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

    Rear Admiral Bader was the senior Saudi naval officer in Jubayl, and he had
a lot of influence in the local area. I would talk with him. There was a Royal
Commission of Jubayl on the civilian side of the house which controlled most
of the available infrastructure, but we had to get some camps set up to get our
Marines out of the port.   Our Marines were sitting in these warehouses in 130
degrees temperatures, with no heads or showers.    The decision-making system
in Saudi Arabia took a long time to get moving.    We did the best we could in
Jubayl, but the Saudis couldn't gear up fast enough.  With the stench and the
heat, it was just tough.  We had a good setup at-the port facility, but we had to
get the troops out to the field for morale and security reasons.
    Every day I would go around and see someone from the Royal Commission,
or Bader, or I'd go down and see Saleh, and then I'd get in a helicopter and I'd
go north to see how the hell we were setting up.   We started to break the log
jam.  We got the ranges, and we got permission to deploy.    But it took a lot of
time.

Proceedings: Did you have to go immediately into defensive positions?

Hopkins: No. Like everything else, you've got to prepare the equipment and do
the reconnaissance.  While the subordinate units were getting ready, my staff
was tying in with Central Command in Riyadh, and I was making liaison with
the local authorities, both civilian and military, so we could do what we needed
to do.

Proceedings: Were the Saudis defending?

Hopkins: No. They had a couple of trip-wire units deployed to the north, but
for all practical purposes, the Saudis hadn't initiated any defensive plans for the
eastern province. I wanted to get a sector assigned to the Marine Corps, get the
ranges, and find Out what limitations I had.  For instance, they didn't want us
to put the tanks and the amtracks [AAVP-7 assault amphibians] through the
towns, because they thought we were going to damage the roads and alarm the
people.  That type of thing.
    The 2nd Brigade 82nd Airborne Division was in there. We tied in with them
defensively right away.

Proceedings: Did you have liaison teams with the 82nd?

Hopkins: Yes.  We talked to them daily and figured out how we were going to
defend.  My mission was to defend as far forward as possible, grind down the
Iraqis if they attacked, plus defend the vital areas around Jubayl. We were also
supposed to defend Ra's Tannurah, which is to the south, but that's too big an
area.  We just didn't have the force for it, even though eventually we had
17,000 Marines in the brigade.   The Army eventually picked up the mission.