Desert Shield And Desert Storm 3
LCpl Frank Costanza, 3d Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, Saudi Arabia, November 1990
Photo by PFC Pena submitted by former LCpl Frank Costanza
Second Lt Chris Simmler, Platoon Commander, 1st Plt, Co B, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Second Force Service Support Group, adapts to desert living prior to the assault into Kuwait.
Submitted by former 2dLt Chris Simmler
The 2d Bn, 24th Marines, a Reserve unit out of Milwaukee, initially was assigned the mission of protecting the I Marine Expeditionary Force commander’s primary bases in northern Saudi Arabia. Not taking any chances with the threat of Iraqi Scud missile attacks, these 2/24 leathernecks are ready with their Scud pit.
Submitted by former LCpl Mark Wroblewski
Second Marine Division Band members had little trouble finding sand to fill these bags for setting up defenses near al Kibrit, Saudi Arabia.
Submitted by MGySgt L. V. Francese, USMC (Ret)
Two Marines from the Second Marine Division Band man a Mk 19 40 mm machine gun guarding an avenue of approach to the division’s command post near al Kibrit, Saudi Arabia.
Submitted by MGySgt L. V. Francese, USMC (Ret)
An AH-1 Cobra at I MEF headquarters, Ras Safanya, Saudi Arabia, awaits another mission.
Submitted by former LCpl Mark Wroblewski
Sgt (now SgtMaj) Ray Gries stands next to an M224 60 mm lightweight mortar, which provided long-range indirect fire support for ground troops. The M224 replaced the older (World War II era) M2 and M19 60 mm mortars, which had considerably less effective ranges.
Submitted by former LCpl Mark Wroblewski
During the assault into Kuwait, a task force bulldozer, D7, from “Bravo” Co, 8th Eng Spt Bn, 2d FSSG, recovers a damaged U.S. tank from a minefield.
Submitted by former 2dLt Chris Simmler
Sgt Robert D. Casto, 60 mm mortar section, Co K, 1st Bn, 25th Marines, with burning oil wells in the background, sabotaged by retreating Iraqis.
Photo by Cpl Knowles submitted by MSgt Robert D. Casto, USMC (Ret)
MSgt Johnson, Co B, 8th Eng Spt Bn, 2d FSSG, oversees surrendering Iraqis as they enter Lane Red 1.
Submitted by former 2dLt Chris Simmler
Battle damaged and abandoned vehicles lie along the “Highway of Death” (Highway 80) that runs between Kuwait City and Iraq. Retreating Iraqi military personnel were attacked by U.S. aircraft and ground forces, 26-27 Feb. 1991, resulting in numerous enemy deaths and destroyed vehicles.
Submitted by MGySgt L. V. Francese, USMC (Ret)
First Lt Daniel L. Hooker, USMCR, Headquarters and Service Co, 3d Bn, 23d Marines, 2dMarDiv near Al Abdaliyah, Kuwait, during the ground attack into Kuwait, late February 1991. According to now retired Maj Hooker, 3/23 was the only Reserve infantry battalion to operate as an intact maneuver element.
Photo by Cpl Jeff Mickey submitted by Maj Dan Hooker, USMCR (Ret)
Motor Transport Section, 2d Reconnaissance Bn, 2dMarDiv leathernecks gather for a group photo outside Kuwait City, two days before coalition forces began a ground assault 24 Feb. 1991 on Iraqi defenses. Front row, kneeling/sitting, from left: SSgt Luis Cisneros (holding flag), GySgt A. C. Corman (helmet in hands), Cpl Patrick Ryan, LCpl Sturgeon, Cpl Watts, Sgt Hanks (leg forward), Cpl Scozzari, LCpl Miller. Back row, standing, from left: Cpl C. B. Goodwin, Cpl Stovall, LCpl Delfred Yazzie, LCpl William Matos, Cpl Lawrence, PFC Follett, LCpl Domenick (lighting cigarette), LCpl Auldridge, Cpl Hennis and 2dLt Michael Brown.
