The “Miracle Well” of Khanjar

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

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will help us carry the day. We are on the right track, totally confident we will accomplish that mission.

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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

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“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.

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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-

Defense Imagery DM-SN-93-01700 A crewman passes a 155mm projectile into a Battery R, 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, M-109A1 self-propelled howitzer during training before the war. This battery participated in several artillery raids after Operation Desert Storm began.

jar was designed to hold enough food, fuel, ammunition, and water for the two divisions to fight for 15 days.11

Khanjar’s most glaring weakness was the lack of water, and Navy Commander John R. Doyle’s Naval Mobil Construction Battalion 40 began digging wells on 10 February without any success. On 14 February, Captain Peter M. Ramey discovered a pipe and valve above the ground northwest of Khanjar; it produced water that was very hard on filters but useable nonetheless. Called “the miracle well” by General Krulak, it produced 100,000 gallons of water a day.

Next to Khanjar, an expeditionary airfield was built for the helicopter squadrons of Marine Aircraft Group 26. Operations from the airfield, named “Lonesome Dove,” began on 20 February and were delayed in part to reduce the maintenance required by operating from the high sand environment of the new field. In addition to 9,000 feet of matting for the helicopters, a helicopter tactical air command center was established at Lonesome Dove to coordinate operations in the forthcoming offensive.

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Much later, General Krulak described the accomplishments of the Khanjar logistics complex in the following way: “When you look at Kibrit and how massive Kibrit was and then compare it to Khanjar, Khanjar was far bigger. Khanjar had a field hospital with 14 operating rooms. It was the third largest hospital in the Navy hospital system: Bethesda, San Diego, Khanjar. It had an airstrip. The forward ammunition supply point itself covered almost 800 acres. Now, think about that. That’s just the ammo dump. The entire complex was over 11,000 acres. It was monstrous.”

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Equally remarkable was the effort to shift supplies from Kibrit to Khanjar, and to keep both supplied throughout the campaign. Lieutenant Colonel Larry D. Waters’s 6th Motor Transport Battalion formed and operated the required line haul capability, establishing a convoy of civilian and military trucks that was soon dubbed the “Baghdad Express.” Brigadier General James Brabham elaborated on the difficulties confronted by this convoy: “They faced the challenge of operating leased, aged 18-wheel commercial trucks from various manufacturers. The principal operators of many of these vehicles were expatriate laborers from many