duration of the ground war, called for Seabees to repair the Al Jaber airfield for use by Marine aircraft, maintain roads within Kuwait, con- struct enemy prisoner of war camps and fi- nally, move up to Kuwait International Air- port to support the Marine divisions there. Perhaps the Seabee's most important contribution was the part they played in what General Schwarzkopf called the "end run". One of the attractions of a flank attack against the entrenched Iraqis was the trackless nature of the territory to the west - there were no roads big enough to support the large volume of troops and supplies required to successfully sustain an attack from that direction, so the Iraqis felt they could leave that flank un- guarded. ff an extensive road network could be quickly built from scratch, however, then such an attack would be feasible and make possible a crushing blow that would minimize allied casualties. Building the road required to support the end run was made all the more challenging by the requirement to deceive the enemy be- cause it necessitated last minute construction. Under the gun both figuratively and literally, the Seabees constructed more than 200 miles of road - a four-lane divided highway in the sand. - 33 -
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