Submitted by LtCol Michael A. Brown
Back row, from left: Sgt Oakley, Sgt Blair, SSgt Richard Wojewnik, Weapons Co, 2/24, and an unidentified lance corporal (kneeling) gather on the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border after the ground war ends.
Submitted by former SSgt Richard Wojewnik
Leathernecks of 1st Plt and Heavy Equipment Plt, Co B, 8th Eng Spt Bn, 2d FSSG in al Kibrit, Saudi Arabia. According to Marine veteran Chris Simmler, who submitted this photo, the Marine atop the bunker is SSgt Daniel A. Kur, a breach team leader in 1st Plt, who won the Silver Star during the assault for picking up mines with his bare hands and removing them from the lane in order to keep the 6th Marines moving.
Submitted by former 2dLt Chris Simmler
LtGen Walter E. Boomer, Commanding General, I MEF, and LCpl Mark Wroblewski, “Fox” Co, 2d Bn, 24th Marines, 4thMarDiv.
Submitted by former LCpl Mark Wroblewski
After the cease-fire, leathernecks of Wpns Co, 2/24 enjoy a movie on 4 March 1991.
Submitted by MGySgt Joe Brooks, USMCR (Ret)
In August 1990, Iraqi military forces, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. President George H. W. Bush and the United States established a coalition of nations to, first, defend Saudi Arabia from further Iraqi aggression and then to rid Kuwait of the military takeover. In what later was called the first “Gulf War,” U.S. military commanders named the operation to protect Saudi Arabia, Operation Desert Shield, and the operation to expel enemy military forces from Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm.
The Gulf War was the largest deployment of Marines since the Vietnam War. Leathernecks of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade began arriving in Saudi Arabia in late August, followed by other personnel and equipment of I Marine Expeditionary Force: the First Marine Division, the Third Marine Aircraft Wing and the First Force Service Support Group.
Also en route were elements of 1st, 4th and 5th MEBs and II MEF units from 2dMarDiv, 2d MAW, 2d FSSG and 2d Surveillance Reconnaissance and Intelligence Group.
The Marines were reinforced by units from III MEF and the 4thMarDiv and 4th MAW as well as other Reserve elements and individual augmentees. Half the active-duty forces of the Marine Corps were in the Middle East.
On 16 Jan. 1991, Operation Desert Storm began with massive air strikes over Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq launched an attack on the Saudi town of Khafji on 29 Jan. The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground combat action of the Gulf War.
The Marine Corps History Division’s official records note that on 24 Feb. 1991, “the I Marine Expeditionary Force and coalition forces began a ground assault on Iraqi defenses in the final chapter of Operation Desert Storm. Located just south of the Kuwaiti border along the Persian Gulf, the Second Marine Division and the [1stMarDiv] with its four main task forces—Ripper, Papa Bear, Taro and Grizzly—stormed into the teeth of Iraqi defenses and convinced the defenders that it was the main effort of attack. Meanwhile, heavily armored allied forces attacked the Iraqi defenses in Iraq from behind. At the same time, Marine units of the 4th and 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigades afloat in the Persian Gulf pinned down large numbers of Iraqi troops who expected an amphibious assault. In 100 hours, U.S. and allied forces defeated the Iraqi Army”—the result being a decisive victory with very few U.S. casualties. President Bush declared a cease-fire 28 Feb., ending Desert Storm.
U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the allied commander during the war, said: “I can’t say enough about the two Marine divisions. If I use words like brilliant, it would really be an under-description of the absolutely superb job that they did. [It was] an absolutely superb operation—a textbook operation.”
Summing up the Navy-Marine team’s performance, Gen Alfred M. Gray Jr., 29th Commandant, said, “I have never felt more privileged to share the title Marine, and I have never been more proud to be your Commandant. In an extraordinarily complex theater of operations, you have not only proven America’s resolve to categorically reject unprovoked aggression, but have reaffirmed that our nation’s investment in her Navy-Marine Corps team stands on unbeatable grounds.”
