THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040401
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 87 lines
NORFOLK - The Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer Laboon, one of two Navy ships to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq on Tuesday, fired its weapons to ``change the behavior'' of Saddam Hussein, said its captain.
Cmdr. Mark Danley, in command of the Laboon just four days when he was ordered to launch 13 of his ship's long-range $1 million missiles toward targets in southern Iraq, said he had every indication the operation was a success.
``The execution of the plan of the strike, from my perspective as commanding officer, was nothing but superb,'' Danley said in a satellite telephone interview after an attack early Tuesday morning in which his ship fired eight missiles.
On Tuesday evening, the Laboon participated in a second attack, launching five more missiles.
Danley was not allowed to discuss specific targets. The Pentagon acknowledged only that the targets included surface-to-air missile sites, radar installations and command-and-control installations. No sites in Baghdad were targeted.
Tuesday's action was the first time the Laboon, named for a Jesuit priest, Capt. John Francis ``Father Jake'' Laboon, had fired its weapons in combat.
The launches, said Danley, are something Father Jake, a World War II hero who later became a priest, might not have celebrated.
``I am sure he would have preferred other means . . . but I am sure he is pleased this crew and this team were able to answer the call when we got the call,'' Danley said.
``I guess the unique feeling about being the namesake of Father Jake is we feel like we have an extra set of eyes keeping us safe, and all of us feel that is a special thing; a special aspect of this ship.''
In addition to being a first for the Laboon, the missile strike apparently made a bit of history for the Navy. One of the strike officers aboard the Laboon who planned the U.S. action is a woman, possibly the first female American sailor to have entered combat aboard a ship. She was identified as Lt. j.g. Erica Niedermeier.
Danley downplayed her gender, saying his crew of 355 acts as a team.
``This is the finest team effort I have ever seen,'' he said. ``It goes from the keel in engineering through the mess decks, all the way up to the flag bags (signal bridge). We all treat each other as nothing but professionals. The fact women are aboard is not a significant fact around here.''
The Laboon launched its first attackshortly after 9 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf.
The attack was preceded by nearly eight hours of precision planning, said Lt. j.g. Bill Carter, another strike officer and combat information center officer.
Carter, also speaking by telephone, said the mood aboard ship was ``rather upbeat, with a lot of adrenalin pumping.''
``We were very calm most of the time and all went very smoothly,'' he said. ``We were anxious about executing our tasking from the theater commanders.''
Working in the cool, darkened nerve center of the Arleigh Burke-class ship produced an anxious 30 minutes as the missiles left their launchers.
``I didn't sweat a whole lot,'' said Carter.
First Class Petty Officer Trampas Wright, the launch control supervisor, said there was no doubt the missiles would work.
The biggest worry, he said, was complacency.
``We do a lot of practice and normally everything goes so well that we worried about the actual thing,'' he said. ``I was just proud of the team as a whole that what we practiced and trained hard for, that everything went as well as it did.''
Danley, too, said the reality was chilling.
``To tell you the truth, the way it feels is absolutely routine until you hear the missile leave the launcher,'' he said. ``That kind of hits you in that you just launched an offensive weapon and there is a business end on that thing.''
Danley said he hopes the mission will ``dissuade the Iraqi government from continuing what caused us to have to resort to this strike.''
``None of us are interested in launching offensive weapons, although we have a finely trained team to carry out that mission when required,'' he said. ``I have no way of knowing if it resulted in any changed behavior in that country.''
The Laboon, which is assigned to the Middle East Force, has completed 125 days of its 180-day deployment. The crew is anxious to return home to families in another two months.
``I want to reassure them just how good everybody is doing here,'' said Danley.
``Everybody is safe. You don't need to worry about that.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo
A missile is launched from the Norfolk-based Laboon during Tuesday's
first attack. by CNB