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

Coming Home 231
point, small theater, post exchange, post office, telephones, and
of course, a burger bar. AA Huebner was also set up near King
Khalid Military City (KKMC), a beautiful “city” in the middle
of the desert. Referred to by many as the “Emerald City,” it was,
in reality, a large Saudi military base complete with family
housing, mosques, and aviation runways. Other than the food,
the most popular facility was the phone bank where there were
lines waiting almost twenty-four hours a day.
The purpose of this second phase of the redeployment was
to prepare and move the squadron to port. In practical terms,
this meant that not only was the squadron going to lose some of
its equipment, but it was also going to lose some of its troopers.
The first items to go were the M3A2 Cavalry Fighting Vehicles
that the squadron had drawn when it arrived at the port back in
December. All of the various radios, special mountings, and
items brought from the United States had to be removed and
loaded into milvans pre-positioned in the squadron area. The
troops were a little concerned because this turn-in meant that
they would be reissued their old M3s that they had left at the
port. A hint of the problems awaiting them emerged when the
squadron had to reassume control of five of the old vehicles that
had been used by other units in the division. These were in terrible
mechanical condition and were missing a great deal of
equipment. So, it was a sad day when logistics representatives
arrived to take the trusty M3A2 Bradleys. These were superb vehicles
and the soldiers could not have asked for anything better.
The squadron would also not be allowed to retain the
M1A1 Tanks. In this case, the tanks as well as crews were simply
reassigned to the 2nd Brigade. CSM Cobb took charge of ensuring
that this was a well-orchestrated transfer. First were
troop-level ceremonies to say goodbye to the soldiers. They had
been with the squadron from the beginning, and it was a bit
emotional to make the change while still in the desert. Then
Cobb took the soldiers over to meet their new chain of command.
Meanwhile, commanders ensured that the vehicle and
unit property paperwork was correct and forwarded it over to
the new unit.
In a similar vein, the squadron had to release the infantry
soldiers who had been assigned to help fill out the reactivated