Reuters December 13, 2002
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan home port
By Jim WolfWASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The only permanently forward-deployed U.S. aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk, returned to Japan on Friday, adding to evidence any major U.S.-led attack on Iraq may be a month or more away.
The Navy's Web site showed the Kitty Hawk had pulled into its home port in Yokosuka after seven weeks of training. It had been on standby during much or all of that time for possible use in any showdown with Iraq, Navy officials said.
The Kitty Hawk is alone among the Navy's 12 carriers to be based outside the United States, or permanently forward-deployed.
Separately, the carrier George Washington, en route back from the Mediterranean, will return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, next Friday, exactly six months after it left, said the U.S. 2nd Fleet, in charge of Navy units on the East Coast.
Military analysts had speculated the Washington's stay in the region might be extended to add its 70 to 80 warplanes to an attack. Bringing back it and the rest of the nine ships that make up its battle group also removed 400 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the region.
The Defense Department cautioned against reading too much into the movements of the Washington and the Kitty Hawk.
"We are today ready to go to war if the president says go tomorrow -- with or without those two extra carriers," said Navy Lt. Daniel Hetlage, a Pentagon spokesman. "Had a war started while they were in the region, would they have been sent home? Likely not, not until it was sure the load could be carried."
The carriers' return to their home ports "decreases the likelihood that bombs will fall on Baghdad in the near future," said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. David Baker, deputy director for operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the mid-1990s.
The homeward legs coincided with the Bush administration's apparent willingness to let the U.N. arms inspection process move forward after Iraq submitted a 12,000-page weapons declaration last weekend.
President George W. Bush has vowed to go to war if necessary to wipe out any remaining Iraqi nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs.
The rotations left the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group in striking distance of Iraq. Two other U.S. carriers were also either in the region or en route -- the Harry S. Truman and the Constellation. The Lincoln was due to return to its home port of Everett, Washington, in the middle of next month.
U.S. war planners would like to have four or five carriers in the region before launching any all-out attack, said retired Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, chief of staff for operations and plans for the Theodore Roosevelt battle group during the 1991 U.S.-led war that drove Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.
Once back in port, the Washington could be quickly "surged" back to take part in any conflict, and the Kitty Hawk, which can deploy about 85 warplanes, could also get there within weeks, Navy officials said.
Under standard Navy procedures, a returning battle group enters a 30-day "ready surge" period during which it may deploy on short notice for any contingency.
Such battle groups are considered to have just come off the peak of their readiness as a result of constant drills and training while at sea, said Lt. Fred Kuebler, a 2nd Fleet spokesman in Norfolk.
Patrick Garrett of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Vigrinia-based defense, space and intelligence policy analysis group, said the United States now appeared unlikely to launch a major attack until late January at the earliest, based on carrier movements he tracks.
In another homecoming, more than 2,200 Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were returning to Camp Pendleton, California, and its outskirts on Saturday.
They were wrapping up a six-month deployment to the Middle East and the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led mission in and around Afghanistan to root out al Qaeda guerrillas, the Marine Corps announced on Thursday. Al Qaeda has been blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
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