WrrH THE I MARINE EXPEDITiONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM       101

   Further east, Task Force Papa Bear threaded its way through the northern
edge of the Magwa      Ojifield just   south of Kuwait  International    Airport.
Screening it to the east was Shepherd, which managed to move along the east
side of the airport and occupy parts of it by 2040 that night.   A little earlier, at
2012, General Myan had radioed that "all of Kuwait City is in friendly hands
to include (main supply routes), police station, and airport. "~`  This report did
not mean the fighting was over. Shortly afterwards, an Iraqi mechanized force
ran into elements of Task Force Papa Bear along the Seventh Ring Road freeway
near the airport's southern perimeter.   A brisk firefight ensued.  Following this
action, General Myatt shifted Shepherd from its blocking position to the east to
conduct the final assault on the airport. By dawn on 27 February, the airfield
was occupied by 1st Marine Division and Task Force Taro was brought forward
to clear it.
   During the afternoon of 26 January, General Hearney ordered        up the force
reserve, Regimental Landing Team 5, through the breaches to handle the
increasingly large numbers of prisoners and to protect main supply routes inside
Kuwait.  For the EPW mission, he attached Battalion Landing Team 3/1 to the
2d Marine Division.   Marine Aircraft Group 50 helolifted them directly to the
Ice Tray.  Meanwhile the rest of Regimental Landing Team 5 had only just
arrived in its blocking positions north of Kibrit from its landing at Mishab when
it received orders to continue in trace of the force's divisions to provide security
for the main supply routes.  Battalion Landing Teams 2/5 and 3/5 and their
supporting artillery unit, 2d Battalion, 11th Marines, began a bone-jarring 200
kilometer road march toward Al Jaber Air Base that lasted all day and all night.
Assisting in the EPW and route Security missions was the Marine Corps
Reserve's 2d Battalion, 24th Marines.
   That same day General Krulak at the Direct Support Command ordered the
establishment of a forward logistics transfer area along the western perimeter of
Al Jaber Air Base.  This location was the junction of the Kuwaiti road network
with the 76-kilometer-long `~Al KIlanjar Expressway" that went via 2d Marine
Division's breaches.  Although Marine combat engineers labored constantly to
maintain the four-lane dirt "expressway" main supply route, the daily rainstorms
turned a few portions of the route near the breaches into quagmires.
   Marine assault helicopters flew high priority resupply items over these
difficult areas from Landing Zone Lonesome Dove and Al Kilanjar to division
supply points. To thwart the heat-seeking missile threat, the pilots flew at only
one or two hundred feet altitude along secure routes.  The six heavy transport
Sikorsky CH-53D and -E Sea Stallion squadrons of Marine Aircraft Groups 16
and 26 flew most of the tonnage.  The groups' five squadrons of Boeing Vertol
CH-46E Sea Knights assisted them and flew virtually all            of the medical
evacuation flights of Marines and Iraqi prisoners as well.
   To provide the divisions' ready support, the Direct Support Command
stocked two days' supply of water, fuel, and ammunition at Combat Service
Support Detachment `,Jaber" and built storage for 300,000 gallons of water and
600,000 gallons of fuel.  Combat engineers also put a 120,000-gallon-per~ay
water well into operation, which freed up transportation assets. From this point,