Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search

                        --SLIDE 4--
    So, on August 2nd 1990, the Navy was doing precisely what
it had been doing in Sputhwest Asia for more than four decades -
- maintaining forward presence, ensuring freedom of the seas, and
assisting in deterring regional adventunsm.


    Commander, Middle East Force, his flagship and five

combatants were in the Persian Gulf. The USS

INDEPENDENCE carrierbattle group was operating in the

Indian Ocean n~fth of Diego Garcia.

                        -- SLmEs--
    And, like U.S. naval forces everywhere, those forces were

fully manned, trained, ready, and sustainable for months
regardless of the availability of a supporting infrastructure ashore.

This unique character of naval forces gave President Bush and his

Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search