WITH THE I MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM       75


                    ----------------------------~---~-


At the entrance to one of ihe 2d Marine Division `5 six outer breaches a blue banner with the
numeral ~ indicates that it is Lane Blue 3. The route leading up to it was marked successivety
with blue plastic garbage paiis with `35 spray-painted by Marine pathfinders who navigated by
use of very accurate satellite-referenced global positioning system receivers. The blue pail just
below the lefi banner is marked "PL for phase line. Small redilags stuck in the edges of the
breach lane indicate unexploded mines.

one that ran from the combat service support area forward to the 2d Marine
Division was nicknamed the "Khanjar Expressway" and became the force's main
supply route.   The previous day, 22 February, a force of 2d Marine Division
light armored vehicles was operating up near the Manaqish bend in the border
as part of the deception effort,           when it was engaged by a sizable Iraqi
armored/mechanized force. The Marines were so effective in the ensuing action
that Baghdad Radio reported that the ground war had already started.    Boomer's
remark to his staff that night was:        "That was just my 2d LAl. Wait until he
sees the rest.......

                   The Liberation of Kuwait: The Breach

   At about 0400 on 24 February 1991, the 1st Marine Division began its
penetration of the twin obstacle belts between the Umm Gudair (South) and Al
Wafrah   oilfields as the I MEF supporting attack.           Major General Myatt
employed two infantry regiment task forces to infiltrate the obstacle belts by foot
between the Iraqi 29th and 42d Thfant~y Divisions:         Grizzly, commanded by
Colonel Jim Fuiks, and Taro, under Colonel John H. Admire.            Grizzly had
actually moved about 20 kilometers into the no man's land between the Saudi
Berm and the first belt beginning on 21 February.         This action constituted the
first retaking of Kuwaiti territory by the allied forces.  Task Forces Grizzly and
Taro secured the flanks for the main attack by           1st Marine Division's two
mechanized units, Task Force Ripper, under command of Colonel Canton W.
Fulford Jr., and Task Force Papa Bear, under Colonel Richard W. Hodory.
Four of the five battalions of the division's artillery regiment, the 11th Marines,