WITH THE 1ST MARINE DIVISION iN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM                 35


                                 `7


                                               Drawing by Sgt Chafics 6. Grow, USMC
            Turret of a LAV-25 of Compatzy D, Task Force Shepherd.

   Pollard halted 2d Platoon and fired a volley of TOW missiles. Success was
immediately  apparent and an Jraqi vehicle     exploded with        a bright flash.
Unfortunately, so too did one of the LAVs in Captain Pollard's formation: "The
explosion was so violent we couldn't tell which hog had been hit . . . I thought
we had been hit by Saggers fired by the Iraqi      tanks."~2  In the radio check that
followed, one of the LAV-ATs in the first line failed to report. Its loss was
confirmed by the executive officer who had seen the vehicle struck by a missile
fired by an LAV-AT from the second line. The missile went through the rear
door and the resulting explosion of stored missiles disintegrated the LAV with
its crew.
   The destruction of the second T-55 momentarily baited the Iraqi attack.
However, the loss of the LAV also halted Company D's advance while Captain
Pollard attempted to determine what had happened. Nevertheless, the pressure
on OP 4 lessened. Then, while the LAVs maintained a constant fire from their
guns, Lieutenant Steven A. Ross and the Marines cleared the police station and
eventually linked up with Company A at Checkpoint 25,
   Meanwhile, the fight between Company D and the Iraqi armor around the
police station continued with losses to both sides. "It was strange fighting at
night," Captain Pollard later wrote, "tracers flew overhead in continuous lines,
tanks were silhouetted by their muzzle blasts, and rounds impacted into the
buildings of OP 4. Lead flew everywhere, but you could not see the enemy, just
his fire.