ABSTRACT
As midnight on February 23 passed and the early morning of February 24 arrived in the Gulf, a half-million-strong coalition force prepared for the final battles of the Gulf War. Major General Gus Pagonis, chief logistician for the theater, superintended the move of more than 250,000 men and more than 1,000 tanks an average of 200 miles, often over unimproved roads that were hardly more than tracks in the desert. Aircrews or personnel divisions on ships can be more easily rotated than ground-combat units, and the army and marines will have to give some thought to what might have happened had the ground battle lasted round-the-clock for 1,000 or 5,000 hours rather than 100. In the Gulf War, the United States did have effective high-tech weapons, it enjoyed the support of a broad coalition, and it had well-led, highly motivated, and competent troops.
