A different Desert Storm

James G

Gone Fishin'
Just a theoretical exercise. I was thinking how would the Gulf War 91 go for the Coalition if the US and the UK were unable to send such forces as they did from West Germany to the Saudi desert. Lets say the Soviet menace is still there but Bush 41 still decides to prosecute the war against Iraq.
What was sent to Saudi Arabia to make the Third Army came from Germany-based and US-based forces. There were also plenty of Marines and, I didn't know until today, National Guard units.
Bigger mobilisation of national guard to go to Saudi or to replace regular units rotated out?
How about with the British? An ad hoc and far lighter division with say non-Germany-based forces or send the TA to Germany and use regulars from there against Saddam?

As to an alternative ground forces ORBAT, here's just an idea:
US III Corps
1st Cavalry Division - two standing brigades and either 194th Brigade or 155th Mississippi ARNG Brigade
1st Infantry Division - three standing brigades
2nd Armored Division - two Texas-based brigades and one from the 4th Infantry Division
5th Infantry Division - two standing brigades and either 157th Reserve Brigade or 256th Lousiana ARNG Brigade
US XVIII Corps
24th Infantry Division - two standing brigades and either 197th Infantry Brigade or 48th Georgia ARNG Brigade
82nd Airborne Division - three standing brigades
101st Air Assault Division - three standing brigades
US I MEF
1st Marine Division - full complement
2nd Marine Division - part complement, maybe one of the reserve regiments added
British Force
3rd Armoured Division - 4th & 6th Armoured Brigades or one of them plus either 1st Infantry or 24th Airmobile Brigade
 
The Marines mobilized near all of its reserve component. Some went to I MEF to fill out or reinforce it. Some remained in the US as a start in building back up the II MEF and the newly form V MEF. The Marines also drew heavily on the Individual Ready Reserve, men who had completed their active service contracts, but who were still in the six year initial service obligation. Those were used as unit fillers & went to the casualty replacement pool. Missing from the list in the previous post are a large number of Army, Air Force, and Navy reserve units that filled combat support & service support roles. ie: a National Guard artillery brigade filled a corps artillery slot.

Most of the USMC Reserve units did well. A few did not. I personally observed one Army Reserve unit that was in such poor shape it was not mobilized. The National Guard were a mixed bag with some near as good as active service units and others requiring extensive changes in leaders and retraining. Generally it was clear at the start which units could be depended on, but there were a few surprises.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
So with the Marines, I didn't know that there was a start on a V MEF. I presume they skipped IV MEF because as you say Reserve units were assigned to the I MEF.
My thinking above was for part of II MEF to remain available for Europe that's why I added reserve units.
As said, just a theoretical exercise. Otherwise there's loads I could do with an alternative Desert Storm orbat especially with the British Army.
 
It was a weak start with V MEF. Unsure why they activated that number instead of using IV MEF. I recall one reservist rifle battalion. One reservist artillery battalion, partial. A leftover Recon company, reservist. Don't recall any service units. There was a commanding General identified, but he still had to attend to his previous job in DC & the war was over before he could make it to California to inspect his embryonic command. There were a few other reserve & active service units that could have joined this command. My take is they wanted a skeleton to build on for Pacific service if III MEF had to go to war. It would be difficult to document V MEF as the logistics system was unable to activate A ERO matrix or any other items in the system for the component units. For training we drew off some the supply accounts of some cadred units still in at Camp Pendelton, or a school allowance at Twenty Nine palms. When we returned to reserve status I discovered several million dollars of equipment had disappeared from the accounting system on activation, & reappeared in the system months later when the unit returned to reserve status. Handy that. All that remained were a few official orders assigning the few units. Some notations in personnel files & nothing else a historian could use to prove the existence of this formation.

What remained in II MEF on the east coast I can't remember. Most of the 2d Mar Div went to SWA, & the air wing, and FSSG from the east coast. I expect a few left over reserve and active service units.

The I MEF in SWA actually had three maneuver elements. A amphibious brigade was afloat & separate from the two divisions. It was supposed to land & seize ground somewhere in Kuwait. However the USN discovered its mine clearing capability sucked hind tit & the op could not be executed. If you search around you can find photos of the USS Tripoli with hole in the lower hull from a Iraqi naval mine.
 
