At a meeting in the Gulf, Arthur assured Downing he could quickly off-load the Marines and replace them with the Special Operations package.
Downing and Stiner were well aware that the Iraqis had to be neutralized with overwhelming firepower at the start of the operation. The most practical method for that was to use the Air Force. Soon after their arrival, they met with Brigadier General Buster C. Glosson, a command pilot who oversaw all U.S. Air Force wings in the Gulf and directed planning for Lieutenant General Chuck Horner, the CENTCOM air commander. Downing and Colonel “Pete,” one of his commanders, laid the plans out in Glosson’s small command room in Riyadh, carefully going over the assault. When he finished, Glosson had a funny look on his face.
“Are you guys serious?” asked Glosson.
“Yeah,” said Downing. “We’re serious.”
“You guys really think you can go in in downtown Kuwait City?”
“If we got your support the way we want it, we can do it.”
Glosson looked at the map again. “You’re goddamn right,” he said finally. “You got my support.”
Glosson’s F-117As and F-15Es—the Air Force’s front-line tactical bombers—were what they wanted. As eventually perfected, the plan called for a pair of F-117A Stealth Fighters to launch laser-guided missiles at the Iraqi headquarters in the Hotel Safir precisely sixty seconds before the helos landed. The 2,000-pound warheads would reduce the hotel’s eight floors to rubble, wiping out the Iraqi headquarters, as well as depriving the enemy of a fire control center. Electrical power would be cut with another F-117 attack on a nearby electrical tower. The F-1 5E Strike Eagles would then drop cluster bombs around the embassy, neutralizing Iraqi troops and creating a minefield to isolate the building.
Cluster bombs were a common weapon during the war. Officially called CBUs (Cluster Bomb Units), they are actually a collection of smaller bomblets, and can be configured for different missions. CBU-87s spray more than two hundred antipersonnel and antiarmor bomblets over an area, killing unprotected personnel and destroying lightly armored vehicles. CBU-89 “Cators” lay down a mix of about a hundred antipersonnel and antiarmor mines, creating an instant minefield. The word Gator comes from the twenty-four BLU-92/B antitank mines the CBU launches; the image of snapping alligators provides an apt metaphor for these weapons’ devastating effect on vehicles.
Glosson did more than commit Air Force support for the assault. He took the plan personally to General Schwarzkopf. Though the CINC was still not enamored of an attack that might precipitate a war he wasn’t ready to fight, he gave his okay.
At a meeting with Schwarzkopf, Downing briefed PACIFIC WIND. Then, with Downing and Johnson present, Stincr summarized his visit for the CINC: “I have visited all SOF teams and units in your area of operations, and in my judgment they are doing an outstanding job. The coalition support teams (CSTs) will be worth their weight in gold—they’ll give you ’truth in reporting’ about what the coalition units are doing.
“You already have nine thousand SOF over here,” Stiner continued, “and I’m prepared to give you whatever you need. I know you have the greatest confidence in Jesse Johnson—and 1 do, too. But, considering the complexity of his operation, together with what SOF can do for you in the broader context, I would like to give you one of my best two-stars—maybe even two general officers—to run our part of things.” He had already told Johnson the same thing privately before the meeting.
“I’ll think about it,” Schwarzkopf responded.
At this point, Stiner delivered Colin Powell’s message about keeping terrorists off Schwarzkopf’s back so he could focus his attention on Kuwait and Iraq.
“I intend to move one-third of my special mission forces to Europe,” Stiner said, “but here would be better, so they can respond quicker.
“I would also like to establish a small tactical command post in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, so I can be more responsive to your needs. I’ll even wear a plain flight suit with no rank. Nobody will know that I’m here.”
“I’ll let you know,” the CINC replied.
Back in the States a week later, Stiner learned from Powell that he could forget about his small command post. According to Schwarzkopf, the Saudis didn’t want another four-star command in their country. The offer of a general officer to run Schwrarzkopf’s special operations activities never received an answer.
