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

42 The Road to Safwan
west Asia and ready for business. With the troops lined up as if
they were on the parade ground back at Fort Riley, the honor
guard, led by CSM Michael Cobb, brought the squadron’s flags
forward. LTC Wilson and his sergeant major moved to the front
of the formation and directed the flag bearers to lower their
bulky staffs. Together they removed the flags from their canvas
cases and unrolled the fabric. As the yellow squadron flag, with
its fifty-one colored battle streamers, opened and caught the
gentle breeze, the soldiers knew they were now involved in
something much larger than themselves. Turning to his anxious
soldiers, Wilson spoke about the tasks confronting them and his
determination to bring them all back home.
After a short briefing by MAJ Wimbish, the troopers filed
onto ten buses for their twenty-five-mile trip to the port. The
squadron, along with many units from the army’s Europeanbased
VII Corps, was housed in the Khobar housing area. Located
just south of the port of Ad Dammam, Khobar Towers, as
it was known by the troops, was a large housing area built by
the Saudi government as a way to lure Bedouins from the
desert into the cities. The buildings had hot and cold running
water, showers and baths, air conditioners, heat, and electricity.
However, there were a number of cultural and social problems
that made these modern buildings unacceptable for the
Bedouins. For example, each apartment had only one door,
which meant that men and women had to use the same entrance,
a serious cultural transgression. Therefore, most of the
apartments were empty when the Americans arrived.
Military policemen provided security for the complex that
the army had ringed with barbed wire, concrete obstacles, and
guard posts. Heavily armed guards monitored the facility’s entrance
behind a series of barriers designed to slow traffic. Once
inside, the soldiers headed for the eight apartments assigned to
the squadron and quickly fell asleep. Each apartment had a living
room, reception area, kitchen, three bedrooms, and two
bathrooms. The rooms varied in size and, in general, five to ten
men occupied an unfurnished room, with as many as twentyfive
per apartment. Soldiers and their sleeping bags and gear
filled every square foot of free space in living rooms, dining
rooms, and even the balconies. With only two bathrooms in