12                                   U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 19901991

    Consistent with existing doctrine and plans,    General Schwarzkopf had
directed that USMarCent be established as a service component along with Air
Force (USAFCent), Navy (USNavCent), Army (USArCent), and Special Op-
erations Command     (SOCCent).21  ComUSMarCent would have operational
control of all Marine forces ashore.
    Meanwhile, the 13th MEU(SOC), embarked in PhibRon 5, was on its way
from the Philippines, arriving in the Gulf of Oman on 7 September.22 Another
name for PhibRon 5 with its embarked MEU was Amphibious Ready Group `tA"
or "ARG Alpha.
    A second ready group, ARG Bravo, was also activated in the Western Pacific
and dispatched to the Gulf, carrying a bob-tailed MAGTF 6-90 under command
of Colonel Ross A. Brown and including the headquarters of RLT-4, BLT t/6,
and a combat service support detachment.23 Back in the Philippines, elements
of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade continued to be involved in flood relief
in the well-named Operation Mud Pack.
    Recognizing the operational flexibility offered by an embarked amphibious
force, General Schwarzkopf had decided to keep both the 4th MEB and 13th
MEU(SOC) afloat.      Command lines here would run from USCinCCent to
ComUSNavCent       (who  was  also Commander,       Seventh Fleet) to  CATF
(Commander, Amphibious Task Force), to CLF (Commander, Landing Force).
General Jenkins, as CG 4th MEB and CLF, would also have operational con-
trol of the 13th MEU(SOC).
    On 11 September, the first echelon of the 4th MEB arrived in the Gulf of
Oman in Transit Group 1. By 17 September, all three transit groups were in the
Gulf of Oman, just outside the Persian Gulf, and the amphibious task force
began to plan for landing rehearsals. The first of these landing exercises, which
would have the code name "Sea Soldier," began with a night amphibious raid
by the 13th MEU(SOC) followed by the 4th MEB landing across the beaches of
Oman by both helicopter and surface craft.
    The workhorses for the surface landing were the Marine Corps' amphibian
tractors.  In 1985 the Marine Corps changed the designation of the LVTP7Al
to AAV7Al--amphibious assault vehicle-representing a shift in emphasis away
from the long-time LVT designation, meaning         "landing vehicle, tracked."
Without a change of a bolt or plate, the AAV7Al was to be more of an armored
personnel carrier and less of a landing vehicle.  The LVTP7, which had come
into the Marine Corps inventory in the early 1970s, was a quantum improvement
over the short-ranged LVTP5 of the Vietnam era.        Weighing in at 26 tons
(23,991 kg) combat-loaded, and with a three-man crew, it can carry 25 Marines.
With a road speed of 45 mph (72 km/h), it is also fully amphibious with water
speeds up to 8 mph (13 km/h).   It is not as heavily armed or armored as the
Army's Bradley infantry fighting vehicle; on the other hand, the M2A1 Bradley
carries only seven troop passengers.
    About this time, I MEF learned that the 7th Armored Brigade ("Desert
Rats") of the British Army of the Rhine was to come under I MEF's operational
control.24 The Desert Rats, numbering some 14,000 soldiers, had earned their
name fighting with the British Eighth Army in North Africa in World War II,