WrrH THE iST MARINE DIVISION IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM            75


normally cleared a path some distance into the minefield. The combat engineer
repeated the process until they reached the other side. In some instances, the
MK58 single-shot line charge failed completely and an AAV with the newer
MKl54 three-shot line charge came forward. This happened with "Team Tank,"
1st Battalion, 7th Marines. The AAV simply moved behind the tank, fired the
line charge over the tank, then detonated the charge either remotely or manual-
ly--normally the latter as both the MK58 and MK154 remote detonating systems
proved unreliable. Once through a lane with the line charge the track-width mine
plow-equipped tank plunged forward to clear and thus proof the lanes against
loose or deeply buried mines.'26
   Except for problems with proper detonation, the combat engineers breached
three of the four lanes without incident. Lane 3, assigned to "Team Mech,"
proved to be the most difficult. Initially, this breach proceeded better than the
others. Sergeant Scott Helms, commanding an M60A1 tank, pulled its MK54
single-shot line charge into position and aligned it on a 10-degree azimuth
straight across the minefield. Helms next radioed that he was in position and
ready to fire. Permission received, Sergeant Helms pressed the ignition button.
After a characteristic explosion and whooshing sound when the rocket launched,
the line charge uncoiled over the tank, landing almost perfectly on the minefield.
The charged proved to be one of the few successfully detonated by remote
control. That was the last thing to go right. Sergeant Helms' tank was only half-
way through the lane using its Israeli-designed mine roller (called "roller dude")
when the tank struck a possible double impulse mine. The tank lost its left tread
and road wheel in the blast. Captain Craig Baker, commanding "Team Mech,'1
saw that the tank was out of action, immediately shifted 30 meters left of Helms'
tank, and called up a MK154 equipped AAV to fire another line charge. A
similar sequence followed, but this charge needed manual priming to detonate.
A second tank with mine plow proofed to the end of the charge-cleared lane
where the AAV fired a second charge to complete the breach.'27
   Once the tank cleared a lane through to the far side, it turned around and
plowed back to the starting point. A team of combat engineers followed and
marked the right, left, and center of the lane. While doing so they looked for
any surviving obstacles or mines that might have fallen back into the cleared
lanes. They destroyed anything too dangerous to move. The team was especially
observant for chemical and biological mines. If they found such a mine, the
combat engineers called in a West German-made Fuchs (Fox) chemical detection
vehicle to investigate. During one of these investigations the vehicle's instru-
ments indicated it had found a chemical mine. Upon hearing this report General
Myatt ordered MOPP level -4 (the complete chemical protective suit, including
gas mask and gloves) for everyone in the immediate area of lane clearing
operations.
   It took only 24 minutes for the combat engineers to clear lanes 1, 2, and 4.
A series of green and white star combinations shot into the sky when each
obstacle-clearing detachment completed its lane. At 0644 the 3d Tank Battalion
passed through the minefield using lanes 1 and 2. It led the 1st Battalion, 7th
Marines, and 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. Once into the open desert, the three