Stiner thought he knew the reason. As we have often seen before, the “big” Army has traditionally been, at best, unfamiliar with special operations, and at worst, hostile. Such attitudes naturally derive from the normal machinery of internal politics, the sort of political infighting that springs up within any organization. Part of it comes from a distrust of unconventional warfare in general. In some cases, the image of Special Forces as “can-do” guys actually hurts them. Highly trained elites called on to operate clandestinely in hazardous situations risk a bad reputation. It’s not a big jump from there to thinking SF guys can be evil.
One Special Forces general recalled meeting a Navy officer who told him that sitting down with Special Forces planners was like encountering “the princes of darkness.” Despite the success of Earnest Will and a concerted effort by the Special Forces Command not only to increase SOF professionalism but to make others aware of it, as the Cold War wound down, such attitudes—and others even worse—were far too common.
The SOF approach to warfare called for a high degree of cooperation between different branches of service. But that cooperation wasn’t always forthcoming.
General Schwarzkopf himself apparently did not trust SOF units—or if he did, he did not want them inside Iraq before his conventional forces were in place and ready to fight.
Both General Schwarzkopf’s CENTCOM and General Stiner’s SOCOM were headquartered at the same base near Tampa, Florida. They were next-door neighbors. While the two men got along personally, there was plenty of friction between members of the two commands. “Schwarzkopf was a good example of a senior officer who did not understand Special Operations and was afraid of it,” said Major General Jim Guest, looking back on the start of the Gulf War. “Schwarzkopf’s mentality was, ‘I have a coiled cobra in a cage and if I open that cage, that cobra is going to get out and possibly embarrass me.”’
Many SOF officers understood Schwarzkopf’s decision not to allow Stiner to move his command to the Middle East. Two four-stars in the same battle theater could cause unnecessary confusion, no matter how carefully they orchestrated their command structures. But the CENTCOM CINC’s resistance to SOF went beyond that. In the opinion of Stiner, Downing, and others, Schwarzkopf handicapped the utility of Special Operations in the Gulf War by insisting that the command be represented and managed in the theater by the colonel—no matter how able—instead of a general officer. He also allotted insufficient resources and priorities for SOF units, thus hampering planning and intelligence.
Though SEALs were among the first units in the Gulf, Schwarzkopf changed deployment priorities in favor of more conventional forces, which delayed the arrival of most of the 5th Special Forces Group. This meant that, when most needed, he did not have available his main Special Forces asset, the Army Green Berets, with its broad range of special operations expertise and capabilities. That left only a few SEALs to work with Saudi forces to provide intelligence, coordinate air support, and form an American trip wire at the border at a most critical time. Combat air support (CAS) was not generally considered a SEAL mission, but the unit’s inherent flexibility and its interface with different branches and services helped it do its job.
After the 5th SFG finally arrived in late August and early September, Special Forces personnel began branching out as CSTs, serving initially with Saudi, Egyptian, and Syrian units. Some 109 CST teams were eventually formed, working at all levels of command.
During September, Green Berets replaced SEALs at the border, working with Saudi paratroopers and border police along the Saudi side of the berms separating the countries. Nine recon
naissance detachments provided around-the-clock surveillance and “truth in reporting.”
“You’ve got three missions up on the border,” 5th SFG commander, Colonel James Kraus, told his men. “See, Scream, and Scoot.” Special Forces units didn’t always “scoot.” Several snagged infiltrators and deserters during the early days of the buildup.
MEANWHILE, there was a justified fear of Iraqi-inspired terror attacks. National intelligence agencies had learned that as many as thirty Iraqi terrorist teams were positioning to conduct strikes against U.S. embassies and other allied facilities in other parts of the world. To counter this threat, SOF units provided security to vulnerable embassies and other facilities, and special mission teams were prepared to deploy instantly to handle unexpected situations.
