Battlefield Laboratories of
and engine of change
and FM 100-5 manuals
and future battlefields
and ideas for change
and land war doctrine
responsibilities of
Transcribers
Transition wars
Transportation
"Trap lines,"
Trench warfare
Triage aid station
Triple canopy rain forest
Troops. See Soldiers
Truck convoys
Trucks
Truck vans
Trust
betrayal of
between Army and country
in leaders
Tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided antitank (TOW) missiles
Tunnel rats
Turkey option
Turning movement as form of maneuver
Twenty-fourth Mechanized Division (U.S.)
Twenty-second SUPCOM
Two hundred and seventh MI Brigade
UH1 "Huey" helicopters
Umm Hajul Airfield
Umm Qasr
Unexploded munitions
Unified Commands
Unit battlefield tasks
United Nations
deadline to Iraqis
and peace treaty signing
resolutions of
United States
diplomatic maneuvering of
prisoners of war
strength of
Unity of command as principle of war
Unmanned drones
Unobserved fire
Unterseher, Jim
Uranium residue
Urinalysis drug testing
VA counselors
"Valley of the Boogers,"
Valley Forge General Hospital
Values of soldiers
Victory, disorganizing effects of
Video cameras
Video legacy of Desert Storm
Viet Cong
Vietnamese interpreters
Vietnamization
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam War
antiwar feelings
attack helicopters in
battle for Snoul, Cambodia
combat experience in
Easter offensive (1972)
Franks in
guerillas in
helicopter use in combat
maneuver warfare in
personalness of
refresher course on
rites of passage in
soldiers in
tactical methods in
and trust between Army and country
unlimited price for limited objectives
U.S. Army in
and U.S. leadership
Vincent, Mark E.
Virtual reality
Visual signals
Voice communication
VOLAR Project
Volunteer organizations
Von Steuben, Baron
Vuono, Carl
as Army Chief of Staff
in Army's third generation
and BCTP
Iraqi helmet gift to
and residual force
in selection of Franks for TRADOC command
at TRADOC
Wadi al Batin Iraqis in
Waller, Cal
as acting Third Army commander
at Al Khubar Village ceremony
Franks talking with
Walsh, Rich
Walters, Vernon
War, principles of
War College
WARFIGHTER exercise
War games
Warning lights for change
Warning orders
War of 1812
Warrior spirit
Warsaw Pact
echelonment tactics of
and Eleventh Armored Cavalry Regiment (U.S.), the "Blackhorse,"
focus on stopping
Franks observing military exercise of
and Fulda Gap
See also Cold War; NATO; Soviet Army
War trophies and souvenirs
War Zone C, Vietnam
Washington, George
Washington parade for Persian Gulf veterans
Washington Post
Waste disposal
Water bladders
Water distribution
Water-purification equipment
Weapons of mass destruction
Weapons skills
Weapons system
Weather
and air support
on 1st day
on 2nd day
on 3rd day
on 4th day
"Wedge" of First Armored Division
Wehrmacht
Weight-control programs
Weisman, Dave
West Lawn, Pennsylvania
Westmoreland, William
West Point
cemetery at
Franks attending
Franks teaching at
women graduates of
Whiskey Rebellion
Whispering Death
Whitcomb, Steve
White, Jerry
WIA. See Wounded in action
Wickham, John
Williams, Mike
Williams, Paul "Bo,"
Williams, Ray
Williamson, Norm
Wilson, Bob
Wilson, Glenn
Wilson, Lee
Winans, Herm
Wireless radios
Women in U.S. Army
Woolsey, R. James
World War I
defensive arrangements of
human cost of
masses of soldiers
and national survival
Tank Corps of
World War II
Ardennes
Army's unpreparedness for
Burma
combat veterans of
D-Day
El Alamein
foot-mobile infantry in
French in
fuel consumption in
Germans in
joint operations in
massed air and sea armadas in
and national survival
operational objectives in
Wounded in action (WIA) See also Casualties
Xuan Loc, Vietnam
Yellow-ribbon campaign
Yeosock, John
on 1st day
on 2nd day
on 3rd day
on 4th day
calling Franks from Saudi Arabia
cease-fire change in orders
cease-fire warning order
as commander of Third Army
communications with
drawing up demilitarized zone
and early attack
emergency surgery of
leaves Kuwait
in planning for Desert Storm
and protection of refugees
and Safwan crossroads
at Schwarzkopf 's mission briefing
welcoming Franks to Saudi Arbia
Yom Kippur War. See Mideast War (1973)
Zanini, Dan
Zero-tolerance policy on drugs
Zone, the
Zulu time
1 Third Army was Franks's next higher command, while CENTCOM (Central Command) was the overall U.S. Joint Command (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines) in the Gulf. CENTCOM was commanded by General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
2 A meeting engagement is a tactical action in which a force that is usually moving "meets" or otherwise runs into an enemy force that is also usually moving, but which could also be stationary. Normally, this is a surprise encounter, even though you know the enemy is out there somewhere. The faster-reacting force usually wins. It takes a lot of practice for units to absorb the initial surprise and continue to act faster than the enemy and in a way that brings combat power
to bear. It is a tough tactical maneuver, and indeed a commander obviously would prefer to know in advance where the enemy is so he can think ahead about his mode of attack.
