Camp Doha, US 3rd Army
Jonathan Rhodes
September 9, 2002
As bombing in the no-fly zones increases, US forces are being pre-positioned as steadily as US Forces built up in the months preceding Desert Storm.
(click photos to enlarge)
ARCENT (Army Forces Central Command) and the US Third Army at Camp Doha has been the "focal point" for US Armed Forces in Kuwait since Gulf War I, 1991. The base covers 470 acres and has facilities for 2.5 million square feet of indoor storage.
(more satellite photos)
Over the past several months, two battalions of soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles, fuel and ammunition have increased the force strength at this critical post.
20,000 US Marines from Camp Pendleton in California are scheduled to arrive in the region in mid-October. The Marines and Navy are headquartered in Bahrain (NAVCENT).
US and British Special Forces have previously established an operating base near Incerlik in Turkey, and are running missions into northern Iraq. US Special Forces are already in place in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq working with the Kurds and Turkish Special Forces as well as forces from Turkmenistan trained by the Turks.
4000 US troops arrived at Jordan’s Aqaba port on the Red Sea August 12 with loads of Bradley fighting vehicles and helicopters on ships hastily chartered by the US Navy.
[DOD Briefing, US military equipment moved to Jordan, Navy Leases Transports]
"War is a constant struggle and must be waged from day to day. It is only with some difficulty and within limits that provision can be made for the future. Experience shows that forecasts are usually falsified and preparations always in arrear. Nevertheless, there must be a design and theme for bringing the war to a victorious end in a reasonable period. All the more is this necessary when under modern conditions no large-scale operation can be launched without the preparation of elaborate technical apparatus." -Winston Churchill 16 December 1941
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (Princeton Univ. Press, 1984, Vol. I, p.303)
