Stupid journalists...
USS LaSalle
A REAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER!
Posted on 02/06/2004 7:20:52 PM PST by blam
Sixth Fleet may move to Spain
John Hooper in Rome and Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Saturday February 7, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
The American navy said last night that it was considering moving its key, troubleshooting Sixth Fleet away from its base in Italy to Spain.
The move would deal a huge blow to the local economy in the area between Rome and Naples, but is likely to be greeted by Italians with as much bafflement as dismay. They had for some time been braced for a decision by Washington to shift the fleet's base port further eastwards, perhaps to Turkey. But no one had predicted a move that would send it several hundred miles in the opposition direction.
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported this week that officials in Madrid had been told the Pentagon wanted to move the fleet's headquarters and supply facilities to Rota, near Cádiz, a joint US-Spanish base which is not even in the Mediterranean, the fleet's traditional area of operations.
Though Rota is further from the hot spots of the Middle East, it has the advantage of being a combined naval and air facility, offering the sort of rapid deployment capability that the US military is now looking for. Spain and the US last year signed a $450m (£243m) deal that allows the Americans to increase their use of the base.
A spokesman for US Naval Forces Europe, Lieutenant- Commander Terrence Dudley, said: "The move of the US Sixth Fleet to new facilities in Spain is only one of many initiatives currently under consideration."
The Sixth Fleet comprises some 40 ships, 175 aircraft and 21,000 military and civilian personnel, all commanded from the aircraft carrier LaSalle, which is based at Gaeta, midway between Rome and Naples.
President George Bush ordered a wide-ranging review of the deployment of US forces last November. Lt Cdr Dudley said the navy was reviewing all aspects of its presence in Europe, "seeking to maximise its capabilities whilst reducing inefficiencies to meet the challenges posed by changing defence priorities".
Gaeta had the advantage of being close to Nato command facilities in Naples and, according to Nato sources, the alliance has no plans to move its own facilities. However, it is a tourist resort with relatively steep prices, which may have played a role in prompting the Pentagon to consider a move.
Luke Harding and Ian Black add: Nato defence ministers meeting in Germany last night gave a cool reaction to a standing request from the Bush administration for them to send troops to Iraq. The alliance's new Dutch secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said it was too soon to say whether Nato would agree to an American proposal for it to take charge of a multinational division there, now led by Poland.
Nato officials said a decision was likely by the time President Bush met other alliance leaders in Istanbul in June, just before the US hands over power to an interim Iraqi administration.
Yesterday the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, suggested Nato could also eventually take over the southern Basra sector, currently occupied by Britain.
Nato's position on Iraq is that the alliance is now likely to play a role, but only after the establishment of Iraqi sovereignty and probably after a new UN resolution. It is unlikely that countries such as France, Germany and Belgium, which strongly opposed the war, would send forces without the approval of the UN security council.
I swear, we could tell when we were approaching the port by night -- you actually could smell it, plain and simple.
Any of you old green-water swabbies out there remember an old working gal who bore the nickname "Humpty Dumpty" (because she could generally be found sitting on a specific wall near the fleet landing rather than walk the streets of Naples or be just another "campfire girl")?
Well, I overheard a young Navy guy talking about her at a dinner last December. "Humpty Dumpty" apparently is plying her trade to this day -- far beyond the years when she reputedly needed to work to pay for her daugter's education in Switzerland.
Italy will have a new national holiday and monument when she dies, I'd wager. This is one for Ripley's, I tell ya.....
"The Sixth Fleet comprises some 40 ships, 175 aircraft and 21,000 military and civilian personnel, all commanded from the aircraft carrier LaSalle, which is based at Gaeta, midway between Rome and Naples."
Except the La Salle is NOT an aircraft carrier, it is designated the AGF-3, and is a 'Miscellaneous Command Ship' which provides the 'HQ' for the Sixth Fleet. You have to wonder when articles like this get info so wrong, what else is bad about their facts...
dvwjr
I stopped through there once in the early 60's, I can't remember one thing about it.(?)
Stupid journalists...
USS LaSalle
A REAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER!
It's The Guardian. What the New York Times aspires to be.
You were expecting a fact-checker?
The original isn't, but I believe it's now a franchise operation.
My first Med Cruise was in 1959 on Forrestal and Humpty Dumpty was there then. My last Med Cruise was in 1983 aboard Nimitz and Humpty was still there, but she obviously wasn't the same woman.
I have many pleasant memories of Naples. Where else could you get a drink from Lucky Luciano himself? He came into the San Francisco club, which he owned as he did ALL the bars back then, one night in 1960, or maybe '61, I forget and bought the house a round.
But it speaks volumes about the existence of a just and wrathful God....... 8~)
Carolyn
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