On May 17, 1944, Stilwell’s End Run Task Force captured the airfield at Pamati, two miles west of Myitkyina. They had marched 112 miles in twenty days, through dense, hostile jungle and over the six-thousand-foot Kumon Range. Each of the three columns lost anywhere from one quarter to one half of their mules and horses to falls or exhaustion in the precipitous terrain. Most of the men were sick with dysentery, typhus, malaria, or other tropical diseases. On the morning of May 17, Colonel Hunter, commander of the column known as “H Force,” ordered his men forward. They swept out of the forested hills and onto the airfield and nearby ferry terminal. Within half an hour the field was in Allied hands and less than an hour after that, it was ready to receive an aerial caravan of reinforcements. The attack was a stunning success. Unfortunately, the troops were exhausted, reinforcements were slow in coming, and Stilwell provided little direction for follow-up action. As a result, the town of Myitkyina remained in Japanese hands for almost three more months. What began as a brilliant surprise attack bogged down into a lengthy siege.