98                                   U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, I99~I991

                       "Desertions Really Hurt Them."

     In contrast to the Iraqi front lines, the bunkers of troop5 stationed farther
north and nearer Kuwait City were stuffed amply with sacks of potatoes and rice
and other foodstuffs.   One Marine said he entered an Iraqi bunker and saw a
plump roast in a pan near a stove, indicating the cook fled minutes before he
planned to start dinner.  In some areas, entire prefabricated houses had been
buried, complete with indoor toilets, showers, kitchens and potted plants.
     Allied forces say they captured at least eight brigadier generals or colonels
who commanded brigade-sized units.   One general captured by Marine forces
at his desert command post was impeccably dressed, with meticulously combed
hair and clean fingernails. According to Marine Maj. Gen. Keys, who met with
the officer: "He was living a lot better than I was."
     Personnel logs discovered in dozens of Iraqi command bunkers show that up
until a few weeks before the air war began, Iraqi commanders allowed their
soldiers to take leaves to visit their families. Those same documents show that
at least 20 percent of the troops never returned to their units.
     "I think desertions really hurt them," said Col. Bill Steed, plans chief for the
Marine operation.  "They had some units way below 50 percent strength."
     As allied aircraft began pounding Iraqi military positions in January, Iraqi
commanders formed execution squads and ordered them to shoot any troops
caught trying to defect or sneak away from their units, according to military
interviews with the captured Iraqi senior officers.
     Meanwhile, from their body-sized holes in the sand miles inside Iraqi-held
territory, U.S. reconnaissance teams began to discover details of the deteriora-
tion and lack of military commitment among Iraqi troops that had remained
invisible to the sophisticated intelligence equipment in the skies above them.
     On the night of Feb. 17, three six-member reconnaissance teams slipped
across the Kuwait border.  For the next 76 hours, with no sleep and little food,
they crept through Iraqi defenses by night and hid in burlap covered sand holes
by day.   They communicated by radio to their rear base using cryptic one-word
codes: "Cougar" meant the men were safe inside their holes, "alligator," in case
they were discovered and came under attack.       For the entire period, each man
spoke only about a half-dozen words into his radio.
     At one point, Sgt. John Smith, 32, heard Iraqi voices and coughs beneath his
feet.  He had walked across the top of a buried bunker.
     On the second night, the teams reached the first Iraqi minefield and obstacle
belt.  In the cold, rainy darkness, four Iraqi soldiers began walking toward one
of the teams.  The Marines waited breathlessly, trapped between     approaching
enemy troops and the minefield.   The Iraqis sauntered past, oblivious to the
hidden intruders.
     "It was nerve-wracking. The responsibility was awesome," said Capt. Rory
Talkington, 33, who monitored their movements from the Saudi border.       "The
lives of a lot of people were hanging in the balance of what they learned."
     Using night-vision goggles, the men         picked their way  through Iraqi
minefields and began learning that the mines--although they were vast in number