As a result of these and other related efforts, no Iraqi terror attempts were successful—though at least two Iraqi operations, one in Jakarta and another in Manila, were foiled when terrorist bombs blew up while the terrorists were preparing or transporting them. “Iraqi bad luck,” the JSOTF commander Major General Downing put it.
While all this was going on, Special Operations troops began practicing for PACIFIC WIND off the coast of Florida. They built a mock-up of the Embassy, and the Navy lent them an LPH. They worked out problems: For example, while the Army and Air Force people were used to working at night, the Navy wasn’t. The assault ship’s captain nearly freaked when Downing told him to turn off the deck lights.
“God, I can’t do that,” protested the captain.
“Yeah, we can do it,” Downing responded. The lights were turned off.
Thirty helicopters, from Army Special Aviation, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel “Doug,” crammed with Army special missions troops, peeled off from the deck in the dead of night without a hitch or scraped rotor blade. The Navy captain turned to Downing and said, “If I didn’t know I was awake, I would think I was dreaming this.”
A short time later, a pair of Air Force F-15 pilots flew in from the Gulf to help with a live-fire rehearsal at Fort Bragg. The Eagles came in low and hot; and windows broke in nearby Fayetteville. But a little broken glass seemed incidental.
MEANWHILE, SOF planners were working up other missions. The most promising involved fomenting and supporting a guerrilla movement similar to the one that eventually kicked the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. Intelligence analysts had noted that Kurds, in the north of Iraq, and Shiites, in the south, were displeased with Saddam’s regime. Encouraging dissident movements there, as well as stoking guerrilla activity in Kuwait, would weaken and disrupt the Iraqi military, whose units would be tied down dealing with dissension. A pilot team of SOF ground and air personnel flew to Turkey soon after the invasion to examine the possibilities in northern Iraq. About half of the 10th Special Forces Group would be on the ground there by the end of September, ostensibly in Turkey to help provide search and rescue support for the U.S. Air Force pilots shot down over northern Iraq. The operation was headed by Brigadier General “Richard,” himself a former commando.
At least four different dissident groups were active in Kuwait, estimated to consist of about 3,500 armed personnel. Though these could have been supported and encouraged in various ways, especially since SOF troops were already on the front line as “trip wires” and well-equipped SEAL units were in the Gulf, the plans for assisting resistance movements and general sabotage failed to receive support from Washington or from Schwarzkopf, who worried about the political ramifications of losing Americans behind the lines.
As an alternative, which would also provide a source of intelligence in Kuwait City, a Special Planning Group was organized under SOCCENT, consisting of an SF lieutenant colonel, two SF warrant officers, and five SF NCOs. This group conducted specialized unconventional warfare training for selected Kuwaiti personnel, who were eventually infiltrated into Kuwait. The Special Planning Group provided operational direction and intelligence-collection requirements to the Kuwaiti resistance throughout the conflict. Ninety-five percent of the HUMINT intelligence that came from occupied Kuwait resulted from this initiative.
By the end of October, however, a systematic campaign by the Iraqis had greatly diminished the effectiveness of the Kuwaiti resistance groups; photos smuggled out of the country showed dismembered bodies hanging from lampposts—a sign to others.
SOF planners also mapped operations against Saddam.
The Iraqi dictator’s normal procedure was to disguise his movements, use doubles, and move constantly among temporary headquarters (i.e., converted recreation vehicles) and permanent ones, as well as sleeping quarters. The SOF plan was to strike him in one of his rec vehicles ; or, as Stiner put it, “We’d hit him one night while he was laughing at us in one of his Winnebagos.”
There were a few little problems with this plan: In addition to the massive operational difficulties of such a risky operation, U.S. law forbade assassination of heads of state. True, once combat had been initiated, Saddam would become a legitimate target, but as it was, the plan withered and died.
So did others. In December, Saddam released the American hostages, including those at the Embassy he called “guests.” PACIFIC WIND and similar plans were quietly shelved.
