THE UNITED STATES NAVY
                               IN "DESERT SHIELD" I "DESERT STORM"

     II. THE GATHERING STORM
     
          THE BUILD-UP OF U.S. FORCES
                 "If you look at the naval assets that have been deployed into the region, 
                 aircraft carrier battle-groups - four of them have been active at one time
                 or another - as well as all other naval assets, I would agree there obviously
                 isn't any other nation in the world that could do that today. We have in the
                 first three weeks of the exercise deployed more capability than we had
                 deployed in the first three months in 1950 when we were asked to go to Korea."

                 --   Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
                      6 September 1990


                 "We are doing this for the people of Kuwait, for our other friends in the region,
                 for our own economic interest, for the safety of Americans who are in danger, and
                 for the promise of a safer new world where disputes will not be solved by war.

                 --   General Colin Powell, USA
                      Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
                      11 November 1990


     INTRODUCTION. We may never learn the            ward-deployed posture of the fleet. On 2
     extent to which on-scene naval forces influ-    August, the ships of J9int Task Force Middle
     enced Saddam Hussein to stop short of invad-    East were on station in the Persian Gulf, the
     ing Saudi Arabia. We do know that the sus-      EISENHOWER battle group was in the central
     tainable combat capability and control of the   Mediterranean in the last month of a sched-
     sea provided by naval forces afforded protec-   uled six-month deployment, and the INDE-
     tion for the introduction of ground and air     PENDENCE battle group was in the Indian
     forces arriving in theater in response to the   Ocean near Diego Garcia in the early stages of
     deployment order.   The joint teamwork of       a scheduled Indian Ocean deployment. Mter
     naval, air, and ground forces - together with   the invasion, both battle groups moved to-
     our coalition partners - generated tremen-      ward the crisis area and by 8 August were on
     dous combat capability in a remarkably short    station and ready to conduct air strikes -
     period of time.                                 EISENHOWER in the Red Sea and INDEPEN-
                                                     DENCE in the Gulf of Oman.  INDEPEN-
     THE BUILDUP OF U.S. NAVYFORCES. The             DENCE could have launched long-range
r    initial buildup of Navy forces for DESERT       strikes as early as 5 August if required.
     SHIELD/STORM drew upon the normal for-


                                                  - 11 -

| Table of Contents | First Page | Prev Page | Next Page | Src Image |