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

Postwar Operations 221
It was to no avail, however, as the Air Force destroyed them all.
Shrapnel had hit the Ziggurat in a few places, but that was
about all. However, just to be on the safe side and to avoid later
charges of damaging a historic site, COL Mowery sent an archeologist
and some military Civil Affairs specialists to the site to
document the damage. 13
The squadron manned three checkpoints. Their purpose
was to observe the military demarcation line, regulate the
movement of Iraqi civilian and military vehicles across that
line, and provide humanitarian support for those refugees fleeing
the fighting in the north. 14 In addition to the combat vehicles,
each checkpoint had a medical team, intelligence collection
teams, and Arabic-speaking interpreters. A Troop’s Check Point
(CP) India was on a small ridge near the Ur ruins that dominated
Highway 8 and the roads emerging from An Nasiriyah.
They also manned another (CP #1) that blocked a road that ran
along an oil pipeline from the west. To the east, B Troop operated
Check Point #2, which controlled traffic moving on the
south side of the Euphrates, on Highway 8, from the east. B
Troop also provided the security for the brigade water point
which was located fifteen kilometers northeast of the squadron
TOC. The last two checkpoints operated around the clock while
CP India only functioned during hours of daylight, partially because
there was simply too much activity in the city, not far
from the checkpoint, after dark for the small command to handle.
At each location, platoons repaired and reinforced the defensive
works they inherited from the 2nd Cavalry. They placed
barriers across the road so that an approaching vehicle had to
slow and pass an inspection point. A tank and a Bradley overwatched
the inspection point. The medics were standing by to
assist injured refugees. Working out of the Aviation Brigade’s
assembly area, the squadron’s aviation troops backed up and
supported the reconnaissance and security effort with scoutweapons
teams as required. 15
Most of the refugee traffic that the Americans encountered
fit into five general categories. The first were the local
Bedouins and people who lived out in the desert. They drove
large, multi-colored trucks loaded with their sheep, which they
sold in the small towns. Others simply wandered with their