25 years later, 73 Easting, the Reason why (it was a rout)

Back in 1991, I was a 17 year old military fan-boy who understood more about what was happening in Operation Deseret Storm than all the journalists put together. I played a few tabletop war games and read some Tom Clancy novels, that's all. God the media ignorance was astounding. Already I was writing novels, I still have the notebooks somewhere. Never thought I'd write A Line through the Desert.

Desert Storm can easily be divided into two phases, the air war and the ground war. Now the ground war lasted 100 hours and saw the coalition fulfill most of its objectives. Your author vividly recalls media reports on the eve of the ground war estimating 10,000 casualties.

Much of the Iraqi military ran. Those units that did fight were cut to pieces. The Iraqi army, certainly the Republican Guard, was a pretty good fighting force. Not like an American army, but still, it was battle hardened, trained and well equipped- in the Soviet fashion.

So why was an American armored cavalry regiment able to shred two Iraqi Republican Guard divisions?

The 2nd ACR was already highly trained and motivated when it got to the Gulf. In the six weeks or so it was in Saudi Arabia, it only got better. Simply put, with nothing else to do, the regiment trained and trained and trained some more. Not that the troopers weren't bored the rest of the time. They certainly were. I think this is another advantage they had. By the time they got the order to cross onto Iraqi the troopers of the 2nd ACR were itching to go, over eager. They were like caged animals.

Of course technology was the other American advantage. The U.S. Army navigated through open desert, thought impossible by the Iraqis with this new technology, GPS. The Battle of 73 Easting was fought in a sand storm. The Iraqis were blind, but the Americans were not because of their night vision equipment. And of course, the Sabot shells were a huge advantage. One hit, one kill with the Sabot.

In A Line through the Desert the reader sees Sgt. Jake Bloom experience all of this. Here's the scene depicting the initial meeting of the Ghost Troop and the Republican Guard:

“How’s the fight south going, L-T?” Jake asked.

            “We’re kicking ass” replied Lt. Drew “And now Eagle is…wait one…”

            While Jake was waiting for Lt. Drew to resume, Dan spoke. “Hey what do you make of this?”

            Jake dropped back inside the turret and asked, “What do I make of what?”

            He scanned the horizon with his TIS and saw a series of undefined splotches and right angles. He’d never seen anything quite like them before. Jake switched the resolution from white on black to black on white, but with the storm he still couldn’t make out any clear hotspots. He used his TC override to line up and laser the nearest target. Jake got back up in the cupola and peered through the storm but still saw nothing.  

Just as Jake was about to ask Lt. Drew what he thought, 1^st Platoon opened up with a barrage of TOW missiles.

            Lt. Drew shouted over the net, “Contact forward! Contact forward! Engage! Engage!”

            Jake dropped into the turret. “Fire Dan!” he shouted.

            “On the way!”

            Jake got his eyes on his site just in time to see the target explode and a turret flip through the air.

            “Engaged and destroyed!” he reported.

            Lt. Drew barked in Jake’s ear. “What did you take out, Bloom?”

            “I don’t know. A tank, I think.”

            “What do you mean, you think?”

            “Can’t see shit out there L-T.”

            Jake scanned the target area. “I found one!” He lased the target, “1300 meters!”

            “What the hell is it?!” Dan asked.

            “I can’t fucking tell!” He peered further. “Ahh, shit. Veras, Sabot!”

            Veras took a Sabot round from the ready rack and slammed it into the breach. “Up!”

            “Blast it!”

            “On the way!”

            Jake waited for a report but saw nothing. He reached down and slapped Dan on the back the head. “You missed! Re-engage!” he shouted.

            “Veras gimmie another Sabot.”

            Veras opened the ready rack took a round and slammed it home. “Up!”

            “Fire!” Jake ordered.

            Dan didn’t miss this time. The round penetrated an Iraqi tank with unimaginable kinetic energy, vaporizing the crew and exploding its ammunition. The turret spiraled through the air and landed 50 meters away.

            “Holy Shit, it’s like flipping God dam tiddlywinks out there!” shouted Jake.

            Jake tried to select another target, but every time he identified one it went up in a ball of flame. Ghost Troop fired and rolled forward against sporadic and ineffective Iraqi return fire delivered from the reverse slope of a wadi. By the time they came upon the edge of the wadi, Ghost Troop blasted the Iraqis right out their positions, reducing the Iraqi battle line to a hellish wreckage of flaming metal and flesh.