thedrifter
02-07-03, 10:13 PM
Posted on Fri, Feb. 07, 2003
Kuwait's Camp Coyote is tip of spear in U.S. arsenal
By RON HARRIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CAMP COYOTE, Kuwait - Just a little more than a week ago, this was nothing more than hundreds upon hundreds of square miles of barren sand and gravel separating the Iraqi border and Kuwait's Highway 80, the infamous "Highway of Death" down which Saddam Hussein's defeated army made its disastrous retreat during Desert Storm.
But as America inches closer to war, hundreds of U.S. Marines and tons of heavy machinery have begun pouring down a makeshift road into a dusty space and, almost overnight, have transformed this flat expanse into the tip of the spear of the U.S. military pointing toward Iraq, 22 miles to the north.
"It's truly amazing to watch a patch of desert become a town," said Lt. Col. Michael Belcher, a veteran of Desert Storm, the conflict in Somalia and commander of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.
When the 163 men of L Company arrived here Jan. 23, they stood alone. Four days later, other Marines began flooding into the area - and transforming it into what nearly everybody here thinks is likely to be the main launching pad for a ground assault into Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Brent Walker, a tall, lanky Marine who had returned to the base after only three days at the Marines Corps' main headquarters to the south, was stunned by the evolution.
"I can't believe it's the same place," said Walker, 29, of Harrisburg, Ill., as he stepped out of an SUV.
Row upon row of large white rectangular tents now stretch across miles of desert, housing thousands of Marines shipped in almost exclusively from a base in Twenty-nine Palms, Calif. Hundreds more turn up daily. The number is expected eventually reach about 7,000.
The Marines say the new environment is just like home.
"This is just like Twenty-nine Palms, except for the mountains there around the desert," said Lt. Paul Gillikin, 25, of Beaufort, N.C.
And they were overwhelmed that they have tents to sleep in.
"I expected to show up here with just a sleeping bag, the ground and a shovel," said John Colonder of St. Charles, Mo.
Dozens of M1 A1 Abrams tanks have arrived from the Arrival and Assembly Operations Element, another dusty, barren patch a few miles away where Marines who hunker down nightly in the sand in two-man tents assemble and test equipment after it comes off ships docked in Kuwait and before it is forwarded to various Marine battalions.
The tanks sit menacingly between the Iraqi border and scores of 100-foot-long tents that each house up to about 80 Marines. Alongside the tanks are even more Armed Amphibious Vehicles, tracked behemoths that will actually carry Marines into battle, the Light Armored Vehicles and Hummers armed with a wide array of weaponry.
---
The regimental Command Operation Center, in essence the unit's war room, has been set up, and Gunnery Sgt. Gasheo Gus Black of St. Louis, the man in charge of operations for the center, has already positioned projectors and reconnaissance equipment to display enemy and U.S. positions in real time.
The area is strewn with military equipment: five- and seven-ton trucks, gasoline trucks, M-198 Howitzers, bridge-building equipment, an untold number of M-16 rifles and hundreds of thousands of liter bottles of water for drinking, bathing and shaving.
The innocuous name of this encampment, now larger than many of the Marines' hometowns, is the "Living Support Area 7." Most recently, however, it has also been dubbed "Tactical Staging Area Ripper," a more appropriate title given its likely role in a ground attack.
Col. Steve Hummer, the regimental commander in charge of getting the equipment in shape and the Marines prepared for battle, said a ground assault from this area is a logical assumption.
"Certainly," he said, "Why else would we be here?" was his response.
Hummer said the camp is quickly becoming close to being ready for an incursion into Iraq, if President George W. Bush orders it.
"Every day, we inch up hundreds of Marines and sailors," he said. "We've got about three-fourths of the armored vehicles in and we've got all of the artillery in."
On Sunday, hundreds more Marines arrived in camp, their buses lined up in the dark outside the tents.
Hummer acknowledged that the ramp up is moving at a phenomenal pace.
"There's people we've already identified for awards because they're doing such a great job," he said. "I'm thrilled with the effort so far."
---
As the Marines have settled in, they have immediately gone to a war footing, test firing heavy artillery and light arms to make sure that they are functioning and sited properly, practicing various assault and defensive techniques and even running night patrols in search of possible enemy infiltration.
"This is a real war scenario," said Staff Sgt. Robert Taylor, 33, of Detroit, sounding like a coach giving a pep talk to his players as he put a platoon through its paces. "Small unit tactics are going to have a vital role in the successful completion of this mission."
Meanwhile, the command center has been relaying information to battalion leaders like Belcher and company commanders like Capt. George Schreffler on the whereabouts of Iraqi military and the movement and location of enemy artillery and armored vehicles so they develop tactics prior to an assault.
All of the activity has created a heightened sense among Marines here that war is imminent. "Everybody knows it's coming," said Schreffler, 31, the soft-spoken but forceful commander of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. "It's just that nobody knows when."
Most Marines appear to believe they will be soon moving across the 10-foot-tall sand berm that helps separate the camp from Iraq.
"I'm nervous about it," said Cpl. Steve Dixon, 20, of Florissant, Mo. "It's not something that I want to do, but if we have to do this, I want to do my part."
Other Marines, like Staff Sgt. Darrell French, 39, of Birch Tree, Mo., have no reservations.
"I feel great," said French, leader of a group of snipers, at the thought of an assault. "Our training is the best in the world. I'm ready."
