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

208 The Road to Safwan
180 degrees and began blowing the smoke back over the
squadron. With the sun now obscured, the temperature at
Safwan dropped over twenty-five degrees. As the aircraft entered
the blanket of smoke, they had to switch to flying by instruments
to keep from flying into Safwan Mountain. Flight operations
provided the crew the signals to guide them to the airfield,
where the temperature was now in the upper fifties. While the
helicopter landed safely, the command decided not to land aircraft
in those conditions again. The next time the airfield was
smoked in, they diverted the aircraft back to the Aviation Brigade
airfield in Kuwait, or some other location, to wait it out. 11
Heavy rains began on March 5 and lasted almost four days.
A small river began flowing through the command post and the
staff had to put equipment on wooden blocks to keep it out of
the water. The leaders had several meetings at the TOC where
they squeezed onto the back ramps of the M577s so everyone
would be out of the water. Most soldiers kept their equipment
in their vehicles or on wooden pallets inside their tents. In one
instance a B Troop HMMWV wandered off the approved path
and drove into a tomato field where it promptly began to sink
in the saturated ground. The two crewmen were able to get out
and retrieve some of their gear before most of it disappeared
into the water. The next morning, the B Troop maintenance
crews, using an M88 tank recovery vehicle, pulled it out of the
water. It took a little cleaning up, and a little work under the
hood, but it started up, and surprisingly the troop drove it until
it returned home without any problems. 12
While at Safwan, the squadron continued to get visitors.
The division headquarters tasked Wilson’s troopers to provide
a display of American equipment on Safwan Airfield for a visit
by a Congressional delegation. It turned out to be a three-day
affair. The first day was spent arranging, cleaning, and preparing
everything for the delegation so it looked as good as it
could. For the next two days, Congressmen, their staffers, and
reporters quizzed the crews on the equipment’s effectiveness.
Unlike some presentations, the troops did not need to be prepared
on how to answer the questions and what was the “politically
correct” answer. They were quite proud of their tanks,
Bradleys, and helicopters, and they gave their questioners