After a period of “hurry up and wait,” Marines boarded their transportation home, arriving in the States to rows and rows of yellow ribbons, cheering crowds, welcome home signs and most important, family and loved ones. The Marines had done their job well. The storm was over.
Subscriptions to Leatherneck Magazine are a benefit of being a Marine Corps Association & Foundation member. You’ll receive Leatherneck Magazine in print, have access to a number of other benefits and be supporting Marines. Membership begins at $35.00 annually. Join now.
MCA: 100 Years of Service
The Marine Corps Association & Foundation remembers the past and honors the present. Review the first one hundred years of MCA via historical photos and film clips of the organization that serves the men and women of the Marine Corps. Click here to watch the video.
Related Content
- Desert Shield (Magazine Page)
- Battle honors of the Marine Amphibian XII. The Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991 (Magazine Page)
- Desert Shield And Desert Storm (Part 2) (Photo Gallery)
- MCA Board Members - BGen Thomas V. Draude, USMC (Ret) (Page)
- Iraq's Defense of Kuwait and the Battle of Kursk (Magazine Page)
Today in USMC History
![]()
1899 - Marines arrived to secure Cavite Naval Base, Philippines.
Related Article: The Boxer Rebellion By Maj Glen G. Butler Marine Corps Gazette (Oct 2003)
Historic Leatherneck Magazine Covers
Leatherneck Staff Artist, Technical Sergeant Robert Fleischauer, felt that our July cover should be commemorative of the Fourth of July. Since the members of the missile units are probably the Corps' best rocketeers, he picked them to perform a standard Fourth of July action. Whether or not the "Honest Johnny" is useful as a combat piece is a matter for debate, but you can't beat it for morale." [July 1957.]
“The Join Up on the Nick” by Major Alex Durr, USMCR, a member of the History Division, Marine Corps University, Quantico, Va.
Hospitalman Daniel T. Bobic, assigned to Headquarters and Service Company, 3d Battalion, Second Marine Regiment, rappelled at the Jungle Warfare Training Center in Okinawa, Japan, in late April, 2002.
The oldest post of the Marine Corps, Washington, DC, is celebrating 200 years of excellence. Posed near the Barracks main gate were members of the official Color Guard of the United States Marine Corps (left to right): LCpl Joseph N. Keough, rifleman; Sgt Blake L. Richardson, Color Sergeant of the Marine Corps; Cpl Gerardo A. Guajardo, organizational color bearer; and LCpl Gregory A. Serwo, rifleman.
GySgt Verlando Frazier, East Coast Food Service Management Team, looked ready to dig into some of the new items included in MREs.
This photo by Sgt Earnie Grafton of Marines from Fox Co., 2/4 shows varied emotions as they greeted the coalition forces outside Kuwait city.
A fleet of trucks was needed to transport Dr. Felix de Weldon’s original model of the Iwo Jima flag-raising statue from the sculptor’s home in Newport, R.I., to the grounds of the Marine Military Academy at Harlingen, Texas. After the statue’s arrival, a nearly around-the-clock effort by skilled workmen was required in order to have the memorial reassembled and ready for dedication ceremonies on April 16, 1982.
In April this year (1981), two squadrons of AV-8A “Harriers” sailed for the Mediterranean aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau. Purpose of the cruise was to demonstrate the Navy/Marine Corps team’s capability to augment naval forces in any area of the World on short notice and to provide at-sea training for Marine Harrier pilots.
The cover of Leatherneck’s Bicentennial issue is an oil painting by the late Colonel Donald L. Dickson, USMCR. The painting depicts General George Washington’s Colonial troops at Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Va., during the French and Indian War.
Sightseeing tours for the men of the Marine Barracks, San Juan, Puerto Rico, include a trip to the El Morro Fortress. San Juan is now retired as a Post of the Corps.
The Marines in Vietnam have found that the programs which work best are those which operate close to the people. Our July cover is a mixed media (acrylic and charcoal) by Art Editor James L. Hopewell. It catches the spirit of Marines who enjoy their relationship with the Vietnamese around them.
