MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- First in a series

On March 18, 2003, under the cover of night, 20,000 Marines and sailors moved from their base camps in Kuwait to their attack positions immediately south of the Kuwait/Iraq border. In less than 24 hours, I Marine Expeditionary Force was poised for its first strike at the Iraqi regime.

"It was a trip. It was dark and our (tracked vehicles) were completely buttoned up. The only light we had was a little light in the back. Everyone was dead quiet, listening to the talk on the radio," said Lance Cpl. Andrew P. Carpenter, a marksman for Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

Although the first push was scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. on March 21, Regimental Combat Team 7 (largely composed of 7th Marine Regiment, based in Twentynine Palms) received a report from an Iraqi informant that an entire Republican Guard Brigade of T-72 tanks was positioned in the town of Safwan, just north of the Iraqi border. In light of this information, Regimental Combat Team 5 (mostly 5th Marines) crossed the line of departure 9-1/2 hours early to prevent destruction of the South Rumaylah gas-oil separation plants.

Despite the early departure, the wait seemed deceptively long, Carpenter said.

"It seemed like forever before we crossed. As soon as we got the order, the driver gunned it. Not two minutes into Iraq, we were hearing 'We got ground troops out here,'" he said.

Although two Iraqi regular army brigades with artillery support defended the plants, the regiment seized the objective in 16 hours of fighting, with only one killed in action and one wounded.

"We hit the (objective) and received the order to dismount. We got out and realized we were on the wrong side (of the plant), which threw us off, but we pushed forward. We made it through the (plant) and saw nothing. There was no one there," Carpenter said.

"We were fortunate that artillery and air support made it, so all we had to worry about was the ground troops," said Gunnery Sgt. Kevin G. Tinsley, 2nd Platoon Sergeant of Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

At least one Iraqi began shooting even as he tried to make his getaway, Carpenter said.

"As we started out the other side (of the plant), we heard gunshots, and a dirt bike just shot out of the ground and starts tearing away from us," he said. "(Marine) snipers started shooting and the machine gunner opened up at him. Someone hit him, but we don't know who. He went flying off that bike and it went rolling."

On the morning of March 21, the remainder of Division units crossed the line of departure into Iraq. RCT-7 led the charge with 1st Tank Battalion and 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, swinging wide around Jabal Sanam Hill near Safwan - previously bombarded by air strikes to destroy Iraqi observers - to flank the Iraqi 51st Mechanized Division.

Staff Sgt. Mark G. Miller, tank commander for 2nd Platoon, Company A with 1st Tank Bn., directed one of four tanks in his platoon making the initial assault against the Iraqi division - but wound up serving as a de facto forward observer when his tank ran out of fuel 300 meters from the objective.

"I found myself stranded in an open field at a 90-degree angle to the battlefield, unable to return fire without endangering my Marines," he recalled earlier this week.

Though out of commission, Miller said he was still able to contribute while watching his 1st Marine Division cohorts surgically neutralize the enemy.

"The other three tanks in my platoon attacked the compound and initially encountered light resistance, which was almost certainly crushed with machine-gun fire.

"Over the course of the next few hours, I was able to observe the pockets of resistance with my thermal sights and call them in on the radio, then observe the Marines' response and gauge the effects. The resistance was dealt with swiftly by both tanks and Marines on the ground.

"As the battle progressed, a heavy machine-gun began firing sporadically at the Marines from a barn north of the compound. Tanks and amtracs were used as mobile pillboxes to suppress the barn and the long barracks on the north side of the compound. ... The infantry methodically cleared each building, taking (enemy prisoners of war) and transporting them to a central collection point.

"Overall, after the initial assault, the battle progressed rapidly and the Iraqi resistance was quickly dispatched or captured."

The rest of RCT-7 attacked up Highway 80; the first four days of that advance proved comparatively uneventful.

Similarly, RCT-1Õs (largely 1st Marine Regiment personnel) first four days in Iraq involved enemy contact.

The team secured Highways 1 and 8 as it rapidly advanced northward.

"It was slow-going in the beginning because of the sandstorms," said Capt. Alex J. Echeverria, who served as the assistant operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "We spent the first couple of days just moving.

Despite a "determined" defense, according to command war accounts, 1st Marine Division secured its first four objectives and destroyed the Iraqi division by the morning of March 22.

"We were really proud of how the Marines responded," Tinsley said.

In three days of fighting and moving north, I MEF forces suffered only one killed in action and 13 wounded.

Meanwhile, farther to the northeast at the tip of the Persian Gulf, the Camp Pendleton-based 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) secured the port of Umm Qasr amid "little resistance," according to MEU accounts.

While the port seizures came relatively easily, taking the town proved a different story.

Next week: The battle for Umm Qasr; the march toward Nasiriyah.