THE AIR WAR
Other plans, however, moved forward. As the buildup of allied troops progressed, the United States shaped a strategy for driving the Iraqis out of Kuwait. The war would take place in two distinct stages:An aerial assault was designed to neutralize Iraqi units, deprive Saddam Hussein of command and control over his forces, and weaken the country’s ability to resist attack.
A ground attack would then physically confront Iraqi ground forces and drive them from Kuwait and positions threatening Saudi Arabia.
From the very beginning, the air campaign was seen as essential to the success of the mission. The coalition planners hoped to decimate and terrorize the Iraqis before launching ground troops. Not only would that increase the odds of quick success, but it would lessen the number of casualties, an important political consideration.
The air attack itself could be broken into distinct phases. The most critical would occur at the very beginning, when the Iraqis’ vast network of integrated antiair defenses had to be neutralized. Based largely on a Soviet model and heavily reliant on Russian weapons, Iraqi air defenses included a sophisticated network of advance warning and localized radars, a wide range of surface-to-air missiles, front-line fighters like the MiG-29, and a large number of antiaircraft artillery batteries that, though primitive, remained deadly. The multilayered defenses had to be neutralized as quickly as possible to give coalition aircraft freedom to operate over Iraq at will.
The first strike had to be massive and quick, but it also had to be stealthy. That meant cruise missiles and the still largely untested F-117A Stealth Fighter would have key roles in the operation. But there were too few of these to cover the vast number of Iraqi air defense units, and the sheer size of the country made it difficult to orchestrate an effective attack everywhere at once.
As plans developed, it became clear that one of the keys to the first-day mission would be the destruction of two Iraqi early-warning radars guarding the country’s southwestern frontier. While most of Iraq’s early-warning radars were sited to cover one another (if one went out, others made up for the loss), eliminating these two sites would provide a “black” corridor for planes flving north.
The hole would be especially useful for F-15E Strike Eagles targeted to hit Scud missiles in the first hours of the air war. Destroying those missiles had become a top priority, since their launch against Israel might prompt retaliatory raids, which in turn could threaten the fragile allied coalition.
However, striking the radars, though obviously desirable, brought serious problems. An attack on these sites would take resources from other high-priority Iraqi assets. More important, it could also warn the rest of the defense network. To avoid such a result, the sites would have to be knocked out simultancously, but the large number of in
dividual radars and support facilities at each site made it difficult to coordinate comprehensive, effective bombing raids that would achieve that end.
As General Glosson contemplated the plans, a Special Forces officer, Captain Randy O‘Boyle, joined his staff to help coordinate Special Forces operations. An experienced flight examiner and planner, Captain O’Boyle had particular expertise with MH-53J Pave Low helicopters, which had come to the Gulf with the 20th Special Operations Squadron, part of the Air Force Special Operations Command. In September, he became the helicopter advisor in the planning cell for the air campaign.
After examining the developing plans, O’Boyle realized that the early-warning radars would be perfect targets for Special Operations ground forces. Glosson agreed. General Schwarzkopf did not. When this plan was presented to him, he exploded. The CINC was not prepared to commit ground forces across the border until he was ready. An alternative had to be found.
In the meantime, the radars were moved back about twenty miles from their original position a mile or so from the border. A ground assault became impractical.
Jesse Johnson then considered making the attack with his Pave Lows, but while the MH-53s were highly capable aircraft, they were optimized for clandestine insertion and extraction missions, not blowing things up. They were big and fast, and able to operate in bad weather and at night, but their heaviest weapons were only. 50-caliber machine guns. The helicopters’ commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rich Comer, believed his machine guns could destroy the large dishes, but probably not before the Iraqis had time to call their headquarters.
There were helicopters in the Gulf that had more than enough firepower to eliminate the dishes quickly, however—Army Apaches. Decked out with I Iellfire missiles and 30mm chain guns, the AH-64s could make short work of the installations.