Combat· Gulf War (Op DESERT SHIELD/STORM)
Highway of Death Engagements
As the Iraqi army broke and fled Kuwait City in the final hours of the ground war, its retreating columns jammed the highways leading north toward Iraq, where they were caught in the open by Marine and other coalition air power and ground forces.
Along the routes out of the city, particularly the highway toward Basra, the fleeing vehicles, military trucks, looted cars, and armor, were struck in devastating attacks that destroyed the columns and littered the road with wreckage, the scene that came to be called the "Highway of Death." Marine aircraft and ground units engaged the retreating enemy as the Iraqi withdrawal collapsed into a rout. The engagements marked the disintegration of Iraqi forces in the Kuwait theater and helped prompt the decision to halt offensive operations, the destruction of the retreating army having made clear that organized resistance in Kuwait had ended.
Record no. 66