[Tallguy]

There would have been a lot of US sailors aboard. No getting around that. I wonder if they could have improvised a ski-jump on the foredeck?

[2ndDivisionVet]

The way I remember it, it was Secretary Al Haig's suggestion.

[FoxInSocks]

Oh, yeah, down in the Maldives.

[Wizdum]

The Iwo was a Amphibious Assault Carrier. Not long enough for jests to operate, but perfect for carrying a brigade of Marines and their Harriers.

Reagan 'probably' gave Thatcher a lot of the SIGINT and SATINT for England to keep the Falklands.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

At the time, the Royal Navy had deployed HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes to the Falklands. Each carrier fielded five vertical takeoff Sea Harriers armed with American Sidewinder missile

FIVE aircraft?! Good Grief, I bet the USS Langley had a bigger compliment.

[Wizdum]

The Iwo was a Amphibious Assault Carrier. Not long enough for jets to operate, but perfect for carrying a brigade of Marines and their Harriers.

Reagan 'probably' gave Thatcher a lot of the SIGINT and SATINT for England to keep the Falklands.

[kabar]

I served aboard the USS Iwo Jima (1965-67.) It was an LPH, which could only launch helicopters. I guess the Brits could have used it with their Harrier jets. Not really an aircraft carrier in the traditional sense.

[SampleMan]

We loaded the Royal Navy to the gills with our supply ships as they transitted south. A nearly continual underway replenishment of weapons from war reserves.

Today, Obama would nuke the British fleet (if there was one).

[Strategerist]

Some of Lehman’s details are new, but the basic outline of the story has been known for years; it appears in Freedman’s Official history of the Falklands War from 2005.