"Yesterday I heard that a crowd of people were gathered in Crawford, Tx. During their gathering it was announced that the US had attacked Afghanistan .......the crowd cheered in jubilation!!!.."
Today's paper has several articles about many people who are jittery and afraid because of
the terrorist attack and because of our attacks on Afghanistan.
Even officers who participate in the attack are cautious and tense.
.......................................................***************************........................................
Tense and Secretive Mood as Jets and Missiles Roar Off Warships
"The rear admiral who commands the Enterprise battle group, and is the senior officer aboard this ship,
said he feared that his work could put at risk the safety of his family back home in Norfolk, Va.,
if his name were widely known. "
THE NAVY
From The New York Times
October 8, 2001
By DOUGLAS JEHL
BOARD U.S.S. ENTERPRISE, in the
Arabian Sea, Monday, Oct. 8 — With crew
members crowded onto the observation deck in
nervous excitement, strike aircraft roared off the
flight deck here at 10:20 on Sunday night, four
hours after the first wave of the American attack
began on Afghan targets.
Warplanes, including a pair of F- 14's heavily laden
with munitions, took off in a fiery thrust of
afterburners and then disappeared into the night
sky. Tomahawk cruise missiles soared into the sky from a nearby guided-missile cruiser, presumed to be the
Philippine Sea.
On the Enterprise there was a mood of high tension, but also apprehension. The rear admiral who commands
the Enterprise battle group, and is the senior officer aboard this ship, said he feared that his work could put at
risk the safety of his family back home in Norfolk, Va., if his name were widely known.
Commanders on the Enterprise have adopted a posture of extraordinary caution in discussing
the mission, declining even to allow their last names or those of their crew to be published.
The admiral's fears are clearly widely shared. Not even during the Persian Gulf war did senior American officers seem so skittish.
Before the strikes, the ship's captain addressed his crew, consisting of 5,000 men and women, over the
loudspeaker and recalled that in 1941, an aircraft carrier named Enterprise took part in the first retaliatory
strikes on Japan after Pearl Harbor.
On Sunday night, this officer proclaimed that the latest Enterprise, like its
namesake, had stepped in to avenge "a treacherous attack on our homeland."
"Like 1941, this war will be a little more personal than defending our vital
interests," the commander said. "We are defending our families and our
homeland."
The ship's captain, who serves under the admiral, said: "It used to be that we
were defending a vital national interest, like in Iraq and Kuwait. Now we're
defending our country, so we're all a little bit more cautious right now."
A group of reporters was allowed by the Navy to travel to this ship only
Sunday morning from Bahrain, the headquarters of the United States Fifth
Fleet, and arrived about six hours before the attack began.
Commanders have refused to discuss the mission in any detail, saying that
they did not want to do anything to jeopardize the safety of the aircraft, pilots
and crew. They would not allow reporters to interview pilots in the hours
leading up to the strike, saying that they did not want to distract them from
their work.
"All of us would agree that we're facing new dangers, and we're taking new
precautions," the battle group commander said in explaining his tight-lipped
policies.
Over the loudspeaker, the captain, an accomplished Navy aviator himself,
took pains to outline the moment of the attack as one of great significance.
He asked the crew to say a prayer for the pilots. "Do not let the enormity and
excitement of what you are about to do distract you from what you have to
do right," he added. "Don't think of this as revenge. Revenge only belongs to
God."
The Enterprise, the flagship of a battle group that includes about a dozen
vessels and some 7,500 personnel, has been in the region since the Sept. 11 attacks, having left its station in
the Persian Gulf on Sept. 9 to begin a journey to South Africa. It was immediately ordered to turn around
after the attacks, commanders said.
Sunday marked the first time in the nearly four weeks since the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center that any reporters had been permitted aboard any American aircraft carrier. But even on Sunday night,
reporters were prevented from filing articles about the attack until all the planes involved in the first wave of
the strike had returned to the carrier.
For several days before the strikes, officers said, the ship's aircraft had been conducting operations at night, a
step that has required many of those aboard the ship to convert to a nocturnal rhythm.
It appeared unclear on Sunday night whether the F-14 and F-18 strike aircraft being launched from the
Enterprise would be able to reach their targets in Afghanistan on their own, or would require midair refueling
from tanker aircraft that were launched several minutes before the first fighter planes roared into the air.
All of the fighter aircraft aboard the Enterprise had been heavily loaded with precision guided missiles known
as Guided Bomb Units. Most were also equipped with external fuel pods to provide an additional supply for
what appeared likely to be a long flight.
The aircraft began to take off at 10:20 p.m. Sunday (2:20 p.m. Washington time), and began to return to the
carrier three hours and 10 minutes later. Officers said that all of those that took part in the first wave of
attacks from the Enterprise had returned safely to the ship.
Several days ago, officers said, the ship's company was issued chemical weapons protection gear, a rare step
aboard an aircraft carrier. The captain said he did not believe the vessel faced any particular risk of a chemical
attack, but said it was a precaution that he felt obliged to take.
In addition to the Enterprise, at least one other carrier, Carl Vinson, is also in the Arabian Sea.
Another carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, left Norfolk soon after the Sept. 11 attack and is believed also to
be in the region, while a fourth, the Kitty Hawk, is en route from Japan.
In an unusual step, the Kitty Hawk has been deployed without its air wing, a move that American officials said
was intended to leave its deck clear for possible helicopter-borne commando operations.
The Enterprise, however, has maintained its air wing, which includes the F-14 and F-18 fighter aircraft along
with E6-B planes capable of conducting electronic warfare.
Among the crowd of sailors who watched the planes taking off — and in some cases, filmed the event with
video cameras — was a young man from the Bronx who gave his first name as Nelson.
"My aunt works at the World Trade Center, but she was away," he said. "So we were some of the lucky
ones. I've been waiting for this for a long time. The faster we bomb, the sooner we can go home."
nytimes.com |