Sempers,
Roger
Kuwait's Camp Coyote is tip of spear in U.S. arsenal
By RON HARRIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CAMP COYOTE, Kuwait - Just a little more than a week ago, this was nothing more than hundreds upon hundreds of square miles of barren sand and gravel separating the Iraqi border and Kuwait's Highway 80, the infamous "Highway of Death" down which Saddam Hussein's defeated army made its disastrous retreat during Desert Storm.
But as America inches closer to war, hundreds of U.S. Marines and tons of heavy machinery have begun pouring down a makeshift road into a dusty space and, almost overnight, have transformed this flat expanse into the tip of the spear of the U.S. military pointing toward Iraq, 22 miles to the north.
"It's truly amazing to watch a patch of desert become a town," said Lt. Col. Michael Belcher, a veteran of Desert Storm, the conflict in Somalia and commander of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.
When the 163 men of L Company arrived here Jan. 23, they stood alone. Four days later, other Marines began flooding into the area - and transforming it into what nearly everybody here thinks is likely to be the main launching pad for a ground assault into Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Brent Walker, a tall, lanky Marine who had returned to the base after only three days at the Marines Corps' main headquarters to the south, was stunned by the evolution.
"I can't believe it's the same place," said Walker, 29, of Harrisburg, Ill., as he stepped out of an SUV.
Row upon row of large white rectangular tents now stretch across miles of desert, housing thousands of Marines shipped in almost exclusively from a base in Twenty-nine Palms, Calif. Hundreds more turn up daily. The number is expected eventually reach about 7,000.
The Marines say the new environment is just like home.
"This is just like Twenty-nine Palms, except for the mountains there around the desert," said Lt. Paul Gillikin, 25, of Beaufort, N.C.
And they were overwhelmed that they have tents to sleep in.
"I expected to show up here with just a sleeping bag, the ground and a shovel," said John Colonder of St. Charles, Mo.
Dozens of M1 A1 Abrams tanks have arrived from the Arrival and Assembly Operations Element, another dusty, barren patch a few miles away where Marines who hunker down nightly in the sand in two-man tents assemble and test equipment after it comes off ships docked in Kuwait and before it is forwarded to various Marine battalions.
The tanks sit menacingly between the Iraqi border and scores of 100-foot-long tents that each house up to about 80 Marines. Alongside the tanks are even more Armed Amphibious Vehicles, tracked behemoths that will actually carry Marines into battle, the Light Armored Vehicles and Hummers armed with a wide array of weaponry.
---
The regimental Command Operation Center, in essence the unit's war room, has been set up, and Gunnery Sgt. Gasheo Gus Black of St. Louis, the man in charge of operations for the center, has already positioned projectors and reconnaissance equipment to display enemy and U.S. positions in real time.
The area is strewn with military equipment: five- and seven-ton trucks, gasoline trucks, M-198 Howitzers, bridge-building equipment, an untold number of M-16 rifles and hundreds of thousands of liter bottles of water for drinking, bathing and shaving.
The innocuous name of this encampment, now larger than many of the Marines' hometowns, is the "Living Support Area 7." Most recently, however, it has also been dubbed "Tactical Staging Area Ripper," a more appropriate title given its likely role in a ground attack.
Col. Steve Hummer, the regimental commander in charge of getting the equipment in shape and the Marines prepared for battle, said a ground assault from this area is a logical assumption.
"Certainly," he said, "Why else would we be here?" was his response.
Hummer said the camp is quickly becoming close to being ready for an incursion into Iraq, if President George W. Bush orders it.
"Every day, we inch up hundreds of Marines and sailors," he said. "We've got about three-fourths of the armored vehicles in and we've got all of the artillery in."
On Sunday, hundreds more Marines arrived in camp, their buses lined up in the dark outside the tents.
Hummer acknowledged that the ramp up is moving at a phenomenal pace.
"There's people we've already identified for awards because they're doing such a great job," he said. "I'm thrilled with the effort so far."
---
As the Marines have settled in, they have immediately gone to a war footing, test firing heavy artillery and light arms to make sure that they are functioning and sited properly, practicing various assault and defensive techniques and even running night patrols in search of possible enemy infiltration.
"This is a real war scenario," said Staff Sgt. Robert Taylor, 33, of Detroit, sounding like a coach giving a pep talk to his players as he put a platoon through its paces. "Small unit tactics are going to have a vital role in the successful completion of this mission."
Meanwhile, the command center has been relaying information to battalion leaders like Belcher and company commanders like Capt. George Schreffler on the whereabouts of Iraqi military and the movement and location of enemy artillery and armored vehicles so they develop tactics prior to an assault.
All of the activity has created a heightened sense among Marines here that war is imminent. "Everybody knows it's coming," said Schreffler, 31, the soft-spoken but forceful commander of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. "It's just that nobody knows when."
Most Marines appear to believe they will be soon moving across the 10-foot-tall sand berm that helps separate the camp from Iraq.
"I'm nervous about it," said Cpl. Steve Dixon, 20, of Florissant, Mo. "It's not something that I want to do, but if we have to do this, I want to do my part."
Other Marines, like Staff Sgt. Darrell French, 39, of Birch Tree, Mo., have no reservations.
"I feel great," said French, leader of a group of snipers, at the thought of an assault. "Our training is the best in the world. I'm ready."
Sempers,
Roger