36                                U.S. MAR!NES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 199O-199i


    After confirming that no other vehicles had been damaged in the explosion
of the LAY-AT, Captain Pollard reorganized his formation. First, he temporarily
consolidated his remaining LAY-ATs into a separate formation--for the moment,
he had no intention of using his TOWs, as his uncertainty over the loss of the
one vehicle made him reluctant to employ that weapon system.  Instead, he
began using the LAY-AT's thermal night sights to adjust the fire of the LAY-
25s. The technique he adopted was to have one LAV-23 fire 25mm high
explosive rounds while an LAY-AT would guide them on target using its
thermal sights. Once on target, the entire section or platoon fired and the
resulting hundreds of little explosions outlined the vehicles enough for aircraft
to acquire the target.~
    Next, Captain Pollard brought the entire force on line and redistributed the
LAY-ATs.   He accomplished this by having 2d Platoon remain stationary,
moving 1st Platoon to the right flank, and then attaching an LAV-AT to each
section of LAY-25s. The reorganized company was now about 3,000 meters
southwest of the police station. Captain Pollard's plan now was to keep his force
within LAY-25 range of the T-55s and to hit them with a combination of 25mm
fire, air bombardment, and, if necessary, TOW missiles.
    Since about 2130 fighter/attack aircraft had been in the vicinity of OP 4.
The first aircraft to arrive was an F/A-i 8 which Company D's forward air
controller directed against tanks illuminated by the burning Iraqi T-55. The
F/A-i 8 was followed by successive sections of United States Air Force Fairchild
A-lO Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft. For these, Captain Pollard continued
the technique of using the LAY-AT's thermal sights to find a target, then
marking the victim with shells fired from the LAY-25's cannon. While a 25mm
round could nOt penetrate the T-55's armor, the flash of the rounds ricocheting
off the tank was enough for the A-tO pilots to see their target. At times, the
impact and detonation of the 25mm rounds on the tanks was sufficient to cause
an Iraqi retreat. The combination of air bombardment and ground fire began to
contain the attack.
    The stress on the Iraq is began to show. It was at this time that Company D
spotted two Iraqi tanks about a mile west of the police station and moving
towards the north side of the berm. Captain Pollard marked these with 25mm
fire while the forward air controller brnught in a section of A-i Os. Both tank
crews panicked under the intense American fire and, disoriented by the darkness,
inadvertently ran into the berm. There the crews left the tanks abandoned to be
found the following day, still serviceable, by the Marines of Company A. (The
Marines also found a dead Iraqi a short distance from the tanks. He had a
cranial small-caliber wound and probably had been executed by another Iraqi
soldier.)
    Captain Pollard no sooner reformed the company than he had to contend
with an attempt by several Iraqi tanks to get around his right flank. To counter
the Iraqi move he shifted the two platoons back about 1,000 meters and had the
LAY-ATs    fire a second, and last, volley of TOW misslles. Then,  while
maintaining a constant fire, Company D withdrew another 1,000 meters and
called in another air strike. It was now 2230 and the pilots in this section of A-