CNN: Enterprise Carrier Strike Groups heads to the Persian Gulf

[flpoljunkie]

Tuesday, the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group heads out to support the War on Terrorism. About 7,500 sailors are on board the Enterprise, the guided-missile cruiser Leyte Gulf, the guided-missile destroyer McFaul,and the guided-missile frigate Nicholas.

Also heading out Tuesday, the guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams. Three hundred sailors will take that ship to the Persian Gulf for its maiden deployment. The James E. Williams will meet up with the Norfolk-based Trenton. Commanders in the Middle East requested "increased naval presence" there.

[flpoljunkie]

1. Link to article re deployment. Saw report on CNN a few minutes ago.

http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4846185&nav=ZolHbyvj

[robinlynne]

2. oh shit.

[Ezlivin]

3. That's a lot of money and effort for "increased naval presence"

A carrier does not sail alone and there's more along than just the frigate and destroyers.

We're not hearing about the submarines, for one thing.

Are they going to pull into one of Iraq's ports?

Oh, that's right, Iraq doesn't have a port. I guess those sailors will have a hell of time finding a place to have liberty.

[Shipwack]

7. They'll most likely have liberty call in Bahrain or Dubai(?)

While I was briefly stationed in Bahrain, we had a carrier group pull in there a few times. They swarm the Navy Exchange (basically a department/grocery store), cleaning off the shelves of everything, jam the clubs, cause the taxi fairs to increase... Mildly annoying, but I didn't fault them for it.

[Ezlivin]

21. As a former LPO, I took liberty last

That way you can know all the places where the reputation of your boat (or ship) is already established, for better or worse.

And it's always fun to watch drunken shipmates navigating the gangplank.

I damn sure hope the sailors can get more than just 3.2 beer in Bahrain or Dubai!

[Shipwack]

35. Oh, more than 3.2 beers... no problem there.

Bahrain sells more beer every year than oil, in fact. I suppose the ships might have a limit on what you can drink at the base club (though I never heard of that being done there). The only catch is that beer is more expensive out in town, $5-$8 bucks a bottle. Public drunkenness is also one of the big no-nos there; one of the few things they might actually lock up a sailor for a few days as opposed to just dropping him off at the gate (where he'll wish he was still in jail by the time the CO gets done with him).

Bahrain isn't a bad liberty port, all in all, I suppose. Beats being on board, in any event.

Oh, I agree about the fun of watching drunken shipmates, unless you're in charge of "herding" them home, or you have to stand a drunk watch over 'em...

[napi21]

4. Are we sure this isn't just a carrier rotation?

My son was stationed on the Nimitz, and they did several tours in the PG. Only time they were ever engaged in anything was during the SHORT Gulf WarI.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Some are coming home, but why do they need "increased presence?"

Hampton Roads will welcome home nearly 2,700 sailors of the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group .They've been gone six months. The guided missile destroyer USS Winston Churchill is the first to return on Tuesday.

More ships are coming home after dropping off the Marines at Camp Lejeune from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those ships are the Nassau, Austin and Cape St. George. They're coming home Thursday.

USS Norfolk comes back Saturday. Sailors on the Cape St. George and the Winston Churchill actually had run in's with pirates during their deployments.

[napi21]

6. Yes, I heard about the Pirates! I wrote to my son about that!

He said dumb stuff like that happens all the time, we just don't often hear about it.

I don't know if they really are increasing the "presence". That's what I meant when I said rotation. when Joe was on the Nimitz, she ran a fairly regular schedule...gone for 6-8 months, in port for 6-9 months and then she'd sail again. I know HE always went to the PG.

[flpoljunkie]

10. Yes, but they are deploying 7,500 sailors and bringing home 2,700.

That must be the "increased presence"--a guided missile carrier, a guided missile destroyer and a guided missile frigate.

[napi21]

12. The destroyers and the frigates are usually part of the carrier group.

I don't know how to find out anymore which carrier might be returning from deployment, but if those are coming back, I bet there's a carrier returning too. There's always at least 7.500 sailors on the carrier itself.

[Minnesota Libra]

11. Haven't you heard, Bush wants to wipe out Iran and Iran wants to..........

...wipe out Israel. The Middle East is going to blow sky high:nuke: and the WH Idiot:banghead: wants to make sure our young people will be right there in the thick of it.:hide:

:freak: :spank: :puke: :grr: :freak: :spank: :puke: :grr:

[napi21]

13. All sabre ratteling so far! Sabre still in it's sheath!

Keep listening for Shrub to pull his out!

[Minnesota Libra]

16. Well, the Iranians don't plan to rattle any sabras they will wage.........

....some SERIOUS gorilla warfare against us and the Israelis, and I wouldn't put it past the Iranians to use dirty bombs or anything else.

People in this country seem to ignore the lengths they would go to in order to protect their country and neighborhoods if someone attacked us. I, for one, would pull out all the stops and that's precisely what the Iranians are preparing to do.

[napi21]

18. Oh I have no doubt the Iranians will pll out all the stops!

I'm just thinking W is ratteling his sabre, to help his poll #'s ya know!


I can only HOPE since there are so many Americans AGAINST striking Iran, Shrub will have no option but to shut up and change his mind!

I actually believe Iran wouldn't be so interested in nukes if it weren't for Shrub! Look at whats happened. Shrub gives a speech and names 3 countries as the axis of evil. He invades one but leaves the one with the nukes alone! I know what I'd do if I were Prez. of Iran!!!!! Self preservation!

[Minnesota Libra]

19. Come on wake up now!! I missed something didn't I?? Since when......

....did Bush change or even reconsider any action/decision based on the fact that the country is against him? If anything, everyone else's objection just makes the WH Idiot all the more emboldened because he is "the decider". If you don't believe me ask him!!!

