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          the battery was attached to 1st Marine Division's 1st Battalion,
          11th Marines while on the march north. As they approached the
         *southwest edge of the Bur~an Oilfields, they began taking
          incoming fire, so Brier placed some of his artillery Marines into
          a skirmish line while the rest of his men set up the battery.
          Suddenly, they spotted a Multiple Rocket Launcher System through
          the smoke which the enemy was preparing to fire. Although the
          M198 howitzer is normally used to engage targets at long range,
          the quick witted gun commander, Sergeant T. S    , trained his
          M198 directly at the MRLS which was only a sc~nt 890 ineters away
          and fired it, scoring a direct hit. Shortly afterwards, the
          Battery scored another direct fire hit on a nearby 152 mm gun,. of
          a nearby Iraqi artillery battalion.

                          The Most Successful Tank Compa"ny?

              "B" Company of the Ath Tank Battalion,. is a reserve unit from
          Yakima, Washington. They were activated in early December, but
          left their aging M60 tanks at home. Enroute to Saudi Arabia, they
          paused for 23 days at Twentynine Pal~s, California to train on
          the newer MlAl tank. At Jubayl, they received 13 new M1Als which
          they took into battle with the 2nd Ma~ine Division. The company
          was stopped near the division bounda?y line about five miles
          north of the al Jaber airfield shortly before dawn at 0555 on the
          second day. The tankers were now surprised to hear, then see in
          their night vision devices, a formation of T72s - Iraq's most
          formidable tanks - coming through a position of what turned out
          to be another formation of T55 tanks that were dug into
          revetments. Although the company commander realized the tanks,
          were actually in the 1st Marine Division's area of
          responsibility, he engaged them immediately. In an action that
          lasted only a few minutes, the company destroyed or stopped 34 of
          35 enemy tanks. In a `total of four engagements, "B" company
          accounted for 59 tanks including 30 T72s. One tank fired seven
          "first rounds" and got five hits.
-J
                     Cobras and the Smoke: How Low Did They Go?

             Early on the morning of the 26th (G+2), 1st Marine Division's
 *        Task Force Ripper was preparing to push north to the key
          objective of Kuwait Internatiohal Airport from its position near
 *        the southwest edge of the Burqan Cilfield. Unhappily, the wind
          was from the southeast, which pushed a dense cloud of black smoke
          from the burning oilfield across the avenues of approach. Indeed,
 *        it was so dark that the sun was completely obscured and lights
 *        were required to see. Areas obscured by this phenomenon were'
 *        nicknamed the "Land of Darkness

             ~y all normal criteria, operations by close-in fire support
          AH-lW helicopters should have been impossible, but the commanding
          officer of Marine Light Helicopter Attack Squadron 369,
          Lieutenant Colonel Mike Kurth, decided to check for himself.
          Taking off from Landing Zone "Lonesome Dove" about 25 miles
          inside of Saudi Arabia early that morning, he set four of his
          Cobras down on the desert near the recently captured al Jaber


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