I can state that a whole bunch of Navy medical reserve units and individuals were mobilized. Some went to backfill US hospitals, some went directly with Marine line units (battalion/regimental docs & HMs), and others to various levels of field hospitals. The reserve FH I was part of, 500 beds about 800+ personnel including SeaBee detachment was 95% reservists with a few active duty fill in for some specialty enlisted was the furthest north/close to Kuwait and saw more sick/wounded USMC and others than any Navy medical unit of the type. There were Navy medical folks who did not get mobilized, but had more marines been sent that would have required more of them activated. As far as I know no Navy medical folks who were recent retirees or just off active duty but still with IRR commitments were involuntarily recalled, but I think some Army folks were.
 
@FieldMarshal Of course just theoretical, just theoretical...wait a minute did someone reverse the map on this powerpoint presentation??? All those arrows are pointing at the EASTERN side of the Gulf.
 
What remained in II MEF on the east coast I can't remember. Most of the 2d Mar Div went to SWA, & the air wing, and FSSG from the east coast. I expect a few left over reserve and active service units.

The I MEF in SWA actually had three maneuver elements. A amphibious brigade was afloat & separate from the two divisions. It was supposed to land & seize ground somewhere in Kuwait. However the USN discovered its mine clearing capability sucked hind tit & the op could not be executed. If you search around you can find photos of the USS Tripoli with hole in the lower hull from a Iraqi naval mine.

Historically I MEF had the following:

2nd MARDIV (+)
1st BDE, 2nd Armored Division (US Army)
1-67th Armor
3-67th Armor
2nd Tanks
3-41st Inf
1-3 FA​
Regimental Landing Team 6
2-2 Marines
1-6 Marines
3-6 Marines
8th Tanks (USMCR)​
Regimental Landing Team 8
2-2 Marines
1-8 Marines
3-23 Marines (USMCR)​
10th Marines
2-10 Marines
3-10 Marines
8-10 Marines
2-12 Marines​
Unknown, 2nd MARDIV
2nd LAR
4th LAR (USMCR)
2nd Tracks
2nd Combat Engineers
2nd Recon
1st MARDIV (+)
Regimental Landing Team 1
1-1 Marines
3-9 Marines
1st Tanks
3rd Tracks (-)​
Regimental Landing Team 3
1-3 Marines
2-3 Marines
3-3 Marines​
Regimental Landing Team 4
2-7 Marines
3-7 Marines​
Regimental Landing Team 7
1-5 Marines
1-7 Marines
3rd Tanks
3rd Tracks (-)​
11th Marines
1-11th Marines
3-11th Marines
5-11th Marines
1-12th Marines
3-12th Marines​
Task Force Shepherd
1st LAR
3rd LAR​
Unknown, 1st MARDIV
4th Tracks (apparently reinforced both 2nd and 3rd Tracks)
1st Combat Engineers
1st Recon
3rd Recon
4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade
5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade
I can't find the assignments for the MEBs. I only have half the relevant PDFs from marines.mil. But it looks like the bulk of the Marines Corps was there, with even assets shifted from III MEF deployed with I MEF in the Gulf.

Back to @James G 's question though. Oddly enough, @Usili and I were just discussing this very topic the other week on discord.

So the most likely thing is that XVIII will be the initial unit deployed to SWA- it was already earmarked for the contingency, and the 82nd also has the rapid deployment brigade on standby. The 82nd and 101st ABN Divisions will be the first units to arrive in Saudi Arabia, as IOTL. I'm not sure if the 10th MTN Div will be deployed, since it's reliant on the New York ARNG 27th Inf Bde for it's ROUNDOUT Brigade. However, 24th ID (Mech) will have to go (as in OTL), probably leaving it's ROUNDOUT Brigade behind (48th Mech Inf Bde, GA ARNG). The 194th or 197th Bdes will have to sub for it.

