cmh_70-117-1

In the only change made to the recommended priority list, GeneralSaint decided to move the 2d ACR up on the list and send it to SaudiArabia first. The regiment, a self-contained unit, could deploy immediatelyto set up assembly areas and prepare to receive the rest of the corps.With the movement sequence in place, USAREUR and VII Corpsplanners arranged for the move. Preparing for the large operation was nota new experience for the U.S. Army, Europe. Beginning in 1967, soldiersfrom combat divisions in the United States had flown into Europeanairports for twenty-one Reforger exercises conducted in response to anotional threat of a Warsaw Pact attack against NATO forces in whatwas then West Germany. Subsequently, they picked up unit equipmentthat had been shipped into the Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Bremerhavenseaports, as well as pre-positioned organizational materiel configured tounit sets, or POMCUS, that had been stored in Europe. For deploymentto Southwest Asia, the process would be reversed with some changes.Yet, the similarity to Reforger exercises was so apparent that soldiersand allies dubbed the movement Deforger 90.In about seven weeks, U.S. Army, Europe, moved more thanone hundred twenty-two thousand soldiers and civilians and fiftythousand five hundred pieces of heavy equipment from Germanyto Saudi Arabia. The tight schedule, coupled with unpredictableGerman winter weather, made it essential to use all available modes oftransportation. Thousands of tracked and wheeled vehicles, hundredsof aircraft, and tons of equipment and supplies deployed in virtuallyevery way possible—421 barge loads from the primary loading sitesat Mannheim and Aschaffenburg; 407 trains with 12,210 railcars;and 204 road convoys totaling 5,100 vehicles. In a deliberate effortto reduce the burden of increased traffic on the autobahns and toexpedite the move, the large majority of vehicles, both tracked andwheeled, traveled by rail or barge.Once at the three ports, the equipment was assembled in staging areasand subsequently sent in 154 shiploads to Saudi Arabia. The soldiers flewout of Ramstein, Rhein Main, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart. It took 1,772buses to move the troops to the airports, 1,008 vehicles and drivers fromthe 37th Transportation Group to carry the baggage, and 578 aircraft tofly them all to Southwest Asia. As the VII Corps neared completion ofthe process, Lt. Gen. William S. Flynn, commander of the 21st TheaterArmy Area Command, noted how much more complex the move was thanReforger had been. “We usually plan all year long to unload two or threeships in one port,” he said. “For Desert Shield we planned for a weekand loaded some 115 ships through three ports and moved more than a20