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Two U.S. warships in two days have sailed through separate disputed island chains in the South China Sea in a challenge to territorial claims, in what the U.S. Navy calls “freedom of navigation” operations. Beijing on April 28 said it had “expelled” the USS Barry, a guided-missile destroyer, from the seas around the Paracel Islands, which it claims as its own territory, saying China’s sovereignty had been violated. The U.S. Navy disputed the story, however, saying that the warship had carried out its operation successfully. The following day the Navy dispatched a larger cruiser, the USS Bunker Hill, through the...

ABOARD THE BUNKER HILL — Less than an hour after a recent dawn rolled west into the Pacific Ocean, Capt. Joe Cahill sat in his starboard chair, a lined face pointed toward a line of warships wheeling north around San Clemente Island. In the lead, the destroyers Halsey and Higgins cut through the waves in a tight turn toward land, trailed by the looming flattop Theodore Roosevelt and the destroyer Sampson in its wake. And in the far rear, like a bear protecting her cubs, was the San Diego-based Bunker Hill, the 10,000-ton cruiser that orchestrates the air defenses for...

On the opening night of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lt. Cmdr. Curtis Goodnight stood on the bridge of the USS Bunker Hill, a Navy cruiser with a hull full of Tomahawk missiles, and nervously rocked from foot to foot as if just getting his sea legs. Occasionally, the ship's No. 2 officer glanced over the shoulders of junior naval officers as they studied green and orange radar screens that blinked with the ship's location in the upper reaches of the Persian Gulf. Mostly, though, he just listened to the radio traffic crackling over the intercom from a windowless command center directly...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 03/23/03 - Baghdad, burning trenches, Umm Qasr,Basra,Khormal BREAKING: IRAQI MISSILES SEEN IN BAGHDAD -- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Baghdad, Saddam burns trenches- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Baghdad, Saddam centers "orphanage" in military complex- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Battle of Umm Qasr, 15 Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) BREAKING: Umm Qasr - Iraqis, freed by the USA BREAKING: Battle for Basra, 3/4 Lima company BREAKING: Basra, Freed Iraqis, welcome the British 2nd Royal Tank Regiment BREAKING: al Nasiriyah - Battle by US 3rd Army BREAKING: Safwan -freed Iraqis BREAKING: al-Ratka oilfield - Iraqi war...

ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK, Mar 21, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Navy launched about 320 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Iraq from ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, senior officers said Friday. "We have just begun the next phase of attacks in Iraq," said Rear Adm. Matthew G. Moffit, commander of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk battle group in the north Persian Gulf. "The intention is to convince the regime that it is time to leave, and if they don't we will try to take them out by force," Moffit told reporters...

ABOARD THE USS BUNKER HILL - The United States is poised to launch massive simultaneous ground and air assaults on Iraq that would rely on speed to minimize casualties, according to Navy Read Adm. Barry Costello, who oversees the aircraft carrier Constellation battle group in the Persian Gulf. "If we can move quickly, if we can have that lightning strike, if we can take away [Saddam Hussein's] ability to communicate with his forces .. then that will save in fact a lot of lives by causing the Iraqi military to be in a confused state further enhancing the possibility of...

This thread is in tribute to the ships of the US Navy and the pilots of my beloved United States Air Force who fired the first shots in The War of Iraqi Liberation. USS Cowpens Cowpens is an Ticonderoga Class Aegis Cruiser. She is named after a battle in which only 300 colonials defeated a much larger and better trained force of British troops in the Revolutionary War. Her motto is "Victory Vindicates Liberty." USS Bunker Hill The Bunker Hill is also a Tico cruiser. As you can see, they've done this sort of thing before.USS Milius This Arleigh Burke...