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George Rodrique Robert Ruby
On 17 and 18 January, the guided-missile frigate Nicholas (FFG-47) and her helicopters scouted the Dorra oilfield, about 40 miles from the shore of occupied Kuwait. It was a Kuwaiti field until 2 August. The field’s 11 platforms lie along approach and departure routes used by American pilots raiding targets in Iraq. Nine platforms were believed to be occupied by Iraqi troops, "'ho were using them to spy on ship and plane movements and to shoot at passing U.S. warplanes.
Around 2000 on 18 January the Nicholas crept toward the Platforms from the south, masked by darkness and her total lack °f telltale electronic emissions. Far out of sight of the platforms, the Nicholas's helicopters took off with their lights blacked out and their pilots relying on night-vision devices. They checked for threats on the surface. Flying low, with sea sounds covering their engine noise, the Nicholas’s helicopters were undetected until they came within missile range of their targets: two platforms believed to be heavily armed and farthest from the Nicholas’s 76-mm. gun. Once they were within their weapon’s range, but before they came within range of the platform’s 23-mm. antiair- eraft guns, the helicopters launched a barrage of precision- guided rockets.
The rockets ripped through the sandbag-and-plywood shelters erected by the Iraqis. Six soldiers scrambled from one tower into a Zodiac lifeboat below. Seconds later the ammunition supply above them exploded filling the night sky with sparks and flames. Having finished their targets, the helicopters withdrew, clearing the firing range for the Nicholas and a Kuwaiti patrol boat, while the Iraqis presumably were still staring at the flaming remnants of their friends’ fortifications.
The ships followed a pattern of fire: three shots at each platform to set the range, followed by about 20 rounds of high- explosive shells, “for effect.” The effect was to demolish quickly all the remaining bunkers, on seven platforms. “At this Point, I determined that some of the Iraqis probably wanted to surrender,” said Commander Dennis G. Moral, Commanding Officer of the Nicholas. With no fire being returned by the platforms, he asked his helicopters to sweep the platforms again with their heat-sensing scopes. Seeing nothing threatening, he turned his ship’s sophisticated infrared eye on the platforms. An Arabic-speaking crewman called out over the ship s loudspeaker that anyone who wished to surrender should raise his hand. On the black-and-white monitor above the Nicholas s darkened combat information center, a ghostly white infrared image showed an Iraqi waving weakly.
It took hours for the Nicholas to pick up all 23 of the survivors (three with serious wounds) along with five Iraqis killed in action. Teams also boarded each of the nine platforms that had been assaulted, destroyed their remaining fortifications and seized or destroyed all remaining weapons. They found caches of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, an unpleasant surprise for the helicopter pilots who had been flying near the platforms over the previous five days. They found one long-range radio on the platforms. Apparently the Iraqis were forced to communicate among the platforms, which are about two to three miles apart, by firing rifle shots. They also found a handful of maroon berets, evidence that some of the men on the platforms were members of the elite Republican Guards. Part of their job was apparently ensuring that the rest of the men did not desert. “They were prisoners of war already,” Commander Moral said.
Commander Moral said the great majority of the POWs appeared to be hastily-drafted reservists, forced to sit on these platforms lacking adequate food and supplies. “I don’t think that they wanted to fight,” he said. “I don’t think they know how to fight. I think that they were relieved that we were rescuing them from this situation.”
The men had had no clean clothes for weeks, and appeared to be fishing for their dinners by dropping hand grenades in the water. He said, “Fish would float up and that’s what they’d subsist on. Most of them put their hands up, thanked us in their own way, and cooperated.” In fact, he said, one prisoner “tried to kiss” one of his Navy captors—a friendly embrace that the U.S. military man rebuffed.
Mr. Rodrique, Dallas Morning Sun. and Mr. Ruby, Baltimore Sun, were members of the media pool. This is an abridged version of their report.
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Proceedings / April 1991