Unplanned 6-month Deployment to the Persian Gulf
April 20th, 2006 — -Two US Navy ships – a missile destroyer and an amphibious transport – have deployed to the Persian Gulf on very short notice. (They left Tuesday).
The ships – USS Trenton | James E. Williams
- This is an “unscheduled deployment” – I have it from a source that crews were only given a 3-day notice.
- Destroyers are used for firing on land-based targets.
*“Modern destroyers are equivalent in tonnage and drastically superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, capable of carrying nuclear missiles able to destroy cities in a very small volley.” (Wikipedia – “Destroyer”).
From the local paper: 1,100 sailors called to ‘surge’ in an unscheduled deployment
4-14-06 Daily Press – Hampton Roads, VA.
“The USS Trenton, an amphibious transport docking ship, and the Florida-based Hue City, a guided-missile cruiser, will get under way Tuesday. The James E. Williams, a guided-missile destroyer, will leave shortly afterward, marking its first deployment since it was commissioned in 2004.
The cruise, called a surge deployment because it wasn’t scheduled, is expected to last six months, a Navy spokesman said Thursday.
Officials with Central Command – which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan – requested the surface strike group “to enhance the naval presence in their area,” said spokesman Lt. Mike Kafka.”
- Also note “Conplan 8022/1025”
From – Not Just a Last Resort 5-05, William Arkin, Washington Post
“CONPLAN 8022 is different from other war plans in that it posits a small-scale operation and no “boots on the ground.”
….Assume, for argument’s sake, that Iran announces it is mounting a crash program to build a nuclear weapon. A multidimensional bombing (kinetic) and cyberwarfare (non-kinetic) attack might seek to destroy Iran’s program, and special forces would be deployed to disable or isolate underground facilities.
“By employing all of the tricks in the U.S. arsenal to immobilize an enemy country—turning off the electricity, jamming and spoofing radars and communications, penetrating computer networks and garbling electronic commands—global strike magnifies the impact of bombing by eliminating the need to physically destroy targets that have been disabled by other means.”
The inclusion, therefore, of a nuclear weapons option in CONPLAN 8022—a specially configured earth-penetrating bomb to destroy deeply buried facilities, if any exist—is particularly disconcerting.
The global strike plan holds the nuclear option in reserve if intelligence suggests an “imminent” launch of an enemy nuclear strike on the United States or if there is a need to destroy hard-to-reach targets.”
- The administration has called talk about U.S. war against Iran “wild speculation”.
Read Arkin’s response at his blog
So, “No boots on the ground?”
Well, there are boots on the ground (on the ship (in the ocean)).
That’s boots to me.