[Kasik]

The true story of the SOCCENT "assault" on the U.S. embassy in Kuwait is the opening chapter of the book "At the Hurricane's Eye - US Special Operations Forces from Vietnam to Desert Storm", Ivy Books 1994.

Per LT COL D. Brownlee, Operations 5th SFG(A), whom I interviewed for the book "We'd already been in the embassy for two days and we literally had to evacuate it so they [Special Operations Command Central] could assault it."

The cover photo of the book is of SF operators from the 5th in front of the main embassy door. It was taken after the 5th occupied it...peacefully.

In truth, a squad of Marine from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, conducting their own "forward reconnaissance" from the 6th Ring Road, ended up at the deserted embassy.

They reported finding no Iraqis, no mines, no booby traps. Their lieutenant ran a small American flag up the flagpole before the Marines departed. This was the same flag discovered by 5th Group operators on the afternoon of the 26th when they reconned / occupied the same compound.

This flag was reported on the 26th by Brownlee's MI detachment prior to SF occupying the embassy.

The Marines got their butts chewed for not staying away / out of the embassy.

The 5th got ordered to get out so Jesse Johnson could "liberate" the embassy. This occurred around midnight on the 27th.

At 1200 on the 28th Colonel Johnson and operators from the 3rd Group fast-roped in at "retook" and "re-secured" the embassy.

It was reported Johnson and several others received Bronze Stars for this, the dumbest action of the war.

As written - Page 13 -

"Elsewhere in the city, British and French troops were quietly reclaiming their embassy grounds without fanfare. Down the street, "Johnson's Raiders" were blowing theirs up, much to the delight of the assembled crowd on the street.

"We went back on the 29th for a meeting, Lieutenant Colonel Brownlee recalls. "The embassy was a mess, walls shot up, doors kicked in. All the damage was done when they [Johnson and Company] stormed it."

"Hurricane" was an authorized literary history per the U.S. Special Operations Command.