148                                   U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 19901991


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                    SAUDI ARABIA
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   Iraqi Force Deployments,
      21 February 1991


   We built a training range that could handle all the weapons of a mechanized
and armored assault force, and we developed a complex of obstacles for use in
training for breaching operations.  In addition to their other work, every unit
went through a standard syllabus that took about five training days.  About the
middle of January, we moved northwest to the left of the 1st Marine Division,
about 12 miles below the border with Kuwait.      We stayed there about two
weeks, and--as we did everywhere we stopped--we kept on training.       This is
where we had our first significant contact with Iraqi forces.  Some of our light
armored vehicles had a skirmish with Iraqi tanks along the border and killed
five, as I recall.

Proceedings: What were the Iraqis doing at this time? Were they trying to run
any probes, any reconnaissance missions?

Keys: They would come up to the border at night, and if they did anything
beyond that, it didn't go very deep.  It was the same with us. CentCom didn't
want anybody in the I MEF sector launching combat-reconnaissance missions
into Kuwait at this point.  The concern was starting the ground war early.