In ~980, the Carter Doctrine declared WILL in July 1987. During the very first escort the Persian Gulf region to be a "vital" interest mission, a mine ripped into the re-flagged to the Unii:ed States - one for which we were supertanker BRIDGETON. That first month, willing to fight. Events in the Middle East three tankers hit mines and minesweeping convinced President Carter that the United operations by Navy helicopters began. States required a means of rapid response to regional crises. b~ October1980, a new unified Later that summer, U.S. forces captured Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) was created to the Iranian minelayer Iran Ajr while it was meet that need. The RDF later evolved into deploying mines in international shipping Central Command, which marked the begin- lanes andU.S. helicopters repelled an attack by ning of the capability to move large military Iranian speedboats. In October 1987, U.S. sur- forces into the Persian Gulf, the sine quo non of face forces destroyed an armed Iranian oil DESERT SHIELD/STORM. complex in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U. S. -flagged tanker. The political situation in Southwest Asia continued to deteriorate. After 10 months of On 14April1988, watchstanders aboard intermittent skirmishes over the Shatt-al-Arab USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG 58) sighted waterway, Iraq attacked Iran in September three mines floating approximately one-half 1980, launching a war that would last eight mile from the ship. Twenty minutes after the years. By 1982, more than 100,000 people had first sighting, as ROBERTS was backing clear died. The war was costing each side $1 billion of the minefield, she struck a submerged mine a month and devastated both countries' oil nearly ripping the warship in half. Working industries. In the so-called "tanker war", both feverishly for seven hours, the crew stabilized belligerents launched attacks on neutral mer- the ship. ROBERTS was sent back to the United chant vessels transiting the Gulf, prompting States for repair and later returned to the re- several Gulf states to seek protection from gion to serve with the Maritime Interception foreign navies. Force during DESERT SHIELD. On 1 November 1986, Kuwait, a non- Three days after the mine blast, forces belligerent, announced it would seek interna- of the now-Joint Task Force Middle East ex- tional protection for its ships. On 7 March ecuted the American response - Operation 1987, the United States offered to reflag 11 PRAYING MAN~S. During a two-day pe- K~waiti tankers and provide U.S. Navy pro- riod, the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air tection. Kuwait accepted. Force units of Joint Task Force Middle East destroyed two oil platforms being used by Iran On 17May 1987, an Iraqi attack aircraft to coordinate attacks on merchant shipping, fired two Exocet missiles, killing 37 sailors and sank or destroyed three Iranian warships and wounding 21 others aboard USS STARK (FFG neutralized at least six Iranian speedboats. 31). Iraq apologized, claiming "pilot error." The success of PRAYING MAN~S - and A- broad-based allied naval cooperation during American units had already found a Operation EARNEST WILL - proved the dozen mines in Persian Gulf shipping lanes value of joint and combined operations in the when the Navy began escorting re-flagged Gulf and paved the way for the massive joint/ Kuwaiti tan]kers during Operation EARNEST coalition effort during DESERT SHIELD/ STORM. -4-
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