In this case I will try to hold on to HOPE for humanity's sake :grouphug:but I certainly won't be holding my breath waiting for the day when the WH Idiot wakes up to the real world.:banghead:

Sorry for the :rant: but this idiot is really getting to me. He really thinks he will usher in "the end times" :nuke: and is trying to do so with gusto too.:wtf:

edited to add: Just in case there is any question I wanted you to know I was being :sarcasm: but in a nice way.:hug:

[napi21]

20. Oh, I understand. Maybe I'm just getting getting tired too.

I really have heard a lot of pretty intelligent people say there's no way Shrub can go to war without the support of the American people...at least a small majority of them!

I don't think he has that this time!

[Minnesota Libra]

22. I sure hope the powers that be prove you right this time. nt

[alfredo]

26. I bet they are going to do a Shock and Awe II.

[BigYawn]

28. Are these the same Iranians who could not defeat a much smaller

Iraq in nearly a decade of war? And Iraq fell in what one week
during each of the gulf wars?? Hmmm...I am afraid, really afraid of those mighty Iranians. They will spank us baaaaad!

[TheBaldyMan]

25. Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons or a missle system that reaches Israel

and I don't think their antiquated airforce is up to bombing Israel flat, even with chemical or bacteriological weapons it would be a non-starter.

Bush is insane if he thinks attacking Iran is going to make the world safer.

[davepc]

24. Globalsecurity.org hasn't updated there "where are the carriers" since 05

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/where.htm

[pocket]

8. yeehaw, time to bomb some more brown people

the biggest pirates are in a big flat grey ship

[BigYawn]

30. The Iranians are lighter than Italians in general and are descended

from Aryans. They can hardly be called "brown" people.
Iranians are NOT Arabs.

[kineneb]

31. Exactly so

And my Persian step-father would be happy to remind any and all of that fact. Repeat: Iranians/Persians are Not Arabs. They could be considered the original "Caucasians"; both they and their language is Indo-European.

[LiberalPartisan]

33. Ethnically Iranians are caucasion

CIA World Fact Book breaks down the ethnic population of Iran as follows:

Persian 51%
Azeri 24%
Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%
Kurd 7%
Arab 3%
Lur 2%
Baloch 2%
Turkmen 2%
other 1%


http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ir.html

[spuddonna]

9. We must be ramping up for the Iran invasion... n/t

[Zynx]

14. We don't have anywhere near enough troops.

Not unless Bush has deployed some 500,000 troops that we don't even have.

[flpoljunkie]

15. Doesn't take 500,000 troops to drop bunker buster mini nukes & cruise

missiles. Am afraid that is Bush's plan.

[Zynx]

23. I very much doubt that even Bush will overturn almost six decades of

US policy on the first strike of nuclear weapons. Besides, we don't need an aircraft carrier for that. A submarine based attack would be the best way to go.

[alfredo]

27. He's willing to over turn 2 centuries of American law. He knows

that he's saved and no matter what he does on earth, God will welcome him into heaven.

[BigYawn]

29. Bush does not need nukes to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities...

It will be cruise missles, smart bombs and bunker busters.

[flpoljunkie]

34. I don't doubt it one minute with this administration.

[spuddonna]

17. Yeah, but that didn't stop them with Iraq either...

I believe Shinseki said we'd need 'several hundred thousand troops' there... and we went in with, what, 120,000?

I honestly think Rumsfeld thinks he can use the troops in Iraq for a ground attack on Iran, to hell with what the other military planners think. :(

[Gloria]

32. Read this from Speigel about the game being played now in the

4//Spiegel Online, Germany May 1, 2006

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,413981,00.html

Gulf and the vulnerability of the Iraqi oil. Iranians playing chicken with the British and Americans....

IRAQ: ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE

By Bernhard Zand

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

The British and the Americans are guarding Iraq's Persian Gulf oil platforms -- the troubled country's only real sources of revenue -- like crown jewels. But Iraqi oil is flowing sluggishly at best, while hoped-for investments haven't materialized and the Iraqi oil industry is on the verge of collapse -- both technical and political.

The HMS Bulwark, Her Majesty Elizabeth II's most state-of-the-art warship, has been bobbing at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab River for days. With its crew of more than 600 men, the amphibious ship, outfitted with landing craft and the latest technology, has a mission in fragile spots in the Persian Gulf -- but nothing happens. The coasts of Kuwait, Iraq and Iran are dimly visible on the horizon. The sea is calm as a dozen fishing boats crisscross the waters around the ship. Sometimes the calm lasts for days.



And then, suddenly, after weeks of monotony, something does happen. Four Iranian patrol boats traveling at high speeds -- 45 knots, or about 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph) -- approach the Bulwark from the East. They're manned by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards -- not regular navy personnel. It's considered an ominous sign.



Captain Clive Johnstone sprints from his cabin to the command deck, and for a moment he loses his typically British cool. "All men without orders leave the bridge immediately!" he barks.



Johnstone anxiously has his crew establish radio contact with the Iranians. It takes a few minutes to make the connection, but by then the Revolutionary Guards, or Pasdaran, have already stopped their boats -- at a point they believe marks the nautical border between Iran and Iraq.



The enemy that's making officers of the Royal Navy on the Bulwark so nervous consists of bearded men piloting small, agile, high-speed boats. Even the mightiest warship is vulnerable, as the suicide attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port city of Aden in October 2000 illustrates. In that incident, explosives hidden on a fishing boat manned by al-Qaida terrorists ripped an enormous hole -- six by 12 meters (19 by 39 feet) -- into the hull of the American destroyer, killing 17 American sailors.

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