U.S. Army Engineers in the Gulf War
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various vehicles. The Corps' C o l d Regions Research and Engineering
Laboratory used its experience from work on the trans-Alaska pipeline to
p r o v i d e information to the Army Engineer School on how best to cross the
large pipelines encountered in Kuwait and Iraq.20
Other Laboratory Support
The Corps laboratory s u p p o r t also extended t o mine detection. Early
reports confirmed the likelihood of widespread use of mines by Iraqi troops.
The Waterways Experiment Station worked on a remote minefield detection
system. The Army tested the overall mine detection program at Fort Hunter
Liggett, California, during September and October 1990.
M e a n w h i l e , personnel from the Engineer Topographic Laboratories
recognized the possibility that minefields in dry soils could be detected by
various sensors. To test this, in September 1990 they began an effort to build
and scan a mock minefield using radar. First they had to find a secure site in the
United States with very dry soil, comparable to that in the Middle East. After
reviewing soil samples, the Engineer Topographic Laboratories selected the
Marine facility at Twentynine Palms, California. There they replicated an Iraqi
Marines place inert mines at Twentynine Palms, California, to test how well remote sensing
techniques detect buried and surface mines.
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