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

Operations in the TAA 53
only a few rounds of 9 mm ammunition each and using a largescale
(1:250,000) map that showed few details and their new
GPS instrument, they headed into the unfamiliar landscape.
For the first seventy or so miles they drove north along the
coastal highway, a good four-lane road, then they turned northwest
on the Tapline Road. This road, consisting of only two
lanes with shoulders of soft sand, was packed with bumper-tobumper
military and civilian traffic moving in both directions.
Local civilian drivers barreled down the sides of the highway
with no thought of safety, often playing a game of “chicken”
with vehicles in the opposing lane. The hulks of wrecked automobiles
and trucks littered the sides of the highway, indicating
that these games often ended in tragedy. In one incident on December
30, an Aramco tanker truck hit an American troop bus
that had stopped behind a Saudi truck. Fortunately, none of the
thirty casualties, all soldiers assigned to the 128th Combat Support
Hospital, were seriously injured. A few days later, another
truck accident sent two more soldiers to the hospital. Although
there were no injuries in the squadron, these incidents continued
throughout the deployment, adding another element of
risk to an already dangerous mission. 1
That night the leaders arrived at the 1st Infantry Division’s
tactical command post in the assembly area. It looked pretty
bleak, as a group of M577 Command Post Vehicles sat alone in
the middle of a hastily constructed sand berm. Inside, duty officers
monitored the VII Corps communications nets and reported
the continually changing status of the division. Communication
back to the port was difficult and restricted to one
tactical satellite telephone. The division staff gave the recon
party a quick overview of how the assembly area operated and
what terrain the remainder of the division would occupy. 2 Arriving
too late to share in the dinner, they looked for the Aviation
Brigade’s temporary headquarters. They found Majors
Mark Landrith and Dan Pike from the 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation
housed in a small tent belonging to the squadron left behind
by MAJ Wimbish on his previous trip to the area. There
they set up their cots and bunked for the evening. The next
morning Wilson, Mowery, and Burdan were up early and examined
the aviation assembly area. Given the uncertain situa-