THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250232
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 194 lines
Nearly twice a year for the past 49, the mighty carrier battle groups of the Atlantic Fleet have formed off the East Coast to make pilgrimages to the Mediterranean Sea.
Their numbers have dropped to a fraction of the 50 ships that once made the journey, and today the 10,000 sailors and Marines who make up the 6th Fleet sail in friendship.
But Med deployments continue half a century beyond World War II, beyond the fall of communism and the threat of battle with the Soviet Union.
They are still needed today, Navy leaders say, not to check an unfriendly superpower but because of uncertainty over such struggling nations as Lebanon and Egypt, Syria, Israel and Bosnia.
Whether American sailors and Marines deploy to the Mediterranean for another 50 years may depend on whether these nations and their neighbors can ever truly achieve peace, say some naval officers.
Most believe, as the carrier Enterprise and its battle group prepare in Norfolk for another deployment to the region, that Americans have become the Med's policemen - or, at the least, its firemen - and forever may be called to the historical ``center of the Earth.''
When he sailed from Norfolk, heading East across the Atlantic in late January with a four-ship amphibious group under his command, Capt. William B. Young was certain he would have to turn his ships south before he reached Gibraltar.
His initial orders were to steer straight to the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas to a position off the former Yugoslavian coast, where the ships would back up peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia.
But, studying intelligence reports in his cabin, Young could see that Liberia's civil war was heating up. A call for help could not be far off.
He also noticed a gap forming in the Persian Gulf, which would soon be without the carrier Nimitz: The Pacific Fleet flattop had been reassigned to stand ready off Korea.
``We just had all sorts of things going on,'' Young said earlier this year while cruising the Adriatic. Given the title ``commodore,'' Young is commander of Amphibious Squadron 2, responsible for the amphibious ships Guam, Tortuga, Portland and Trenton.
His boss, Rear Adm. Henry C. Giffin III, the battle group commander aboard the carrier George Washington, was feeling the pressure, too.
Giffin, overseeing Young's ships and the rest of the battle group, soon would reach the Med. But new orders awaited that sent him into the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
Med deployments have gone that way for nearly 50 years now.
``We had Nigeria having a big coup some place on the Gold Coast. While we were driving across we kept saying we are going to turn right,'' said Giffin.
He never went to the west African coast - Young did. But Giffin didn't head straight for the Adriatic, either.
``We've been ordered to replace the Nimitz in Central Command in the Arabian Gulf,'' he said March 12 as he was about to enter the Red Sea.
``We're taking (the cruiser) San Jacinto, Mount Baker and Merrimack (both logistics ships),'' he said. ``We've left several of the ships from the battle group behind and there are considerable NATO air assets based up in Italy to support our troops in Bosnia.''
Giffin shrugged off the change, which came earlier than expected, as a minor inconvenience. ``It's not as disruptive as you might think.
``I remember the last deployment, when GW went through the Suez Canal twice, once scheduled and once unscheduled. This may well be a repeat of history.''
When the warships leave megaports such as Norfolk for the beginning of their deployments - 14 of the 15 ships under Giffin's command are from Norfolk - the public may have the perception that they remain together in the Mediterranean.
Not so. Some in the GW battle group haven't seen one another since they left Norfolk nearly six months ago. Their crews may not renew friendships until they round Cape Henry, headed for their homecoming in late July. At times, the ships have been sprinkled more than 2,000 miles apart.
``We've worked closely together for the last four to five years,'' said Young, ``welding the carrier with the ARG (amphibious ready group). We worked hard on that.
``But when we deployed to the 6th Fleet we had so many missions we rarely saw each other.''
Recalling the tight formations of World War II, a former naval officer remarked in 1957 that he was no longer able to find a cluster of U.S. ships in the Med. ``Where are the ships?'' he asked.
They are there, and they are everywhere.
Yesterday's strategy has yielded to today's weapons, which enable a destroyer with cruise missiles to reach targets 1,500 miles away. The destroyer of yesteryear had, at best, a 20-mile reach.
Even without a carrier in the Med - it has happened with more frequency in the past few years - the 6th Fleet appears able to take care of itself.
``In the old days there were different commitments,'' said Giffin, noting that NATO required at least two carriers in the Med at all times.
``I'm just a military guy and don't want to get into the politics of it, but there was a Cold War in older days and now there is not. Yet there still is a requirement to have a carrier there.''
The United States first ventured into the Mediterranean in the war against the Tripolitan pirates in 1802. At the time, Britain dominated the region's seas.
British control continued through the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal and held fast until World War II. Since the war, however, the U.S. Navy has been pre-eminent.
