Frank Marston, 28, of Portland, Maine, after returning from his mission. "We're going for 100 percent strikes, and we were very successful," said Lt. The last of the planes were returning at dawn this morning. One by one, the fighters generated a blast wave of heat, smoke and noise as they shot off the runway, their rear engines glowing red. local time Friday, the first of waves of F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets took off, shortly after a brilliant sunset over the Gulf had turned to black. We are standing by to carry on."Īround 5:30 p.m.
"The intensity is about what we expected not overwhelming," he said of Iraqi air defenses. He said the Enterprise had suffered no losses or aircraft damage in three nights of strikes. "We'll have double our pleasure," joked Dawson. The Enterprise will be joined today by the USS Carl Vinson battle group. The crew "is very focused on what we're doing out here.Our comfort level is very high." James Cutler Dawson Jr., commander of the Enterprise battle group. "The morale is very high," said Rear Adm. Besides the carrier, the Enterprise battle group includes two destroyers, two cruisers, two submarines and a frigate, which among them have launched 200 cruise missiles. Well over 100 sorties have been flown in the last three nights from the 4½-acre flight deck of the carrier, with its complement of 73 aircraft and a vast arsenal of precision-guided munitions. "Once you get strapped in, that's when you start to feel at ease."
"The waiting is the worst," said Taylor, 27, as he killed time in the "Gunslingers" room aboard the USS Enterprise, which spends its days tracing continuous great circles in the calm, green waters of the Persian Gulf under hazy blue skies. Jon Taylor, flying his first combat mission early Thursday morning, that was when the stomach-gnawing anticipation began. The briefing, identifying the targets in Iraq, took place three hours before takeoff. sailor jogs Friday on the deck of the USS Enterprise.ĪBOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE, Dec. And that means we’ll be keeping 11 carriers in our force,” he said to applause.Waiting for action, a U.S.
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have decided that it is important for us to maintain our carrier presence at full strength. “For that reason that the President of the United States and all of us. “You’re part of what keeps our force agile and flexible and quickly deployable and capable of taking on any enemy, anywhere in the world,” Panetta said, speaking about 100 nautical miles off the coast of the U.S. That’s something the United States says it will not allow. The Enterprise’s last deployment comes at a moment of heightened tensions with Iran, which has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil shipping lane.
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Panetta was addressing about 1,700 sailors headed to the Gulf this spring aboard the USS Enterprise, which after a half-century of service is about to embark on its final tour before being taken offline in November. will not cut America's fleet of 11 aircraft carriers to help trim the budget deficit, Panetta said on Saturday, citing tensions with Iran as an example of why the massive ships are so critical to national security. (L), watches day flight operations from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off the southeastern coast of the U.S., January 21, 2012. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (R), escorted by Commander of Strike Group Twelve Rear Admiral Walter E.
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