After that the Regular Army would have to get over it's issues with it's first echelon of Guard troops. To this day the combat readiness of the 155th Infantry Bde (Mech) and 48th Infantry Bde (Mech) are controversial. Both brigades were ROUNDOUT units, for the 1st Cavalry Division and 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) respectfully, and thus at a higher readiness level than most Guard units. These brigades had NATO missions and were supposed to be combat ready in 30 days for deployment to Europe, but languished at training centers for the duration of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

They may not be the first echelon of troops arriving in the Gulf, but they may be grouped up together with a NG division HQ and sent over. Other ROUNDOUT brigades may join them. The other approach may be that Guard units are activated and rotated to Europe to allow the Regular Army units in Germany to be sent to the Gulf.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
Back to @James G 's question though. Oddly enough, @Usili and I were just discussing this very topic the other week on discord.

So the most likely thing is that XVIII will be the initial unit deployed to SWA- it was already earmarked for the contingency, and the 82nd also has the rapid deployment brigade on standby. The 82nd and 101st ABN Divisions will be the first units to arrive in Saudi Arabia, as IOTL. I'm not sure if the 10th MTN Div will be deployed, since it's reliant on the New York ARNG 27th Inf Bde for it's ROUNDOUT Brigade. However, 24th ID (Mech) will have to go (as in OTL), probably leaving it's ROUNDOUT Brigade behind (48th Mech Inf Bde, GA ARNG). The 194th or 197th Bdes will have to sub for it.

After that the Regular Army would have to get over it's issues with it's first echelon of Guard troops. To this day the combat readiness of the 155th Infantry Bde (Mech) and 48th Infantry Bde (Mech) are controversial. Both brigades were ROUNDOUT units, for the 1st Cavalry Division and 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) respectfully, and thus at a higher readiness level than most Guard units. These brigades had NATO missions and were supposed to be combat ready in 30 days for deployment to Europe, but languished at training centers for the duration of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

They may not be the first echelon of troops arriving in the Gulf, but they may be grouped up together with a NG division HQ and sent over. Other ROUNDOUT brigades may join them. The other approach may be that Guard units are activated and rotated to Europe to allow the Regular Army units in Germany to be sent to the Gulf.

I've read about the roundout brigades before when it came to the Gulf War deployment. Many long years of heated discussion afterwards with the ARNG saying they were ready and the Army saying that they weren't. Some went to Fort Irwin to train during the build-up and the feeling was that the Army was unfair in how they judged them.
So my thinking was that either the US Army pulls units from Europe and replaces them with ARNG units or uses other Army units like 194 / 197 maybe the Reserve 157 brigades. In a full on Europe WW3 I presume that the ARNG units would go pretty fast after quick refresher training, or maybe without, but with a build up like Desert Storm was the Pentagon could be picky and demand 'the best' for Desert Storm. A ARNG division for either Europe rotation or the Gulf would be interesting. I would think a mix-and-match of units attached to one of the higher-readiness divisions - 35th / 40th / 49th - though I might be wrong and the whole standing division with smaller attachments might go.
 
I've read about the roundout brigades before when it came to the Gulf War deployment. Many long years of heated discussion afterwards with the ARNG saying they were ready and the Army saying that they weren't. Some went to Fort Irwin to train during the build-up and the feeling was that the Army was unfair in how they judged them.
So my thinking was that either the US Army pulls units from Europe and replaces them with ARNG units or uses other Army units like 194 / 197 maybe the Reserve 157 brigades. In a full on Europe WW3 I presume that the ARNG units would go pretty fast after quick refresher training, or maybe without, but with a build up like Desert Storm was the Pentagon could be picky and demand 'the best' for Desert Storm. A ARNG division for either Europe rotation or the Gulf would be interesting. I would think a mix-and-match of units attached to one of the higher-readiness divisions - 35th / 40th / 49th - though I might be wrong and the whole standing division with smaller attachments might go.

That's about the sum of it. The Guard still has some lingering resentment on missing out on Op Desert Storm, and the Regular Army really wanted to make sure everyone on the active side got a crack at it.

With that mentality I think that the Guard activating and sending units to relieve those in Europe would be most likely. I'd wager the 35th ID as being the most likely, as it was a multi-state formation and wouldn't put an undue burden the way the 40th ID and 49th AD were. A second division activation may be likely to send to Europe, but you also may be facing activation and leaving of units state side, in order to replenish the global reserve.

On an unrelated note, I've found sources that can give a detailed OOB of I and II MEF which I'll post in a bit.
 
Top