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Northern Light

Northern Light/Bright Horizon `96 participants included an array of multi-national surface, sub-surface and air units from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Individual ships fine tuned their war-fighting skills and trained in a realistic combat environment. Task force units were charged with missions that tested their modern-day, war-fighting capabilities in a combined, joint operations in the open ocean and in coastal regions.

Accompanied by an 11-nation NATO task force, USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) made its way toward the North Sea where it joined 70 other NATO ships for exercise Northern Light/Bright Horizon `96 which ended Sept. 12. Leaving their East Coast home ports Aug. 13 and 14 for exercise Northern Light/Bright Horizon `96 were more than 2,000 Sailors from the Atlantic Fleet. From aboard the command ship Mount Whitney, VADM Vern Clark served as commander, Combined Joint Task Force (CCJTF) 400 and Norwegian Army Lt. Gen. Sigurd Frisvold as deputy, took charge of the exercise.

On any given day, the Joint Operations Center and Joint Forces Air component Commander's spaces aboard Mount Whitney were continually alive with activity. In the operations center, officers and enlisted personnel sat shoulder to shoulder at high-tech computer terminals and tracked the real-life scenario that challenged the task force commanders, their crews and their ships. As directed by operators aboard the command ship, each unit conducted surveillance, presence and support operations that included detection, localization and targeting the opposing military force. The exercise scenario culminated with the task force actively engaged in hostilities.

At the conclusion of Northern Light/Bright Horizon `96, CCJTF 400 utilized an afloat command to train a combined, joint task force in a complex maritime environment. The end product was a multi-national force that is able to deploy, at a moment's notice, to deter aggression in protecting NATO interest. U.S. participants were USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), USS Thorn (DD 988), USS Boston (SSN 703), USNS Leroy Grumman (TAO 195), USS Nicholas (FFG 47), USS Estocin (FFG 15), Commander Strike Fleet Atlantic, and Commander Destroyer Squadron 18.