104                                         U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991

Division on the road just east of Ali Al Salem Air Base.    Later that day the two
Arab forces joined in the center of Kuwait City near its landmark water towers.
The original plan called for 2d Marine Division's assault units to go all the way
to Kuwait Bay.    However, by dawn on 27 January, organized Iraqi resistance
ceased within the city.  The division's forces consolidated at its objectives,
roughly 5,000 meters south of the bay.        All MEF objectives were seized. The
primary goal became the facilitation of the link-up of Joint Forces Commands-
East and -West for a formal liberation of Kuwait City.
   The liberation of Kuwait City had always been the mission of the Coalition
Forces, but that is not to say that Marines were not participants.  All forward
lines of I MEF were now in, or adjacent to, built-up areas.    The MarCent area
of responsibility went from slightly east of Kuwait International Airport, west
along the Sixth Ring Road about 50 kilometers, to the eastern edge of Ali Al
Salem Air Base.   General Boomer and the command group entered Kuwait City
from the west and drove to the American Embassy.          They joined Lieutenant
Knowles' team there at 1421 to become the second group of Marines to enter
the central part of the city.  Boomer's party, as all Marine units on the front
lines of the force during the afternoon of 27 January, became the objects of
adulation by Kuwaiti citizens who approached them repeating in English 11Thank
you" and in Arabic Allahu Akbar (God is great).      The Marines were unprepared
for the depth of the emotional thanks they received.    Their chief concern shifted
from the Iraqi threat to the increasing numbers of assorted firearms that the
exuberant Kuwaitis began firing into the air.
   Combat operations did not end for! MEF, however.         Fixed-wing aircraft of
3d Marine Aircraft Wing continued to attack Iraqi units in northern Kuwait.
Southwest of Al Jaber Air Base, units of Regimental Landing Team 5 turned
south toward Al Wafrah to begin a five-day clearing operation of that bypassed
area. That night, there were no ground combat actions except for some 120mm
mortar round impacts near Kuwait International Airport and on the road to Al
Jaber.
   The focus of ground combat action shifted to northern Kuwait and southern
Iraq so the! MEF staff worked on plans to shift the main command post.     The
move never happened.   The campaign had gone so swiftly that General Boomer
decided the best location for it was back in Jubayl.    Shortly before 0500 on 28
February 1991, Major General Hearney gathered the staff around a shortwave
radio in the combat operations center. They heard President Bush on the World
Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation order the cessation of hostilities
to be effective at 0800 on 28 February 1991.           After receiving confirming
instructions  from  General    Schwarzkopf's      headquarters, General Hearney
transmitted over the command frequency:


   `The source of these remained a mystery. The ones along the Al Jaber road 29 kilometers
north of the air base set off a long series of secondary explosions.