Air base construction and maintenance of airfield runways and taxiways had plagued wing operations since the early days of the Korean War. During the first winter these problems had appeared repeatedly at those installations where Marine air was either not properly supported or insufficiently augmented by the operational commander. Shortly after MAG-33 had moved to K-3 in early 1951, the wing commander requested emergency repairs for the runway and a permanent solution to the airfield maintenance difficulties. Assistance was made available, but it was insufficient. The repair force had to be augmented by Marines pulled away from their own vital jobs and by native laborers. Later, in the spring of 1952, when the Air Force assigned some of its engineers to assist, the maintenance problem almost disappeared. Motor transport within the wing was a continuing source of logistical problems. Vehicles for handling the heavier aviation ordnance were unsatisfactory because their configuration, of World War II vintage, did not permit them to service the newer aircraft. Other trucks lacked engine power or rigidity to withstand sustained use under primitive airfield conditions. World War II vehicles that had been preserved and placed in open storage required reconditioning before their use in Korea. Mechanics’ general and special tools had a high replacement rate throughout the entire period of wing operations in Korea. Aircraft fuel handling in April 1952 followed outmoded World War II methods. For K-3, amphibian vehicles received drummed fuel from ships and landed it at the beach. There MAG-33 personnel transferred the gasoline to 1,200-gallon fuel trucks, which then moved it to the airfield servicing area, where other Marines transferred it again, this time to 3,200-gallon stationary refuelers for dispensing into the aircraft. Although this method became highly developed, it was extremely slow and wasteful of manpower and vehicles in comparison to the tank farm system, which was soon to reach K-3. Two areas of logistics continued to remain almost trouble free for division and wing Marines. Medical problems existed but were not extensive. During a five-day period in late March, Marine Air Control Group 2 experienced 13 cases of scarlet fever but no fatalities. That same month, the Pacific Fleet Medical Officer noted that MAG-12 sick bays were in excellent condition and that medical “personnel have shown great ingenuity in fabricating various items of medical equipment from scrap metal and lumber.”[65] [65] _PacFlt EvalRpt_ No. 4, Chap. 12, p. 12-8. The medical officer’s report to CinCPac noted that a vast improvement “in the spaces allocated for the care of the sick and wounded” had been made.