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

60 The Road to Safwan
thought was a person to stop. The figure kept moving toward
him. He again called out to the figure to stop but again it did not
do so. Frightened, the soldier stood up and took his weapon off
safe and yelled, “It’s your ass . . .” and was about to shoot. Suddenly
a camel veered off at a 90-degree angle, apparently scared
off by the sudden movement to its front. By the time the senior
noncommissioned officer arrived on the scene, the commander
of the relief and the soldier were both in a foxhole and the young
guard was sweating and shaking, never wanting to be that
scared again in his life. 10 While the attacks by the “killer camels”
were somewhat humorous, it was only a few years earlier that
terrorists had destroyed a Marine compound in Beirut, and the
army’s leadership was determined to prevent a reccurrence. 11
While at the TAA, the squadron began to plan for its part in
the coming offensive. During an early meeting of division commanders,
MG Rhame had volunteered the 1st Infantry Division
to lead the VII Corps into Iraq. The Big Red One would break
into the Iraqi defenses and open several paths, or breaches, into
its rear. Then, according to the original plan, the remainder of
the corps would follow in search of the Iraqi Republican Guard.
The division called its part of the corps plan Operation Scorpion
Danger and the squadron’s role was extensive. First, under
the control of the 3rd Brigade, it would assist in tearing
down the large sand berm that followed the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian
border. Then, under the operational control of the 1st
Brigade, it would attack the initial Iraqi defenses, and then
screen the left flank of the division’s attack. Until mid-January,
the division plan for the coming attack had been kept under
tight control. Now the squadron S3 staff was allowed full access
so that it could begin developing its part of the overall plan.
MAJ Burdan assigned CPT VJ Tedesco, the S3 Air, the responsibility
for drafting the squadron operation order. 12
In the process of preparing for battle, Burdan and his officers
learned they had a serious problem: there were very few
maps of the area. The squadron had managed to bring over a
few sets of maps, comprised mainly of 1:250,000-scale, from
Fort Riley. They were difficult to use for small-unit commanders.
Now that they were planning for operations, it was essential
that every troop and platoon leader have a map set of the