Humanitarian· Kurdish Relief (Op PROVIDE COMFORT)
Iskenderun Harbor
Iskenderun Harbor on the Turkish coast served as the seaport of entry for Operation Provide Comfort, the maritime gateway through which the forces and supplies for the 1991 Kurdish relief effort flowed into the theater.
Marines and other forces, along with their equipment and the relief supplies, came ashore or were marshaled through the harbor as the operation built up, the port providing the link between the sealift bringing materiel to the region and the overland and air movement forward to northern Iraq. As with the air base inland, the harbor was a piece of logistical infrastructure rather than a site of combat, an essential node in the chain that sustained the humanitarian mission. Iskenderun's role illustrated the logistical reach required to mount a large relief operation far from established bases, the seaport enabling the rapid concentration of the forces and supplies that the Kurdish emergency demanded.
Record no. 797