Courtesy Photo | Spc. Nicholas Tompkins of the 12th Infantry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, conducts a...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Thomas L. Day
40th Public Affairs Detachment
KUWAIT— For the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command, needed one good man to lead his ground forces.
Franks decided he would not take ground command for himself, something his Gulf War predecessor, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, had done for the 1991 invasion of Kuwait.
That hat, it was decided, would be worn by Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the Third Army and Combined Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) commander.
McKiernan was a product of the 1st Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Division [he commanded the 1st Cav. Div. before taking command of Third Army on Sept. 4, 2002]. He was handpicked for the command by Gen. Jack Keane, then the Army's Vice Chief of Staff, with the understanding that McKiernan would be leading Third Army into combat. Keane would supplement McKiernan with the Army's finest field grade and general officers.
Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the V Corps commander, would be McKiernan's top field general. Wallace came with a Class of 1969 West Point ring, a tour in Vietnam under his belt and a reputation as a commander with candor. V Corps would command some of the Army's most storied divisions: the 3rd Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division.
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force would fall to Lt. Gen. James Conway. The invasion plan called for Conway's 1st MEF to move north along the Tigris River and charge into Baghdad from the east. Wallace's V Corps would pinch the Iraq capital from the west.
It was a force that did not include McKiernan's former outfits, the 1st Armored and 1st Cavalry Divisions, much to his dismay. "Speed kills," Franks told his commanders. McKiernan, according to the Washington Post's Thomas E. Hicks, did not buy into the lighter, quicker force his U.S. Central Command boss wanted.
March 19, 2003
The 1991 Gulf War began with more than 35 days of air strikes before the ground offensive, which lasted only 100 hours before Saddam Hussein called retreat. The invasion of Iraq would be different; the ground troops would move into Iraq as the U.S. Navy and Air Force surgically destroyed Saddam's command bases.
On March 19, America's first salvo hit Dora Farms, a compound outside Baghdad where CIA Director George Tenet believed Saddam was meeting with his government's top officials. At 8:30 a.m., four satellite-guided missiles struck the compound, but Saddam escaped.
For the Third Army Soldiers waiting for combat, the March 19 air raid was the green light. On the morning of March 20, Franks and McKiernan, operating out of Camp Doha, Kuwait, dispatched the invading ground force.
The opening week of combat was beset by punishing dust storms and a surprisingly high will to fight among irregular forces operating in Iraq's southern provinces. But as the American ground campaign trudged along, Iraq's military strength had been decimated division by division by the intense air strikes.
By the time American troops reached towns where they expected fierce resistance from Iraq's Republican Guard, all that remained was burning materiel. Irregular forces, calling themselves the "Fedayeen" [for "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice"] remained a bugaboo for American commanders.
March 26, 2003
Wallace acknowledged in an interview with the Washington Post's Rick Atkinson that the "the enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd wargamed against." The V Corps commander was stating publicly what McKiernan and his staff already knew. On March 26, McKiernan, Wallace and Conway met face-to-face to redress the war plan.
Out of the March 26 meeting would come a new role for Wallace's V Corps. The 3rd Inf. Div. would lead the charge to Baghdad. The 101st Abn. Div. would protect the 3rd Infantry's rear, engaging Saddam's Fedayeen forces in An Najaf, Karbala and Al Hillah.
April 5 would mark the beginning of Saddam's "Waterloo" moment.
Thunder Run
Col. David Perkins, 3rd Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team commander, wanted to fell Saddam's regime with one quick strike. Perkins ordered Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz and his Bradley tank battalion to charge directly into Baghdad at the break of dawn on April 5. Schwartz, according to the Los Angeles Times' David Zucchino, asked his brigade commander if he was joking.
"No," Perkins told Schwartz. "I need you to do this."
Schwartz would lead 3rd Inf. Div. into the Saddam International Airport. On April 7, 3rd Inf. Div. would take the Central Baghdad regime district, what Carl von Clausewitz would call "the culminating point of the offensive." The 1st MEF, true to the original plan, rolled into Baghdad through the eastern approaches across the Diyalah River on April 8. Remnants of resistance remained in Baghdad, but Saddam Hussein no longer held dictatorial power over Baghdad.
For McKiernan, the overthrow of Saddam would mark the end of his tour in Iraq.
Post-war reconstruction duty was swiftly handed to civilian administrator Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jay Garner [later succeeded by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer] and V Corps, under its new commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.
McKiernan, since promoted to the rank of General, is now the commander of U.S. Army-Europe and 7th Army.
In the four years since, Third Army/U.S. Army Central, commanded by Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, has operated with a forward team in Kuwait, ensuring forward forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are fully supported.
| Date Taken: | 03.14.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 03.14.2007 09:09 |
| Story ID: | 9442 |
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| Web Views: | 602 |
| Downloads: | 312 |
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