128                                  U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 199O~1991

Proceedings: How about the Harriers coming off the boat? Did you control them
in any way or just coordinate?

Moore: No. We had talked to them; we brought them ashore; we had rehearsed
with them; and as they came ashore, they came into our command-and-control
system.  So they were completely in our control system; we had plans for
supporting any amphibious landing and for bringing them into our system as
soon as they came ashore.   As you know, the whole 5th MEB did come ashore,
and portions of the 4th MEB came ashore.  I got a helo squadron out of them,
a very valuable Cobra squadron--HMLA-269.

Proceedings: Have you recommended any key changes for training or equip-
ment? Could you comment on some of the things that you think we need to
change as a result of what you saw out there?

Moore: Marine Air Weapons and Tactics Squadron-i, of course, sent almost all
its instructors to me.  They were a major portion of the targeting cells, the
operations department, liaison, command and control, and air intelligence.

Proceedings: They weren't just there studying the war--they were actually part
of your staff?

Moore: They were out there really helping me and on my staff.   They did start
piecing together how to train and how to do business later on. They helped me
an enormous amount in the air command-and-control area.

Proceedings: How about night flying? Were you ready for it?

Moore: We trained constantly. We're not as good at night as we think we are,
and that means everybody--Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, Army.         You've
heard these guys say, "We live at night . . . we're the Ninjas at night," and all
this other stuff.  Well, I've got to tell you, we're not as good as we think we
are.
    Every night when the sun went down, I sat there and I spent a lot of hours
in the TACC. When that sun would go down, I'd cringe, because some of your
assets are weaker players at night than others. I double-cycled the A~s, which
we'd been doing for years in exercises; they would go out with a load of bombs
or whatever, come back, and we'd just load them back up again without ever
shutting them down.    We did a lot of laser work to get the A-lOs and Harriers
and F-18s in there, but I've got to tell you, I was a happy camper every day
when the sun came up.
    All those systems have some limitations, and they are not as good as the
good old eyeball during the daytime. We can get a lot better at night.  That's
one of the things that I would push very hard.