140                                    U~5. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, I99O~I991

pushed the smoke from the burning weilbeads in the Iraqis' faces; they simply
couldn't see us.
    On G+2, as we were moving north, talking with Carl Fulford there at Task
Force Ripper, he could see from 40 to 150 meters in most cases--it varied.     It
was like three total eclipses.  We had to use flashlights to be able to read the
maps at noon.   It might clear up a little bit more than that in certain areas.
    But we were moving forward and couldn't see well on G+2, and Carl
Fulford started engaging T-72 tanks 15 minutes after he moved out; that's the
first time we had encountered T-72s.    Until then it had always been the T-5Ss
and T~2s.    That's when I knew that he was running into the Iraqi 3d Armored
Division, and he pretty much fought that 3d Armored Division all the way
north, and he needed some help.
    Lieutenant Colonel Mike Kurth, who had HMLA-369, had managed to
acquire, even before we left the States, a forward looking infrared capability, as
well as a laser designator that he mounted in two Hueys.      It allowed him to
designate and see from a Huey and guide his Cobras in.             So here's Carl
engaging the 3d Armored Division and needing some help, and you've got Mike
Kurth flying from the area south of all the smoke, in a Huey, guiding a division
of helicopters under three big high-tension wire systems, flying under them,
going up-north to support Task Force Ripper.  He could see using the FLIR and
designate for the Cobras to fire their Hellfire missiles.  He then turned them
south, guided them out, and brought in another division of Cobras.     That's how
it worked there.

Proceedings: General Moore mentioned that you like Cobras.

Myatt: We were counterattacked at my command post by an Iraqi mechanized
infantry brigade.   Cobras were actually over my CP, firing TOWs at the
BTR~0s and the BMPs of that Iraqi brigade.    It's kind of humorous now.     The
radio operators rolled up the sides of the tent up so that they could actually see
what the action was--about 300 meters from my CP.    We had a light armored
infantry company working with the Cobras, what I call Task Force Cunningham,
just like they had trained to do for the last previous six months.  It was great to
see how it all worked.

Proceedings: Were any Marines walking at all? Was everybody riding in
something?

Myatt: I had two regiments on foot.     These two regiments started infiltrating
into Kuwait on G-2, so by the time the ground war started, we already had two
regiments 18 and 20 kilometers inside Kuwait.     General Schwarzkopf called
General Boomer and said, "I've got to be carefi~l here.      Don't do anything
irreversible.  The President's offered Saddam one more chance to get out by
noon."  Of course, noon in Washington, D.C., was 2000 in Saudi Arabia, and
General Boomer and I laughed.     We said, "It's not irreversible, because we can
bring them back out."