By Bret Baier
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered a number of military units put on alert for deployment to the Persian Gulf, Fox News learned Friday.Some are being told to be ready to deploy, if needed, within 96 hours' notice.
"A lot of things will start moving in the next week or so," a defense official told Fox News.
The units are from several services and include two Navy carrier battle groups and two Marine amphibious assault groups.
One battle group is attached to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which returned to port in Norfolk, Va., on Dec. 20 following a six-month deployment in the Gulf.
Rumsfeld has also ordered the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship based in Baltimore, to be activated and readied for possible deployment.
About 230 personnel will be told to get the ship ready to sail, but at this point its full medical staff will not be ordered aboard.
Some units in the Air Force's Air Combat Command have also received "prepare to deploy" orders from the defense secretary, with planes due to leave the U.S. within the next 12 days.
They include F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour-Johnson AFB in North Carolina, F-15C fighter-bombers, B-1 and B-52 bombers and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) planes.
The B-52s will be deployed to Diego Garcia, a British airbase in the Indian Ocean, but all the other planes will be based in the Gulf.
B-2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which flew to Afghanistan and back again on missions, are not currently scheduled for deployment.
