Description

---

This monograph tells the story of the Marines and sailors of the 1St Force Service Support Group, the 2d Force Service Support Group, Marine Wing Support Group 37, and the 3d Naval Construction Regiment whose combined efforts gave the I Marine Expeditionary Force the ability to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. This document is part of a preliminary series of official Marine Corps histories that cover Marine Corps operations in the Gulf War. During the Persian Gulf crisis, the History and Museums Division sent a team to Saudi Arabia to produce first-hand accounts of unit operations. In November 1990, five Reserve officers from the Mobilization Training Unit (MTU) (History)-DC-7 arrived in Saudi Arabia, deployed to different commands, accompanied their units throughout the battle, and produced powerful narratives on the operations of I Marine Expeditionary Force, the 1st Marine Division, the 2d Marine Division, and Marine Forces Afloat. Unforeseen circumstances prevented a logistics history from being included in the series, so the Secretary of the Navy recalled Major Steven M. Zimmeck, USMC (Ret), to active duty to complete this account of Marine Corps combat service support in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. This monograph is predominantly based upon documentation collected during and immediately after Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Unit command chronologies and interviews recorded by the Battlefield Assessment Team served as the basis of a comment edition which was sent out to key participants in the events depicted. These comments were then incorporated into the final narrative. This methodology produced a history that approaches the accuracy and vigor of the MTU's first-hand accounts. Please note that this manuscript was prepared using different files which contained missing pages. This was done to ensure that ALL of the pages from the original manuscript are intact.

About the Author

---

Major Zimmeck is a career Marine Corps logistician who served tours of duty with the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, the 3d Marine Division, the 1st Force Service Support Group, Headquarters United States Marine Corps, and the Royal Saudi Marines. He has accumulated more than seven years of desert logistics experience in the Middle East and the United States. During the Persian Gulf crisis, Major Zimmeck served as a logistics watch officer in the Headquarters Marine Corps Crisis Response Cell and, later, as the first logistics advisor to the Royal Saudi Marines. In the early 1980s he served at Headquarters Marine Corps as the force service support group table of organization sponsor and prior to retirement in 1994, served as the logistics officer's sponsor. After retirement and as a consultant, he co-authored the final phase of the Marine Corps Logistics Planning Factor Study. In 1995, Major Zimmeck was recalled to active duty for two years to complete this project. Major Zimmeck is a graduate of Amphibious Warfare School and Command and Staff College and holds a bachelor of arts degree in history from Wittenberg University, a master of arts degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University, and a master of business administration degree in finance from George Washington University.