he was thinking,
“what do I do now?” his M3A2 turned a corner and came to his
rescue. The Iraqis surrendered. 44
In a separate incident, MAJ Burdan intercepted an Iraqi
truck that had several soldiers in the back of it, headed to the