ANTHOLOGY AND ANN~ArED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                          13

but it had been a long time since they served in the desert.  Their fighting
vehicles,  however, had names that seemed well-suited to the task band:
Challengers, Warriors, Scimitars, and Scorpions, The Challenger tank is roughly
equivalent to the American M6OA3.       The Warrior is an armored personnel
carrier chosen by the British after competition with the American Bradley. The
Scimitars and Scorpions are tracked reconnaissance vehicles that might be called
very light tanks.
   Going into Desert Shield, the Marines' main battle tank was the M6OAI, an
improvement, several generations removed, of the M48 tank of the Korean and
Vietnam wars.    Weighing 58 tons (52,617 kg) and with a crew of four--
commander, gunner, loader, and driver--the M60A1 has as its main armament
a 105mm gun. Retrofitted with applique armor, it is considered roughly equal
to, if lesser-gunned than the best tank in the Iraqi inventory, the much-vaunted
Soviet T-72.
   The T-72, which came into service in the late 1970s, was successfully met
by the Israelis in Lebanon in 1982.  Armed with a long-barreled, smooth-bored
125mm gun and with a three-man crew, the T-72 at 45 tons (41,000 kg) is
considerably lighter than the Marine Corps's M6OAI. Both tanks have six road
wheels on a side but the T-72 with its squat hull and long-barreled gun is
distinctive in silhouette from the M-60, with its more massive turret.
   In the South Atlantic, the 26th MEU(SOC) had arrived on schedule off
Monrovia, on 20 August, and began the relief of 22d MEU(SOC). By that time
683 persons had been evacuated and the Marine presence ashore had been
reduced to half a company.  Next day, 26th MEU(SOC) received a change of
mission.   It was to proceed to the Mediterranean, leaving behind the USS
Whtdbey Island (LSD-41) and Barnstable County (LST-1 197) and a heavily
reinforced rifle company (Co K/3/8), along with helicopters and a combat
service support detachment to continue evacuation operations and protection of
the embassy.   This detachment, under command of Major George S. Hartley,
picked up the informal name of Monrnvia MAGTF.1'
   By C + 60, during the first week of November, Phase I of the Desert Shield
deployment was complete.   Nearly 42,000 Marines, close to one-quarter of the
Marine Corps's total active-duty strength and a fifth of the total U.S. force in
Desert Shield, had been deployed.    More than 31,000 were ashore in I MEF.
The remainder, the 4th MEB and 13th MEU(SOC), were kept afloat as the land-
ing force of a strong amphibious task force.
   But there was much more to come.        During an 8 November press con-
ference, President Bush indicated that U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf area would
be increased by an additional 200,000 troops.   Amplifying news stories con-
jectured that the number of Marines in the objective area would be doubled by
the addition of the II Marine Expeditionary Force from the Corps's East Coast
bases and the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade from California.25 The Corps's
Commandant, General Gray, added a footnote to the conjecture: