70                                      U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991


   Task Force Grizzly crossed using the lane discovered in front of the 3d
Battalion, 7th Marines. Covered by artillery, the 3d Battalion led the march into
Kuwait. It found no enemy resistance, but its scouts unexpectedly found a
second, though smaller, minefield just after midnight. Already behind schedule
because of the imposed restrictions, Colonel Fulks decided to make an explosive
breach. At 0130  combat engineers under the command of Second Lieutenant
Charles L. Fraticelli, Company C, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, used an AAV
firing a Mk154 line charge followed by a M6OAi tank equipped with a track-
width mine plow to create a lane through this unexpected minefield.t14
   It was just after this that Task Force Grizzly encountered its second delay.
The 3d Battalion remained in the lead and soon came across signs of a hurried
withdrawal. Every position the battalion passed contained their former occupants'
personal possessions. So hurried was the withdrawal that in one bunker Marines
found an Iraqi radio with the frequency set and another bunker contained a safe
full of documents. Unfortunately, the combination of late start, bunkers, and
minefield slowed the progress of Task Force Grizzly to such an extent that by
dawn it had yet to clear Task Force Ripper's zone.
   With the coming of daylight, Task Force Grizzly got into a skirmish with a
small enemy armored force. The first engagement occurred at 0519 when the
antitank HMMWVs attached to the 2d Battalion, 7th Marines, engaged three
reported T-72 tanks and three BMPs. After an exchange of fire, the Iraqi
vehicles withdrew to the north and disappeared. A short time later Marines with
the forward command post heard small arms fire. The 2d Battalion then came
under tank. and small       arms fire from a different direction--the southeast.
Likewise, to the rear, Company A, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, attached to Task
Force Grizzly to handle enemy prisoners of war, also received tank main gun
rounds from the southeast. The task force then came under a barrage of accurate
artillery fire.
   At first Colonel Fulks was unable to determine who had engaged the task
force, but Grizzly began taking losses. The 3d Battalion reported one Marine
killed, two trucks destroyed, and one~AAV damaged by tank fire. Three Marines
were also wounded in the engagement. Colonel Fuiks soon suspected that the
fire came from Task Force Ripper which was due to be making its breach
southwest of him at 0600.~~~ However, visibility remained too poor to confirm
who was doing the shooting. The mystery solved itself a short time later when
one of the 3d Battalion's supply vehicles near the rear of his column also came
under machine gun and tank fire from the southeast. This time Task Force
Grizzly observers had sufficient light to see that the fire was coming from
another Marine     unit.116  Grizzly's Marines had walked into an engagement
between Task Force Ripper and an Iraqi force.
   In the course of making the task force breach, tankers from Ripper's 3d Tank
Battalion spotted and fired on the same enemy unit subsequently engaged by the
2d Battalion, 7th Marines. Concentrating on their break out from the breach, the
tankers moved forward unaware that Task Force Grizzly might still be in their
zone. They interpreted the distant forms to be part of the withdrawing Iraqi