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

Recovery 209
glowing reports on the quality of the American equipment. 13
In addition to recovering from the offensive, the squadron
had two main operational missions to conduct. One was to locate
serviceable Iraqi equipment within an area assigned by the
division. Some of it, especially the Soviet-made equipment,
would go back to the United States for study at schools or technical
agencies. Some, especially tanks and infantry fighting vehicles,
would find its way to headquarters in the United States
to serve as war trophies. The remainder would be destroyed by
the engineers to keep it from being recovered and reused by the
Iraqi Army after the American forces withdrew. In the course of
this mission, the squadron continued to find dead Iraqi soldiers
near their weapons and vehicles. Whenever scouts discovered
these soldiers, they called the command post so that the appropriate
graves registration troops could respond. 14
The squadron located two vehicles that were eventually
placed on display at Fort Riley, Kansas. Doug Morrison’s maintenance
crews discovered a T-72 tank that appeared to be in excellent
condition, although mechanically inoperable. Seeing this
as a challenge, the mechanics unloaded all of the ammunition
and began identifying what they needed to get the tank back into
service. They then searched for other damaged Iraqi tanks and
began removing parts (called “cannibalizing” in maintenance
terms) that the chosen T-72 required. This restoration project became
a good source of diversion for the mechanics who used
their American skills to place this Soviet-made tank back into operation.
Soon they were able to get it running. Then they found
an undamaged BMP Infantry Assault Vehicle and continued the
restoration process. For the next two months the squadron
dragged or hauled these vehicles along each time they changed
locations. Finally, back in Saudi Arabia, Headquarters Troop
cleaned them up and prepared them for shipment back to the
United States. Today, both vehicles are on display at Fort Riley. 15
While some Iraqi equipment was sent back to the United
States, most was destroyed and rendered unusable. The cavalry
organized ad hoc search and destroy teams to support this
corps-wide effort. Flying in their OH-58C scout helicopters, the
aviators located an abandoned tank, personnel carrier, or artillery
piece. Once found the pilot landed the helicopter and the