I visited San Francisco last weekend. There are 3 roll-on-roll-off ships that are based at the city, and a large number of other cargo ships at Alameda. They all seem to still be there. I know that these are on the Pacific coast, but if there really was an all-out effort underway they should be used as well. However, I did notice a number of lights on and around them were on, and that I don't think that is normal. A bunch of tanks are being sent to the Gulf.. for military exercises. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020904/80/d8v3v.html
Being somebody from San Diego, I can tell you that Navy ships leave and enter port all the time. It doesn't need to be wartime for there to be activity on ships. Afterall, a typical carrier group can have upwards of 10 ships and subs with it.
the Navy generally does not transport hardware for the other branches.Their main purpose is to protect the US flag ships which are transporting the hardware. The thing I find strange is that there was three r/o-r/o container ships in the bay area.That is nearly half the Army's combat prepostioning force.Last I heard the Army had Seven r/o-r/o ships with MSC,and all were based at Guam. Also based at Guam is Maritime Prepositioning Squadron 3 which is mainly utilized by the Marines.They have Four multi-use capable cargo ships which have R/o-R/o capabilities.. doesnt mean all are set up for it.Also important to point out.. is that many of the ships are kept loaded with equipment.They are sitting in Guam FULLY LOADED with operational orders equipment.So there is little need for them to go back to the mainland to load up with tanks and such. What could (likely imo)have been going on is that MSC could have been prepping additional ships to bolster the pacific fleet.For when we do launch an attack on Iraq (IE we'll need to place ships and equipment back at guam while our regular prepositioned fleet is on the move).
> the Navy generally does not transport hardware > for the other branches Ships of the Military Sealift Command do, and they are part of the Navy. They are also the organization that manages civilian leased ships in times of trouble. http://www.msc.navy.mil/N00p/mission.htm The roll-on-roll-off ships I was talking about are not the newer LMSR ships, they are part of the ready-reserve fleet of 30 or so ships with ramps in various places. The ones in San Francisco have ramps in the rear, like this one: Hmm, nice bridge in the background there. Many of the ships in Alameda are crane ships, like this:
The US military has quite a few sealift and prepositioning ships. http://hazegray.org/worldnav/usa/aux_seal.htm I thought most of them were located at Diego Garcia, but it seems I am wrong. BTW, if you are interested in naval ships, the Hazegray.org site is incredible. It has specs on every ship in every navy on the planet and lots of historical data.
The US Navy regularly transports (on it's own ships) heavy equipment. They use an Amphibious Assault Group made up of landing ships to do this with. It usually consits of around 5,000 marines and all their equipment (tanks, trucks etc...) needed for an amphibious assault.
I have 4 good friends in the same national guard unit. They have been on deployment this year guarding bases in Virginia/New Jersey and are about to demobilize. (which gives them a gaurenteed 6 months before they'd have to get mobilized again) In the years that they have served, they have never been re-equipped...until last month ...when they were given gear aimed at urban warfare, as well as the army's manual on urban warfare. The last weeks of their mobilization focused on city combat training. They also told me a unit they knew about in Pennsylvania that had always been Armor and in the last month were suddenly switched to light infantry. It seems clear that the armed forces are gearing up for the possibility at least. And since we'd be coming into Iraq through Turkey or Afghanistan this time and we'd have to clear out Bahgdad and other Iraqi cities to take out Saddam's regime, most of the action will be taking place in mountainous and city terrain. The fact that they're gearing up National Guard units for this also gives a hint to the scale of the attack if it does take place.
It was Saddam who said that they would fight using urban warfare. He would certainly expect that our troops would equip for such a fight. He gains nothing from this thread. But as a citizen of the United States, I not only have the right, but the duty to learn about what my nation is doing and effect that in legal ways, such as voting or writing my representatives. If we lose the element of surprise in a strategic sense, that is just one of the penalties you pay for being a democracy. I am not asking for the exact date and unit sizes of the first paratroop drop into Baghdad, nor do I expect to receive it.
There wasn't anything wrong with your post, after all you were just talking about stuff that's going on out in the open anyway--I was talking about J Books' post where he relayed information told to him by military personnel (who shouldn't have told him that in the first place). Alex
I'm picturing an Iraqi military intelligence officer goofing off at work, and improving his English at the same time, surfing bigsoccer, when he comes across Books' post. Urgently, he goes to his commanding officer and excitedly calls him to the screen. (OK, let's pretend the intrepid Iraqi wouldn't be executed on the spot for screwing around while on duty.) The news of the National Guard's training in urban warfare works its way up the chain, until, finally, Saddam is briefed. "My God, do this mean that the US might attack us?!?!?! That never occurred to me!!" I agree with the principle, Alex, but this is a secret like the name of our commander-in-chief is a secret.
Well, I purposely left out the bit about our first amphibeous assault being merely a decoy action and the real attack coming from Iran for that exact reason... This information is not for Iraqi spies...it's for domestic warhawks who who fail to take into consideration the real human price of this little adventure.
Posting something along the lines of "I have 4 friends in the National Guard who are worried as hell they're going to have to go to Iraq" would have had the same effect. Alex