Reuters AlertNet 04 Dec 2002 21:11
U.S. battle group heads toward Iraq
By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and its battle group were set to depart the East Coast on Thursday packing warplanes and missiles that could be part of an opening salvo in any U.S.-led attack on Iraq, Navy officials said.
The newest operational U.S. carrier, the Truman was leaving Norfolk, Virginia, on a regularly scheduled six-month deployment due to take it to the Mediterranean in the next week or so, then to waters nearer the Gulf.
Officers and crew of the Truman left scant doubt they expected to play a key role because of the timing of their departure if President George W. Bush orders an attack on Iraq for allegedly hiding banned chemical, nuclear or germ weapons.
"Boy, are we ready ... for wherever he wants to send us," Navy Capt. Ted Carter told Reuters on Wednesday. He is the Truman's executive officer and the F-14 "Tomcat" pilot who led the first Navy strike in Kosovo in 1999.
With slots for more than 80 warplanes, the Truman was due to relieve the George Washington battle group, scheduled back in Norfolk "later this month," said Lt. Fred Kuebler, spokesman for the Navy's 2nd Fleet, which is in charge of Navy units on the East Coast. He said that schedule could change based on world events.
Another U.S. carrier battle group, the Abraham Lincoln, is supposed to be winding up its stay in the area, to be replaced by the 88,000-ton Constellation, on its way after a Dec. 1 port call in Singapore.
A fifth U.S. aircraft carrier, the Yokosuka, Japan-based Kitty Hawk, may also be headed for Gulf waters, said Patrick Garrett, who is tracking deployments for GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Virginia-based defense research group.
'98,000 TONS OF DIPLOMACY'
The Truman battle group is commanded by Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, until June the deputy director of global operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Stufflebeem told reporters aboard ship last month that uncertainties about the extent to which Iraq's neighbors would host any U.S. combat flights meant a possible greater U.S. reliance on sea-launched attacks.
"We're locked and loaded," Capt. Michael Groothousen, the commanding officer, told the same group on Nov. 17. He referred to the Truman as "98,000 tons of diplomacy."
Among the carrier's air wing is a squadron of F-14s, the Navy's primary strike fighter, capable of dropping laser- and satellite-guided precision bombs. Also deployed are F/A-18 "Hornet" strike fighters, EZ-6B "Prowler" electronic warfare aircraft and E-2C "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft.
The Truman is accompanied by the Tomahawk cruise missile-firing cruiser San Jacinto and destroyers Oscar Austin, Mitscher and Donald Cook. The Navy did not immediately release the name of the submarine or submarines in the Truman battle group.
Tomahawk-firing submarines, whose whereabouts are typically unknown to U.S. foes, have joined in the opening salvos of the last two U.S. military strikes, including the one that drove the Taliban from Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
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