Posted on 07/20/2006 6:23:17 PM PDT by petitfour
NORFOLK - More than 1,000 American citizens were plucked off a beach in Beirut by landing craft today and transported out to sea and the safety of the Norfolk-based amphibious transport dock Nashville.
The ship then took them to Cyprus 140 miles away to board commercial aircraft for home.
A similar long day is planned again Friday for the Nashville and at least three other Norfolk-based amphibious ships that were scheduled to join in the evacuations.
"It's like a giant slumber party," Capt. Dee Mewbourne, the Nashville's commanding officer, said by satellite telephone today.
(Excerpt) Read more at home.hamptonroads.com ...
Combat zone evacuations of civilians can be a nightmare. History's worst incident occurred in early 1945 when the Germans used an ocean liner to attempt to evacuate about 8,000 civilians from Konigsberg in East Prussia (now Danzig in Poland) to the rest of Germany and to escape the Soviet invasion. A Soviet sub torpedoed the ship, killing all aboard and causing the worst maritime disaster in history. Thanks to the skill and heroism of the American and Israeli militarize all our civilians are suffering is a bit of excitement, inconvenience, and discomfort.
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