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

Security Operations 71
“troops moving” and the aviators, concerned that someone
might be a little trigger happy, had to call back “it’s us!” 8
As the squadron closed on DSA Junction City, CPT Bills
continued to screen the logistics area, a task complicated by the
local Bedouins. While the Saudi Arabian government had told
the local tribesmen to evacuate the border region, many remained.
On January 26, after visiting a coordination point with
the 1-7 Cavalry in the east, CPT Bills discovered what appeared
to be a Bedouin in a Toyota pickup truck driving slowly around
the squadron’s assembly area at DSA Junction City. Bills tried to
intercept him in his M3 Bradley, but the driver saw him coming
and sped northward deeper into the desert. Bills gave chase,
reaching speeds of over forty miles per hour in his attempt to
catch him. The captain fired a warning burst from his Bushmaster
cannon, but the truck, bouncing all over the place in the
desert sand, still did not stop. Realizing that he would not be
able to catch him and afraid that he was going to give the
squadron’s location away to someone on the other side, Bills ordered
one of his observation posts that lay in the path of the
truck to mount up and stop it.
Pulling out of his prepared position, SSG Michael Cowden
moved to intercept. Again, the American armored vehicles
were unable to catch the truck and it looked as if the Bedouin
might get away. Carefully judging the distance Cowden ordered
his gunner to fire a warning shot. At thirty-five miles per
hour, the gunner carefully lay his crosshairs on the target and
fired a shot first to the left of the truck and then to its right. The
Bedouin’s response was to drive faster. Realizing that the
Bedouin had to be stopped, the sergeant gave the order to shoot
the truck. His gunner put a round through the rear bumper and
into the truck’s left tire, causing it to come to a screeching halt.
The driver leaped out the vehicle and threw his hands into the
air, yelling “No shoot! No shoot!” Cowden then loaded him
into his track and returned to the troop, where Bills sent him
straight back to the squadron assembly area. 9
This generated a new dilemma as, for the first time, the
squadron had a prisoner. The correct procedure after disarming
and checking for documents and equipment is to evacuate the
captive to the closest prisoner of war camp. Unfortunately,