The Final Preparations
139
Marine Corps Art Collection
The Terminator by Sgt Charles G. Grow. An LVS (Logistics Vehicle System) pulling a trailer with a D7 bulldozer aboard. Marine logistics and engineer units, as well as Navy construction units, worked around the clock to prepare for the liberation of Kuwait.
have one more MAPEX [map exercise] to decision point it and so forth, go through it in detail. Two-division breach, one breach just to the west of the [al-]Wafrah oil field, the other up a little higher. 1st Div [1st Marine Division] on the right, 2d Div [2d Marine Division] on the left. Relatively uncomplicated. Should go well. Long pole in the tent remains logistics, as has been the case for every force in this theater. Interestingly enough, Gen [James] Brabham’s Saudi Motors* will help us carry the day. We are on the right track, totally confident we will accomplish that mission.9
The “Miracle Well” of Khanjar On 3 February, Brigadier General Krulak sent a team headed by Colonel Gary S. McKissock 30 kilometers northwest of al-Qaarah, Saudi Arabia, to an area labeled “gravel plain” on the Marine maps, to scout *
“Saudi Motors” was the nickname given to the many civilian commercial vehicles provided by the Saudis to help move supplies to the forward staging areas.
for possible locations for the new combat service support area. The team returned with three possible locations; Brigadier General Krulak selected a location closest to the border yet outside Iraqi artillery range. It was designated Combat Service Support Area 2 and named “Khanjar” after the daggers worn by Saudi Arabian men. General Krulak ordered plans and preparations made so that when the decision was finalized just before noon on 6 February, at a Marine commanders’ conference at Ras alSafaniyah on the Persian Gulf, Krulak’s units were able to set out immediately to begin construction.10 Over the next two weeks, Marines of the 7th Engineer Support Battalion and 8th Engineer Support Battalion constructed a second massive logistics base in the middle of a near featureless desert at Khanjar. They built 151 ammunition cells, berms, roads, working spaces, billeting areas, water and bulk fuel storage areas, a field hospital, an airstrip for C-130 Hercules aircraft, and 24 miles of blast wall. The entire Khanjar complex extended over 11,280 acres. Set even farther from Ras al-Mishab than Kibrit’s Combat Service Support Area 1, Khan-
