SO                                  U.S. MARINES JN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991


    The attack involved tactical risk. To capture the airfield General Myatt
needed Task Force Ripper to change its axis of advance from north to west and
expose its right flank to the enemy. He minimized the risk by ordering Task
Force Shepherd to screen north of Ripper. As the two task forces took up their
positions Colonel Fulford set the assault to start at 1630. He placed the 3d Tank
Battalion in the center, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, on the right, and the 1st
Battalion, 5th Marines, on the left. Both infantry battalions deployed in a
battalion wedge formation for the attack. Each commander placed the tank
company in the lead with the mechanized company on the left and the infantry
company on the right. The battalion commanders in their AAVs took position
in the center of the wedge behind the tank company. To the rear of the battalion
commander in the forward command post came the 81min mortar section, the
main command post, and the battalion combat train. Each commander tacitly
acknowledged the exposed right and took the added precaution to establish a
battalion CAAT screen on that flank. Throughout the afternoon while the task
force deployed into the attack, the 3d Battalion, 11th Marines, saturated the
airfield with preparatory fires. The fire ceased at 1600 when General Myatt grew
concerned over the large number of defeated Jraqis wandering about the area.
    At 1630 the assault began. It was the first attack affected by burning oil
wells which surrounded tile area and the battalions moved cautiously. Major
Bennett noted:135

           All hands were awestruck by the ominous pall of smoke
           emanating from over 50 wellhead fires in the Al Burqan
           0ilfield. Commanders   whose   senses were  sharply
           focused found that the rumbling from the burning [well
           heads] played tricks on their hearing, sounding almost
           like columns of armored vehicles approaching our right
           flank.

    Task Force Ripper maneuvered north of Jaber Airfield to envelop it from the
rear, wheeling along a southwest axis then closing on the airfield perimeter. By
then the attacking battalions moved in semi-darkness brought on by dusk
combined with smoke from burning well heads. Regardless, the task force
maintained its formation and negotiated its way through a complex   of dug-in
enemy   tanks, bunkers,  debris from  allied air bombardment,      and  many
surrendering Iraqis. For the most part, the afternoon's artillery fire ended Iraqi
resistance. However, at 1734 with visibility down to 300 meters, two T-62s
attempted to engage the right flank of 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. The CAAT
screening to the northwest spotted the enemy tanks and destroyed one of them.
Four minutes later "Team Tank" from 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, engaged and
destroyed three T-62s hidden behind revetments. The 1st Battalion, 7th Marines,
knocked out three more T-62s and three T-55s in the final push to the airfield
perimeter. Iraqi resistance ceased at that point and by 1800 Task Force Ripper
successfully isolated Al Jaber.