3 In order to lure the Iraqis into believing that the main American attack was coming due north up the Wadi al Batin axis rather than further west, Franks and his planners had devised a deception scheme that had the division operating in the Ruqi Pocket of the Wadi al Batin. (The Ruqi Pocket was at the tricorner area where the borders of Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi joined. This area lay at the eastern edge of the VII Corps zone of operations.) Here the 1st CAV had conducted a skillful series of feints and demonstrations against Iraqi forces. During their operation they had captured 1,800 Iraqi prisoners.
4 The following ideas--as well as most of the other more "conceptual" or "philosophical" portions of this chapter--do not actually represent Fred Franks's understanding of his experiences while he was in Vietnam. Rather, and more accurately, they represent the distillation of a lifetime of experiences. In Vietnam, this understanding was in seed and green shoot form. But it was there.
5 After Vietnam, Leach became armor branch chief at the Army's Personnel Command in charge of assignments of all armor officers. While there, he saw to it that battle-wounded soldiers who wanted to remain in the Army were given the opportunity to do so. More than anyone else, Jimmie Leach helped Franks stay on active duty. Franks would never forget this. It was the cavalry family looking after its own.
6 The following dialogue was reported by James P. Sterba in "Scraps of Paper from Vietnam," The New York Times Magazine, 18 October 1970.
7 Dialogue again as reported by James P. Sterba.
8 For a more complete description of all these systems, see my Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment.
9 Divisions normally differ only in the number of tank and Bradley battalions; an armored division might have six tank and four Bradley battalions, while a mechanized division will normally have five battalions of each.
10 Large metal shipping containers.
11 Third Infantry also ran the convoy operations over German highways to ports in northern Germany and Holland and provided the cadre to load the ships at the port.
12 Combat loading places a unit's weapons, equipment, ammo, and vehicles on board a ship in such a way that when these are unloaded at their destination, they'll be "ready to go." You can, for example, theoretically drive a combat-loaded unit off the ship and go fight it.
13 Tactical Satellite Radio. When VII Corps deployed, they had none of these. They eventually got thirty-three for the whole corps. They could have used more.
14 Franks and the commander of Egyptian forces in the coalition, Major General Saleh Halaby, exchanged visits several times during the course of the preparations for war. They talked about command arrangements and exchanged plans. In fact, as it turned out, the Egyptian army knew the Iraqis very well, for they had seen them during the Iran-Iraq War. And during one of their visits Franks got from Haleby his appraisal of Iraqi forces. It turned out to be the most accurate assessment Franks would get of the Iraqis: He was right on target.
15 They thought the RGFC would attempt either to escape from the theater via Highway 8, to counterattack against attacking Third Army corps, or to defend the approaches to Basra. It was believed that the last was their most likely choice.
16 The UN gave the Iraqis a 15 January deadline to get out of Kuwait, after which point the Coalition considered itself officially at war with Iraq. The deadline passed, and the air war began on 17 January.
17 In July 1994, Franks directed that a building at TRADOC headquarters at Fort Monroe, Virginia, be dedicated in his memory. Present at the dedication were his family and his whole chain of command, from platoon leader to corps commander (by now John Tilelli was also a four-star general and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.) It is the first building at that national historic landmark to be dedicated to an enlisted soldier. Ardon was a hero.
18 Phase lines are used to keep units abreast of one another when that is necessary, or to otherwise control a unit. It is easier to maneuver units if they have common reference points on which to orient--especially in the desert, where there are no landmarks.
19 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions--small hand grenade-sized bomblets packed into an artillery shell and dispensed when the shell bursts in the air; about 5 percent were duds.
20 As it turned out, this period set a ten-year record for rainfall.
21 Ray died of a heart attack in 1993; he was a superb officer who knew more about corps deep operations than anyone I knew. He was also a meticulous planner and relentless in seeing orders executed to completion.
22 Such is the nature of investment decisions for strategic and tactical communications. Strategic comms work well and get big dollars for development, while the closer you get to where rounds impact, the less money and the more primitive the comms. So you improvise and do other things. Except for 3rd AD, we had tactical line-of-sight communications that dated back to the early 1960s and had been used in Vietnam.
23 Cal Waller died of a heart attack in 1995. He was an invaluable line of communication with General Schwarzkopf, and in January had the courage to say that we weren't then ready to attack (even though several people wished that was somehow so); he was for a time Third Army commander, a job he handled with professionalism and skill; and he was a friend.
24 Lieutenant Colonel Tom Goedkoop and my corps planners had on their own initiative named all the assembly areas and attack positions of the VII Corps after World War II Medal of Honor winners: Garcia, Butts, Henry, Thompson, Roosevelt, Keyes, and Ray.
25 On a visit to Fort Huachuca on 19 December 1991, I was surprised to receive a UAV propeller blade from one of the task force members with the inscription "Thanks for the TANKS, Sir."
26 After the war, I learned from the USMC history that a decision to go early really did not happen until early afternoon--despite the flurry of phone calls in the morning. The 0930 phone call from John Yeosock was therefore a "what if " . . . a trial balloon. In other words, contrary to some postwar analyses and commentaries, the decision to attack early was not predicated on some kind of perception of a rout of the Iraqis or that the Iraqis were getting away. The motive for the early attack was protection of the Marines' left flank. That makes sense.
27 Easting lines--north/south grid lines--were another means of orientation. As you moved from west to east, the numbers grew higher. Thus 60 Easting was farther west than 70 Easting.
28 FRAGPLAN 7 had originally been the proposal of my chief of plans, Lieutenant Colonel Bob Schmitt, and British staff planner Major Nick Seymour, a fact that accounted for some British names for objectives, such as Norfolk and Minden.