Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Division Ready Brigade. Air Force air superiority fighters and elements of the U.S. Among the first forces to arrive on August 8 were two squadrons of U.S.

forces to assist in the defense of Saudi Arabia with CENTCOM deployments beginning the next day. The August 6 meeting resulted in an invitation for U.S. By this time, Iraq had placed six divisions on the ground in Kuwait where they possessed the option of continuing their attack south into Saudi Arabia. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and CENTCOM Commander-in-Chief (CINCCENT) General Norman Schwarzkopf were immediately dispatched to Saudi Arabia where they met with King Fahd on August 6. Based in part on this planning foundation, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) regional defense concept outline plan and a series of CENTCOM “Internal Look” exercises that had been conducted during the month prior to Iraq’s invasion. success in rapidly responding to the crisis in what would become the Kuwait Theater of Operations (KTO) stemmed from a revised U.S. land force component transitioned from an urgent defensive response to an overwhelming offensive juggernaut in less than six months. Serving as the bedrock for a coalition force structure that would fight the first major military campaign of the post-Cold War era, the U.S.

The land forces components of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm were spun into initial action within hours of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

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