Pentagon Issues Order To Elite Units In Infantry
Military Action Could Involve Ground Troops

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 17, 2001; Page A13

The Pentagon issued a "warning order" late last week to some elite infantry units to prepare for a possible imminent combat mission, indicating the administration is moving closer toward taking wide-ranging military action that will involve ground combat troops, a defense official said.

The order was issued after planners on the staff of the Joint Chiefs last week worked intensely to produce several possible "courses of action," as the military calls tentative plans, to retaliate for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. A senior officer on the Joint Staff then notified the Army that most of the missions being contemplated could require ground combat forces, as well as combat aircraft.

A warning order involving the deployment of troops overseas requires the approval of the secretary of defense.

President Bush is expected to be briefed on the tentative plans today by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and may approve one for execution, defense officials said.

Rumsfeld also indicated that multifaceted missions are being planned when he said on Fox News yesterday that "this isn't going to be a few cruise missiles flying around on television for the world to see that something blew up." He said that "there very likely will be" military action.

Returning to the White House from Camp David, where he held strategy meetings with senior advisers over the weekend, President Bush said, "It is time for us to the win the first war of the 21st century decisively."

And Vice President Cheney, speaking from Camp David on NBC's "Meet the Press," said about the U.S. military that "we've got a broad range of capabilities, and they may well be given missions in connection with this overall task and strategy."

The headquarters that was notified for possible action is the XVIII Airborne Corps, which is headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C., and comprises four divisions: The 82nd Airborne, the 101st Airborne, the 3rd Infantry Division and the 10th (Mountain) Division.

Of those units, the most likely to be tapped is the 82nd Airborne, which specializes in capturing airfields and other swift assault missions. The 82nd keeps one battalion at the highest level of readiness, able to begin deploying overseas in 18 hours.

"I'm absolutely positive we're going to go someplace," said one Army officer. He said he wasn't aware of the order, which was closely held, but was judging more by Bush's remark over the weekend that "everybody who wears the uniform" should "get ready" for action.

In another signal the administration is moving closer to military action, the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier that has been sailing in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, stopped showing its location on its Web site (www.cvn70.navy.mil). That Web site also reported that sailors aboard the ship have been blocked from sending e-mail.

"Our outgoing e-mail has been shut down to preserve operational security," the Web site read. It is standard practice aboard Navy ships to cut off telephone calls and e-mails before going into combat.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, the senior uniformed Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on the issuance of the warning order or the clampdown on information about the USS Carl Vinson.

"We will not comment on the pending movements of operational units," he said.