16                                    U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 199~1991


    Commanding the 2d Marine Division was Major General William M. Keys,
a Pennsylvanian who had graduated from the Naval Academy in 1960.      During
his first tour in Vietnam he commanded a rifle company; during his second he
was an advisor to the Vietnamese Marines at the battalion and brigade level.
He has both a Navy Cross and a Silver Star.   A graduate of the National War
College, he also holds a Master's degree from the American University.
Peacetime operational commands had included both a battalion and a regiment.
    The new year brought an unexpected diversion of forces from Desert Shield.
On Thursday, 3 January, a cable arrived in Washington from the U.S. Embassy
in Mogadishu, Somalia, requesting immediate evacuation.  A two-week urban
battle had reached its climax and the government of the octogenarian president,
Mohamed Siad Barre, was collapsing.    Armed looters had entered the embassy
compound. Orders went out to Seventh Fleet. The Trenton (LPD-14), operating
in the Indian Ocean, launched two CH-53Es loaded with 70 Marines.    The dis-
tance was 460 miles; nighttime aerial refueling was done twice from Marine
KC-130s flying from Bahrain.    The helicopters arrived over Mogadishu early
Friday morning, 4 January, and sat down just inside the embassy gate.  Part of
the Marine detachment secured the perimeter of the luxurious ($35 million)
compound, big enough to include a nine-hole golf course.   The rest of the
Marines sallied forth into the corpseAittered streets to bring in stranded Ameri-
cans and other foreign nationals, including the Soviet ambassador and his staff
of 35 from the Soviet Embassy a mile away.    By now more than 260 persons
were in the embassy compound. The hired security guards were holding off the
looters with small arms fire.  A rocket-propelled grenade had impacted on an
embassy building.  The two CH-53Es took out 62 evacuees on Friday.31 The
next day, Saturday, 5 January, five CH-46 helicopters from the Guam (LPH-9),
which  had  closed  the distance to   Mogadishu,  continued the evacuation.
Altogether more than 260 people~were taken out, including 30 nationalities and
senior diplomats from ten countries.
    Just prior to 15 January the British 7th Armored Brigade was detached to
rejoin its parent, the 1st Armored Division, which had arrived in Saudi Arabia.
The Desert Rats were to be replaced by the 1st Brigade, 2d U.S. Armored
Division-the "Tiger Brigade" -some 4,200 soldiers equipped with more than a
hundred MiAl Abrams tanks and a large number of M2A2 Bradley infantry
fighting vehicles.
    The Marine Corps had not been scheduled to get its first MiAl Abrams, the
U.S. Army's premier main-battle tank, until November 1990, with an initial
operational capability not expected until late 1991. General Gray met with
General Carl E. Vuono, the Army's Chief of Staff, and asked for the loan of
some Army MiAls. By the first part of January       1991, with U.S. Army
cooperation, I MEF had a significant number of MiAls, considered the most
modern tank in the world.     Slightly heavier at 63 tons (57,154 kg) than the
M60Ai, the MlAl `s most recognizable visual differences are its skirted seven
road-wheels and long turret, mounting a 120-mm. smooth-bore gun.
    By the 15th of January the Marine Corps had something close to 84,000
troops in the objective area, almost half its active-duty strength.32 Of this total,