induding the F-14A+, the F/A-18C and the F/         ception mission, U.S. and coalition warships
A-18D night-attack aircraft.     The multi-mis-     conducted a wide variety of contingency ac-
sion F/A-18 Hornets of the Navy flew 4,435          tions, from ThAM launches to naval gunfire
sorties, while the Marines flew 5,047 sorties in    support.
the durable fighter-attack aircraft. Navy pilots
flew 4,071 sorties in their battle-proven, all-           A multinational naval force of 115 U.S.
weather A-6 Intruders, and Marine pilots flew       and 50 allied warships had- already severed
8.54 sorties in their Intruders.                    Iraq's economic lifeline during the five-month-
                                           -        old maritime interception campaign when
     Becauseawidevarietyofordnancewas               DESERT SHIELD turned into a STORM. The
used to match spedfic weapons to specific           battleships USS WISCONSIN and (BB 64) and
targets, Navy/Marine tactical aviation units        USS MISSOURI (BB 63) took up stations in the
put the logistics system to the test. Not count-    northern Persian Gulf ready to contribute the
ing missiles, allied air forces dropped over        firepower of their 16-inch guns and Toma-
88,500 tons of ordnance on the battlefield. The     hawk cruise missiles to the ejection of Iraqi
heavy demand for repair parts was satisfied by      forces from Kuwait.
the supply system as well. Navy squadrons
maintained 85 to 95 percent of their aircraft at          The Aegis cruiser USS SAN JACINTO
a fully mission-capable status throughout           (CC 56) fired the first Tomahawk missile to-
DESERT SHIELD / STORM.                              ward Iraq from her position in the Red Sea.
                                                    USS BUNKER HILL (CC 52) followed suit
     On the last full day of war, Navy avia-        moments later from the Persian Gulf. It was an
tors of the six carrier battle groups flew 600      historic moment soon duplicated 100 times
combat missions, redudng the remaining com-         over aboard seven other Navy warships dur-
bat capability of Saddam Hussein's forces as        ing the first day of DESERT STORM.
the Iraqis fled from Kuwait. Over the course of
the war, Navy pilots, crews and aviation sup-             WISCONSIN served as the ThAM strike
port personnel helped give the United States        commander for the Persian Gulf, directing the
and her coalition partners early and undis-         sequence of launches that marked the opening
puted ownership of the airspace over Iraq and       of DESERT STORM and firing a total of 24
Kuwait.  Launching up to 140 sorties a day          TLAMs during the first two days of the cam-
from a single flight deck, the carriers and their   paign. Within sight of WISCONSIN, missile
battle groups contributed significantly to coa-     after missile rose from other ships in the area,
lition air dominance and effectively eliminated     including her sister ship MISSOURI.
-Iraq's naval capability.  The performance of
the nearly 30,000 Navy men and nearly 500                 Navy surface forces made an impact
aircraft aboard the carriers was unparalleled,      early in DESERT STORM, when USS NICHO-
and their mission statistics were impressive.       LAS (FFG 47) and the Kuwaiti fast attack craft
At the end, Navy sorties, both fixed and rotary     ISTIQLAL (P 5702) conducted the first surface
wing, totaled nearly 20,000.                        engagement of the war. Supporting combat
                                                    search and rescue operations for the air cam-
THE WAR AT SEA.           The war at sea was        paign, NICHOLAS and her helicopters scouted
integral to the liberation of Kuwait.    While      the Dorrah oilfield, about 40 miles off the
continuing their high-tempo maritime inter-         Kuwaiti coast. Nine of Dorrah's 11 oil plat-


                                                 - 39.

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