In Naples, Italy, Marines are responsible for the internal security of the Headquarters of NATO’s Southern European Command, while the elite Carabinieri Corpa provides external security. PFC Robert M. Mallard’s NATO shield was admired by a Carabiniere as the two men prepared to take up their side-by-side posts at the entrance of the imposing NATO Headquarters, which appears in the background of this cover.
"We've Fought In Every Clime And Place": Stamping out the Caco Insurrection in the Republic d' Haiti.
Marine patrol fired on while fording the Coco River.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: U.S. Marines And Miskito Indians: The Rio Coco Patrol Of 1928, published in the Marine Corps Gazette, November 1996.
Marine patrol fired on while fording the Coco River.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: U.S. Marines And Miskito Indians: The Rio Coco Patrol Of 1928, published in the Marine Corps Gazette, November 1996.
January 2002: The Marines engraved another mark in the rich history of the Corps when they came from more than 400 miles offshore to establish a forward operating base south of Kandahar in the war on terrorism. The Marine CH-46 helicopter on the cover, photographed by PH1(AW/SW) Greg Messier, USN, fought in the desert sand to land and resupply Marines such as the ones (inset) photographed by Sgt Joseph R. Chenelly.
January 2001: This firefight during the Frozen Chosin Reservoir Campaign of 1950 was painted by “Chosin Few” veteran Jack Cannon, who served with Company B, 1st Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment and resides in the warmer climes of New Mexico. The cover was part of Leatherneck’s 50th anniversary salute to the Korean War veterans.
January 1992: This cover photograph of runners during Marine Corps Marathon XVI in Washington, D.C., was photographed by Sgt Deirdre Hallett.
January 1991: This month’s cover by Ross Simpson captures the Marines’ waiting-but-ready posture in the Middle East.
January 1982: Participants in the Sixth Annual Marine Corps Marathon presented a colorful spectacle as they began the 26-mile, 385-yard run in Washington, D.C., November 1, 1981. The cover photo, by Tom Bartlett, was taken from a bridge overlooking Highway 50 about a half-mile from the starting line.
January 1981: Nearly 7,800 runners participated in the Fifth Annual Marine Corps Marathon held in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. The oldest finisher was 78; the youngest was 10. Leatherneck staffer Ron Lunn pre-positioned himself near the Nation’s Capitol to photograph runners during their 14th mile of the 26-mile, 385-yard course.
January 1972: This month’s cover, by Marine Combat Artist Peter Gish, shows members of the New Corps sightseeing in the Old World. While on liberty in Athens, Greece, the 3d Bn, Eighth Marines, were able to tour the Erektheon Porch and Cariatides. The water color is from the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Art collection.
Originally Published December 1983 -- Something tells us that we could date the cover without knowing when it was published.
Originally Published December 1972 -- We're not sure what's more interesting, Santa or the old style gas pump.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Leatherneck Poll
Leatherneck FAQs
This November 1992 article in the Marine Corps Gazette looked at the uniform regulations of 1859 and the attempt to standardize uniforms within the Corps. Read the story and see more pics.
Recent comments
| For Pvt. Pease | 2 hours 1 min ago |
| MAG-31, HAMS-31 Avionics Technicians 1961-1965 | 6 hours 52 min ago |
| MAG-31, HAMS-31 Avionics Technicians 1961-1965 | 6 hours 53 min ago |
| Colonel Gerrald R. Fink | 8 hours 8 min ago |
| Tribute to MajGen Hochmuth | 1 day 5 hours ago |
| Ladies....c'mon.... | 1 day 6 hours ago |
| Tribute to MGen Hochmuth | 1 day 8 hours ago |
| AMEN! | 1 day 13 hours ago |
























.gif)



Comments
i heard we are drinking booze !
THis is Jeffrey Reis E-3 machine gunner/mortarman from USMCR 2/24. I heard through the "grapevine" that there is a 20year reuinion. I'm in. my cell #is 708-717-1142 email is precisionconveyor@comcast.net. Please call or email contact info to me, Thanks, Semper FI
Post new comment