96 Ready Reserve Force (RRF) ships, 25              Marines for 30 days of combat - food, water,
prepositioning force ships, eight Fast Sealift      fuel, millions of pounds of ammunition for
Ships (FSS), two hospital ships, and two avia-      aircraft, artillery and small arms, construction
tion logistics support ships.                       materials and medical supplies. The balance
                                                    of the equipment for the 1st MEF arrived from
SEALIFT DURING DESERT SHIELDI                       Guam aboard the ships of MPS Squadron
ST()RM. Within hours of the initial deploy-         THREE. Delivering all the equipment deliv-
ment orders, Navy and civilian merchant ma-         ered by MPS ships to the 45,000 men of the 1st
rinesailors aboard MilitarySealiftCommand's         Marine Division would have required 2100
(MSC) sealift force ships swung into action.        lifts by C-5s, our largest military transport
Maritime l3repositioning Ships (MES) loaded         aircraft.
with Marine Corps supplies and equipment
from Guam, Saipan and Diego Garda headed                   MSC's eight fast sealift ships (FSS), the
for Saudi Arabia.                                   fastest cargo ships in the world, sped eastward
                                                    at 33 knots, carrying 24,000 tons of equipment
     As in previous large logistic support          for the Army's 24th Infantry (Mechanized)
operations during World War II, the Korean          Division and the 1st Corps Support Command.
conflict and the Vietnam War, more than 90          Although normally on 96-hour standby, the
percent of the heavy equipment, ammunition,         first FSS, USNS CAPELLA (T-AKR 293), was
fuel and other supplies for DESERT SHIELD/          ready to deploy in only 48 hours. The next two
STORM was carried by sealift. The strategic         FSSs were only a day behind CAPELLA. A
sealift mission includes both surge shipping        typical FSS load included more than 700 Army
during initial mobilization and resupply or         vehicles such as M-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley
sustainment shipping.                               fighting vehicles and fuel trucks.

     The first three ships of MPS Squadron                 Ten afloat prepositioning ships (APS)
TWO raced from their Diego Garcia homeport          carrying Army and Air Force equipment, fuel
to reach Saudi Arabia 15 August, marking the        and supplies also headed for Middle East wa-
first use of the MPS in an actual crisis. Within    ters.  Aboard the APS MV Noble Star the
four days of their arrival in the port of Jubail,   sprawling, 28-acre Fleet Hospital 5 was stored
Navy cargo handlers averaging 100 lift-hours        in over 400 international standardized con-
per day offloaded more equipment and sup-           tainers. Those containers were soon offloaded
plies from the three 755-foot ships than could      in the first-ever deployment of a Navy fleet
have been moved by 3,000 C-141 cargo flights.       hospital.
The 16,500 Marines of the 7th Marine Expedi-
tionary Brigade (MEB), a component of the 1st              MSC called on 40 Ready Reserve Force
Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), arrived           (RRF) ships to provide the surge sealift capa-
via the Military Airlift Command. They "mar-        bility needed to sustain support for U.S. forces
ried-up" with the MPS equipment and were            in Saudi Arabia. Civilian mariners answered
ready for combat on 25 August - the first           the call and crews were quickly assembled.
heavy ground combat capability in-theater.          MSC also chartered commercial vessels to sup-
                                                    port the flow of cargo to Saudi Arabia.
     The five ships of MPS Squadron TWO
brought the essentials to support the 7th MEB              Because Iraq was laying mines in the


                                                 - 28 -

| Table of Contents | First Page | Prev Page | Next Page | Src Image |