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

64 The Road to Safwan
assembly area with the remainder of the Aviation Brigade’s aviation
units. The aviation troops’ assembly area consisted of
sand walls, called berms, originally constructed to protect the
helicopters from observation and artillery. The engineers had
anchored steel tie-downs into the ground for the aircraft to prevent
damage in case of high winds. However, as it turned out,
the berms were too small to accommodate the aircraft, so they
became the aviation troops’ temporary home. The squadron’s
twenty-one aircraft departed on the morning of January 20,
and, after making one stop at Assembly Area Bastogne, all arrived
at the Aviation Brigade’s assembly area around 1530
hours that afternoon. 21
Now that much of the squadron’s combat power was in
TAA Roosevelt, its emphasis shifted to training and weapons
test firing and zeroing. The troopers took every opportunity to
hone their combat skills. Sergeants directed individual soldiers,
generally covering both survival skills, such as preparation for
a chemical attack, and combat skills, such as firing weapons
and determining if the vehicle in front of you was enemy or
friendly. Sergeants also supervised collective, or group, training
at the crew and section level, since a tank, Bradley, or mortar
crew had to function as a team to succeed. 2LT Gerardo Cartegena,
the squadron chemical officer, was in high demand as a
training advisor as the troops emphasized the possibility of a
chemical attack in both their training and wartime planning.
The squadron leaders practiced with the new GPS. In what
was an amazing transformation from the World War II era of
map and compass, the operator simply entered the location of
his destination and followed directions. The GPS was extremely
effective and allowed the ground units to maneuver with impunity
over the battlefield, without worrying about landmarks
and compass headings. There were never enough of these precious
devices. In B Troop, for example, there were only six: one
each for the commander, executive officer, first sergeant, and
each of the three platoon leaders. Even with this shortage, CPT
Bills later considered it one of his most important systems. 22
In the desert near the enemy lines, crews had a chance to
fire service ammunition for the first time. Service, or wartime,
ammunition has a different feel than training ammunition