The Fires of Babylon

Eagle Troop and the Battle of 73 Easting

By: Mike Guardia

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

On the morning of August 2, 1990, Iraqi armored divisions invaded the tiny emirate of Kuwait. The Iraqi Army, after its long war with Iran, had more combat experience than the US Army. The Kuwaitis had collapsed easily enough, but the invasion drew fierce condemnation from the United Nations, which demanded Hussein's withdrawal. Undeterred by the rhetoric, the Iraqi dictator massed his forces along the Saudi Arabian border and dared the world to stop him. In response, the United States led the world community in a coalition of 34 nations in what became known as Operation Desert Storm. Leading this charge into Iraq were the men of Eagle Troop in the US Army's Second Armored Cavalry Regiment. Commanded by then-Captain H. R. McMaster - who would go on to serve as National Security Advisor in the Trump administration - Eagle Troop was the lead element of the US VII Corps' advance into Iraq. On February 26, 1991, Eagle Troop encountered the Tawakalna Brigade of Iraq's elite Republican Guard. By any calculation, the 12 American tanks didn't stand a chance. Yet within a mere 23 minutes, the M1A1 tanks of Eagle Troop destroyed more than 50 enemy vehicles and plowed a hole through the Iraqi front. History would call it the Battle of 73 Easting.

©2015 Mike Guardia (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Guardia's writing does justice to the exciting story.... This is a no-holds-barred account, told as truthfully as possible.... it's gripping stuff." ( History of War)

Great stories about the Gulf War

Amazing stories of the battle from different people point of view. Highly suggest it be mandatory reading.

Movie worthy story

Reading this book I couldn’t help asking myself why this is not turned into a Saving Private Ryan / Band of Brothers kind of movie. It has an array of caricatures, compelling real life views.
The story captures the cause of the conflict in simple, quick and understandable form along with the development of the army system during this time, and around compelling and historical people. It has a feeling of We We’re Soldiers movie telling about it.

Interesting read…….how copy…..

I was assigned to a maintenance battalion that ran in support of the 11ACR. (1AD5/77). I remember all those training facilities, Graf, Vielfliken, Mannheim. I caught the clean up of the drawdown in Germany after the gulf.
This book was a well written stroll down memory lane for me. The M1A1 (A2) was a beast. By now, they’re probably using a suitcase sized robot that has 2x the power of the Abrahams.
As I write this review today, Israel is and has been at war with Palestine in the Golan Heights (03Mar24), and I shiver at the thought of that kind of firepower in a congested residential environment…ultimately it will be a young man who has to pull the trigger, not a general or president or a politician.


Just a quick footnote,
most if not all of the equipment mentioned in this book have been distributed to national guard units and or scrapped completely.

Good picture of Desert Storm unit action

The author does a good job of setting up the background information of all the members of the 2nd cavalry group. While enjoyable it seemed that most of the action and meat of the book occurs in the last chapter. In reality, however, the battle takes place only over 100 hours so I guess that makes sense