How the Battle of 73 Easting Was Won

Daniel L. Davis

Security,

The Battle of 73 Easting was a great victory by the U.S. Army, validating the critical importance of having great leaders, solid institutional training, and premier combat equipment. We must always bear in mind, however, the permanent cost it often imposes on both the victors and the vanquished. Part two of a two-part series. 

You can read part one here. 

The initial attack on February 23, 1991, into Iraq had been anticlimactic. Intelligence had told us there would be various border outposts ready to attack us as soon as we penetrated their defenses. We fired hundreds of 155 millimeter artillery shells against their suspected locations in depth, but after we blew through the border, discovered only some goats and empty buildings. We knew the main line of defense was far to the north, so we continued moving.

From the 23rd to 25th of February we saw only sporadic fighting, lots of surrendering troops, and endless tracts of empty desert as our eyes grew red from the blazing intensity of the sun. The temperature in the Middle Eastern deserts can climb upwards of 130-degrees in the summer, but we were there in the winter and sometimes had frost on our tanks in the morning. As the sun went down on the night of February 25 we were greeted with a soaking, cold rain. Since I was the commander of my vehicle, I had to ride with the hatch open; there was nowhere to hide from the driving rain, and I was miserable.

By dawn the next morning, February 26, the rain had stopped but the clouds remained. As was our custom, we first sent our helicopters to screen about six miles in front of our lead scouts so that we would have the ability to develop the situation out of contact should we encounter major or unexpected enemy contact. But barely had we started that day when a sand storm came out of nowhere.