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

Operations in the TAA 65
when fired. Of course, when it hits the target, the results are
much more deadly. The VII Corps established a weapons firing
complex called Jayhawk Range, and each corps combat unit
had a chance to rotate crews through the various firing ranges.
Its primary purpose was to test fire and calibrate all vehicle
weapons, a process called bore sighting, so that the round hit
where the gunner aimed. The squadron took advantage of its
gunnery time and sent B Troop’s Bradleys to the range from
January 21 through 23. It was an important event, as Mike Bills
discovered when his troop went to the range. One of his noncommissioned
officers had put his 25-mm Bushmaster cannon
back together improperly and did not ensure the weapon’s barrel
was properly seated in the receiver. The first round fired ruined
it. On January 22, the squadron sent its UH-1 back to the
port to get a new barrel from one of its old M3s and bring it out
as a replacement for the damaged barrel. 23
Shortly after midnight, on January 22, CPT Ken Pope led a
convoy of seven M3A2s, three M106 mortar tracks, one M577,
and two trucks toward Camp Mackenzie. 24 The troopers were
glad to see the port in their rear view mirrors as they headed
out to the desert. They arrived at Camp Mackenzie late that afternoon.
The air troops also flew out that morning to the firing
range and test fired all of their weapons, to include their version
of the TOW wire-guided missiles. Fog and dust began to
set in shortly after they finished firing late in the afternoon. As
they flew back to the Aviation Brigade helicopter assembly
area, the visibility continued to drop. Finally, they were unable
to proceed, so they set down in the middle of the desert, radioed
their location, and waited until the next morning to get
back into the air.
The next day, CPT Scott Sauer, the assistant S3, led the last
convoy, including nine M1A1s and four M3A2s, from the port
to the assembly areas. On the way, a HET carrying tanks rearended
another one about five miles outside Dhahran. The
tanks received no significant damage and the convoy continued
on its way.
CPT Pope spent January 24 reorganizing his troop due to a
shortage of scouts. He retained 1st and 2nd platoons as scout
platoons with the 3rd platoon designated as a “reaction pla-