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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