Text 46819, 59 rader
Skriven 2007-01-06 19:34:22 av shannon talley
     Kommentar till en text av LEE LOFASO
Ärende: Re: America
===================
Hello Lee,

> Apparently you have a problem with reading comprehension.  As such,
> I will rephrase what I have said many times before -
> No large ship such as an aircraft carrier could regularly traverse
> the Strait of Hormuz until a navigational channel was dredged. No
> navigational channel was dredged until the Persian Gulf War, during
> the Bush41 administration.

uhhmm...  Hate to burst your bubble Lee, but we've been putting Aircraft 
carriers in the PG for a very long time.  My uncle was on the Midway when 
the went to the gulf in November of 79 (that was before the PG war by the 
way).  Here is some historical documentation:

"Midway relieved USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) as the Indian Ocean contingency 
carrier on 16 April 1979. MIDWAY and her escort ships continued a 
significant American naval presence in the oil-producing region of the 
Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. On 18 November, she arrived in the northern 
part of the Arabian Sea in connection with the continuing hostage crisis in 
Iran. Militant followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had come to power 
following the overthrow of the Shah, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on 4 
November and held 63 U.S. citizens hostage. MIDWAY was joined 21 November by 
USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63), and both carriers, along with their escort ships, 
were joined by USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) and her escorts on 22 January 1980. 
MIDWAY was relieved by USS CORAL SEA (CV 43) on 5 February."

Reference:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv41-midway/cv41-midway.html


Now if you've been reading "WikiPedia" then you've been reading inaccurate 
information provided by Joe Blow.  Wiki states: "In August 1990, with 
Carrier Air Wing 14 embarked, INDEPENDENCE was sent to deter Iraqi 
aggression during Operation Desert Shield. Arriving on station in the Gulf 
of Oman on 5 August, INDEPENDENCE was the first carrier to enter the Persian 
Gulf since 1974. The ship remained on station for more than 90 days and 
permanently reestablished a U.S. naval presence in the region. She returned 
to San Diego on 20 December 1990."

This information is inaccurate.  The U.S. Navy had kept a 3 to 6 month 
presence in the Persian Gulf (nearly) every year since 1974 up to the first 
Gulf War.  Between the MIDWAY, CORAL SEA and the RANGER, the gulf was 
"manned".  The only issue we had during the first gulf war was the idea of 
putting  2 NIMITZ class CVN's in the PG for sustained operations.  Note; the 
RANGER and the MIDWAY were older much smaller carriers, even smaller than 
the SARATOGA which was in Mayport, FL at the time.  The thought was that the 
SOH would have to be dredged for them, but as it turned out, that didn't 
have to happen.  There is always some dredging going on in the SOH 
though --- but the reason isn't for the CVN's, it's for the ENORMOUSLY large 
and every growing size of the Super Oil Tankers that come and go every day.

How do I know all this? I've been in the Navy 20yrs.  These are just things 
you pick up on the job....

Cheers,
Shannon

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