German author Emil Ludwig described the Mediterranean as ``the loveliest of all seas, favored by situation, shape and climate above all others, and likewise before all others discovered and sailed.
``This is the Helen among oceans; like her it was desired by all that saw it, and captured by the boldest. Then it was half forsaken, obscured by the fame of new and distant oceans, rediscovered, as it were, after 300 years; and today, before our eyes, it is fought over anew.''
In World War I, ships of the U.S. Mediterranean Squadron helped establish peace among the countries of the Balkans and the Middle East.
In World War II, the Mediterranean was critical to American war-making. U.S. naval forces supported the November 1942 landing in North Africa; the Sicilian landing of 1943; the first landings in Italy in the fall of that year; and the Anzio landings of January 1944.
That August, U.S. naval and air forces landed in southern France as a sequel to the Allied landings in Normandy.
As the European war waned in the spring of 1945, America pulled some naval strength from the Med, leaving behind small detachments to support the Army, assist merchant shipping and keep an eye on things in Italy.
A further pullout followed that summer, as the Allies returned liberated ports to friendly governments and dispatched the Med fleet's ships to the Pacific.
A small postwar fleet remained. Three years later, it became the forerunner of today's 6th Fleet.
Since its inception, the 6th Fleet has been on hand for every scare, every skirmish, every all-out war in the Med.
In the mid-50s it evacuated Americans and other nationals from Egypt and Israel during the Suez Crisis, and parked off Jordan as King Hussein thwarted a leftist coup.
In July 1958 it landed Marines in Lebanon from the most powerful armada ever assembled in the region. Led by the flagship cruiser Des Moines and three carriers - Wasp, Essex and Saratoga - it numbered 70 ships.
In the early '60s, the carrier Independence's hectic schedule was routine: seven months at sea, a return to Norfolk and a six-week shipyard overhaul, then - only 4 1/2 months later - back to the Med for another seven months.
Today's routine is a bit more comfortable. The Navy works to keep the ships deployed no more than six months, then gives them a year back home.
But, what with scraps with Libya over international terrorism, the deaths of 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon in 1983, weeks-long alerts over Soviet buildups, sea rescues, plans to permanently base ships in Greek, Italian, Portuguese and other Mediterranean ports, and the Desert Shield and Desert Storm buildups, the American presence in the Med has rarely been dull.
``I think we enjoy it,'' Young said. ``There are good liberty ports here, adventure, variety.''
And the Americans are in demand for military exercises, from Italians wanting to learn more about amphibious operations to Albanians wanting to share cold-weather expertise to Spaniards looking to team up with Navy SEALs.
Ask Commodore Young if he thinks his grandchildren will be deploying to the Med, and he asks a question of his own: ``You've been talking to Gen. (John J.) Sheehan, haven't you?''
Sheehan leads the U.S. Atlantic Command, responsible for providing military assets worldwide.
``It is his idea that we shouldn't have to come over here anymore,'' Young said, ``that there's not a requirement to be here constantly.
``But look at Bosnia, Greece, Turkey - we've been looking at those for the last few weeks. Look at Algeria, Libya, Egypt.
``There are still some major conflicts to come in the Med.''
Cmdr. Don E. Slaton, captain of the Norfolk-based dock landing ship Portland, also believes that the Med's general instability will keep the Navy coming back. ``We are big on show of presence. But,'' he said, ``we need to watch out.''
If the ships didn't come to the Med, would it make a difference?
``Well, ultimately, we belong to NATO,'' Slaton said earlier this year, while sailing in the Adriatic. ``They expect us to participate.''
There is much a battle group like the George Washington's can do.
It sails the international seas freely. It need not worry that a nation granting the United States and its allies permission to base troops on its soil one day may change its mind. the next.
Such battle groups have been used to pull American and friendly nationals out of Liberia. Marines from Young's amphibious group reinforced the U.S. Embassy in Liberia this spring, repelling hostile civil war participants.
Young prefers the image of ``fireman'' to ``policeman'': Not only does it sound more friendly, but ``we go in because something has gone bad. We are rescuing somebody, or trying to keep peace.''
Slaton agreed: ``We're the firemen, answering the 911 call. `Policemen' makes you think we are in charge.
``What we do is put the fire out.'' ILLUSTRATION: STANDING WATCH IN THE MED
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
The Virginian-Pilot
[Color Photo]
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Capt. William B. Young is commander of Amphibious Squadron 2,
responsible for the amphibious ships Guam, Tortuga, Portland and
Trenton. Working closely with a battle group for ``four to five
years'' means a tighter organization, he said. ``We worked hard on
that.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY HISTORY by CNB