14th Quartermaster Detachment

The 14th Quartermaster Detachment, is a United States Army Reserve water purification unit stationed in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. During Operation Desert Storm, the detachment lost 13 soldiers and 43 would be wounded in an Iraqi Al Hussein ballistic missile attack on 25 February 1991 at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; the 14th, which had been in Saudi Arabia only six days, suffered the greatest number of casualties of any allied unit during Operation Desert Storm. Eighty-one percent of the unit's 69 soldiers had been killed or wounded.

Mobilization, training and deployment

On 15 January 1991, the 14th Quartermaster Detachment was mobilized for service in Operation Desert Storm. Three days later, the unit arrived at Fort Lee, Virginia to conduct intensive mobilization training in preparation for deployment to Saudi Arabia. For the next 30 days, detachment soldiers trained 18 hours a day on the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU) water purification system and common soldier tasks. The unit, augmented by 35 filler personnel from other active Army and reserve units, arrived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on 19 February 1991. The detachment's soldiers were quartered in a warehouse that had been converted to a temporary barracks. There, they waited for the arrival of unit equipment and movement to a field support location.

Al-Hussein missile attack

At 8:40 pm (12:40 pm EST) on 25 February 1991, parts of an Iraqi Al Hussein Scud missile destroyed the barracks housing members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment.