ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                        161

   Also preparing for the worst case, we had the surgeons, wearing individual
protective clothing, practice dealing with contaminated casualties.

Proceedings: How did the combat service support trOops hold up under the high
tempo of operations?

Krulak: They did fine.  The infantrymen--and I'm one-4rain in specific tactics
for specific missions that have a beginning and an end.  But every day is the
same for a wrench-turner.  He might be working on hard stand back at Camp
Lejeune or in the sand of Saudi Arabia, but he still turns that wrench the same
way every day.    So getting our guys up to speed for their combat service
support jobs in the desert was relatively easy compared, say, to training and
equipping the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions to make those historic breaches of the
Iraqi barriers and minefields.
   For us, the really different thing was that nobody had ever mounted out a
full force service support group before.  Most thought it couldn't be done. But
we deployed as a full FSSG to Al Jubayl, moved to Al Mish'ab, from there to
Kibrit, from there to Al Khanjar, and then on to Al Jaber, in Kuwait. Then we
rolled back to Al Khanjar, then to Kibrit, then to Al Mish'ab, and finally back
to Al Jubayl.  The whole shooting match--the whole damned FSSG.         That is
something to accomplish!

Proceedings: Back at Camp Lejeune, the FSSG would have its share of female
Marines, doing   everything  from  punching     typewriters to running   heavy
earth-moving equipment.  As you moved farther and farther forward in a combat
environment, did you have to make allowances for the females, and leave them
in the rear?

Krulak: We took all of them with us.        They were magnificent.    The first
Marine out of the 2d FSSG to be recommended for a Bronze Star medal was a
woman.   My G-1 [personnel officer] was a female lieutenant colonel; my 0-2
[intelligence officeri was a female major.    The noncommissioned officer in
charge of our communications center was a woman; 50% of the communi-
cations watch sections were women.        We had female platoon commanders.
After dark on the first day of the ground attack, ten of my female truck drivers
went through the breach to bring back enemy prisoners, so they actually cleared
the breach ahead of some of our hard-charging infantry units.  I had a couple
hundred female Marines up north with me, and none of them ever shied away
from anything.  None of them went home on emergency leave--zero!        None of
them got pregnant in Southwest Asia--zero!   The women, as well as the Marine
Corps Reservists, did a truly phenomenal job.
   I'm a firm believer in the capabilities of our female Marines to perform
under pressure. I'm not saying that they should be infantrymen, but there is a
role for them in combat--certainly in the combat service support arena.   They
did a great job.