AAR 1ST MARDIV IN SWA

File: 970725_dec96_decls34_0094.txt
Page: 0094
Total Pages: 130
Subject = AAR  1ST MARDIV IN SWA                                          

Parent Organization = MCCDC       

Unit = WDID        

Folder Title = AFTER ACTION REPORT 1ST MARINE DIVISION IN SOUTHWEST ASIA   WDID SWA 0073                       

Document Number =          1

Box ID = BX600145


                                 UNCLASSIFIED


            other Marine Harriers were lost during the war along with two ov-
            10 Bronco observation aircraft. Five MAG-13 aircrew were captured
           .and subsequently repatriated. One was killed in action, and
            another is missing, believed killed. one Harrier Pilot operating
            from a ship was also lost in action.

                Pilot with The Most Combat Missions: The Last, Number 719

               Colonel Manfred A. Rietsch, 49, is commanding officer of the
            Marines' larger fighter/attack unit, Marine Aircraft Group 11,
            which arrived at its base in Bahrain in raid-Aucjust. The colorful
            flyer, who retains the faint'accents of his German birth and the
            callsign "Fokker", was already something a legend in Marine
            aviation, having flown 653 combat missions in Vietnam. During
            this war he flew another 66 missions in PA-18 Hornets.

                on the night of 26-27 February, the Ire@qis began their
            frantic retreat from Kuwait. The A-6E intruders of his group
            detected huge numbers of vehicles streaming north which they
            attacked, helping to bottle up the Iragis.-'Rietsch now increased
            the surge of his sorties; MAG-11 flew 298 missions that day
            alone.

               He himself took off midmorning in a two seat FA-18D of Marine
            All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121 with his Weapons System
            Operator, Major Bill Macak, on a Fast Forward Air Controller
            mission. Bad weather and smoke from burning oilfields was
            obscuring the choked escape route when the crew found a convoy of
            about 40 transporters carrying tanks and armored personnel
            carriers making their way along a parallel dirt track to the
            west. Sixteen of his Hornets were inbound, but now he had to stop
            the convoy from getting underneath a thick band of oil smoke
            which would hide them from visual attack.

               He fired a white phosphorous rocket ahead of the lead truck.
            The drivers, knowing an attack was imminent, 15iled out of the'
            vehicles. After a few minutes, when no attack was forthcoming,
            they got back into the trucks and started up. Rietsch repeated
            the process with the same result. After the convoy started up a
            last time, he strafed the lead vehicles, which began to burn.
            This time the Iraqis got the. message. Now short on fuel, he
            handed over control to Major Yen Bode, who directed the Marine
            Hornets in an attack pilo-@-'s dream mission: halted tanks and
            APCS. Rietsch returned from his last mission. It was his 719th.

                                      Semper Fidelis

               In the ist Marine Division, a certain Staff Sergeant had
            suffered some heart problems a few years earlier, but was able to
            i@eturn to duty after being cleared by medical authorities. Aftek
            arriving in Saudi Arabia, his old symptoms reappeared. Knowing
            that he would likely be evacuated if he reported his problems, he
            somehow got hold of his medical records and removed the pages
            dealing with his problem, As G-Day approached, his pain grew more
            acute, but he still refused to come clean with the doctors


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                                   UNCLASSIFIED