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

2 Preparation
As LTC Robert Wilson stood on the parade
ground that June day, he anticipated that
most of his training focus would remain
consistent with the unit’s traditional doctrine and war plans.
This meant deploying to Germany, taking possession of the
trucks and tracked vehicles stored in large warehouses near
Kaiserslautern, road-marching to an assembly area, and joining
the other American units in defeating an attack by the Warsaw
Pact. For over twenty-five years this reinforcement mission had
been the Big Red One’s first priority and there was no reason for
Wilson to expect any fundamental changes in his task as a unit
commander until the American government removed troops
from Europe. Several weeks after assuming command, he joined
other division staff officers and commanders on a trip to Germany
to inspect the equipment they would acquire if they ever
had to execute such a mission. Of course, such a prospect was
becoming more remote as the Iron Curtain was coming down
and Germany was beginning the long road to reunification.
While walking through the warehouses near Kaiserslautern
during the first week of August, he learned that Iraqi troops
had crossed the border into Kuwait. Within days of the Iraqi invasion,
American forces were on their way to the Persian Gulf.
The first unit to go was the U.S. Army’s strategic ground force,
the XVIII Airborne Corps, drawing “a line in the sand” to let the
Iraqi government know that if it intended to continue into
Saudi Arabia it would have a serious fight on its hands. 1
Upon Wilson’s return from Germany, the division gave him
a new training focus. MG Rhame, anticipating the orders to go
to Southwest Asia and join the forces there in what the govern-
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