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Could the world's largest military "excercise" just coincidently have started just after Reagan's death?
Friends at BBC told me that they have been ordered to stay on duty at the station awaiting a huge breaking story that has yet to happen...
The (aircraft) carrier USS Harry S. Truman sailed Wednesday" from Norfolk, Virginia "in a test of the (U.S.) Navy´s ability to have 7 of its 12 carriers away from port simultaneously, a major shift away from the way carriers have been used."
"A second Norfolk-based carrier, USS Enterprise, was expected to leave Thursday to participate in the exercise dubbed (Operation) Summer Pulse 04."
"Summer Pulse 04 continues through August (2004), with seven carriers conducting joint exercises with allies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia, officials said."
"´The ability to push this kind of military capability to the four corners of the world is quite remarkable,´ Navy Secretary Gordon R. England said when he announced plans for the demonstration last week in Washington. ´Several years ago, we could deploy only two´ carriers at a time."
"Summer Pulse 04 is the first exercise of the Navy´s Fleet Response Plan, announced last December (2003), through which ships will move from traditional, scheduled six-month deployments in less than 30 days and be prepared to leave as world events demand."
"The Navy wants to be able to send six carrier strike groups in less than 30 days to handle a crisis anywhere in the world, plus have two more carrier strike groups ready within three months to reinforce or rotate with these forces and continue operations in other areas."
"Summer Pulse 04 is ´proof of concept that we can in fact make that happen,´ Capt. Michael R. Groothousen, the Truman´s commanding officer said Wednesday by telephone after the Truman left Norfolk Naval Station."
"Capt. Groothousen said the Fleet Response Plan makes deployment schedules less predictable--a change necessary in a post-Sept. 11 (2001) world."
"´Terrorists love predictability,´ he said, ´If we start putting more unpredictability into our schedule, it makes it more difficult for any threat out there to determine when to strike.´"
"That also means more volatility in the sailors´ schedules."
"´When you´re planning on being in port for a little while and then the schedule changes, nobody likes that,´ said Petty Officer First Class Tony Rice, 34, of Midland, Texas, a Truman crew member. ´But you kind of get used to it as a sailor. You´re taught to be fluid and to expect the unexpected.´"
"The Navy demonstrated its ability to ´surge´ multiple carriers like this a year ago during the Iraq war (against Saddam Hussein--J.T.), said John Pike, director of Global Security.org, an Alexandria, Virginia research center on security issues."
"However, the Navy wasn´t really set up to deploy several carriers at once, so it wasn´t easy, he said."
"´Now they are demonstrating that they are set up to do that,´ Pike said, ´If anybody anywhere gets any ideas-- if North Korea gets frisky or the Red Chinese get too risky--they might have a half-dozen carriers show up on short notice.´"
"This is ´a fundamentally different way of deploying aircraft carriers than we had during the Twentieth Century,´ Pike said."
"Typically, a carrier deployed overseas for six months, then was at home for 18 months while sailors went back to school in the Navy and the ship was repaired and overhauled."
"Under this arrangement, a carrier was combat-capable only for about six months during a two-year cycle, so generally only two of the stateside carriers could be deployed at a given time, Pike said."
"The other carriers taking part in Summer Pulse 04 are the Norfolk-based USS George Washington, the San Diego (California)-based USS John C. Stennis, which are already deployed; the USS Kitty Hawk, based in Yokosuka, Japan; the Mayport, Fla.-based USS John F. Kennedy; and the USS Ronald Reagan, which left Norfolk last week and is enroute to its new home port of San Diego."
USS John C. Stennis then left San Diego to join USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Alaska for a large-scale naval exercise.
No sooner had this news been released than Channel 13 in Hampton Roads, Virginia "reported an operation called Exercise Blinding Storm by the United States and Exercise Rapid Alliance" by UK. "The training will include about 30,000 troops from seven nations in exercises off or on the coast of North Carolina."
Netherlands "Dutch Marines and French soldiers will take part, as well as a Peruvian submarine and contingents from Germany and Canada. The flotilla is expected to set sail on Tuesday, with the two-week amphibious operation scheduled to begin (Thursday) June 10 (2004)."
The UK naval contingent is sizable. "The biggest British ship (the aircraft carrier) HMS Invincible, has also deployed with a crew of 1,050." HMS Invincible is leading a task force of 20 vessels of the Royal Navy in Exercise Rapid Alliance."
Part of the exercise calls for landing British tanks on North Carolina´s beaches. "The British landing platform dock ship HMS Albion has already arrived. It carried four Challenger II battle tanks, the British equivalent of" the U.S. Army´s main battle tank, the M1-A1 Abrams. "The (British) tanks will be sent ashore aboard the ship´s new landing craft during the exercise."
Countries participating in Exercise Rapid Alliance include the USA, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Peru, Norway, Italy, Denmark, France and Australia.
According to the San Diego Times-Union, a "large U.S. Navy battle group" is assembling off the coast of Alaska. The size of the battle group is truly mind-boggling. The flagship is the carrier USS John C. Stennis, leading the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, the destroyer USS Howard, the guided missile frigate USS Ford, the fast- attack submarine USS Salt Lake City, the supply ship USNS Rainier, the amphibious assault ship USS Belleau Wood, the amphibious transport dock ships USS Denver and USS Comstock, the guided missile destroyers USS Preble and USS Hopper, the cruiser USS Tucson and the guided missile destroyer USS Russell.
The Scotsman reported that the Alaska battle group was "the first time an expeditionary strike group will be commanded by a Marine general, according to the Navy."
But that isn´t the end of the recent redeployments by the U.S. Navy.
"On (Wednesday) May 5 (2004), the USS McCampbell headed for Southeast Asia in support of a Cooperate Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) cruise. The ship will be coordinating joint naval exercises with Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines."
Also during May, "the USNS Patuxent, accompanied by the coastal patrol ships USS Typhoon and USS Sirocco, left port at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base Friday" and "sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Rota Naval Station" in Spain "and arrived in port (Wednesday) May 12 (2004)."
In Washington state, "the Army begins a major staging operation today at the port to ship (armored and mechanized) equipment to Southwest Asia."
And in Louisiana, "Fort Polk´s (United Nations) Joint Readiness Training Center will remain open, the officials said, with (Army) National Guard soldiers expected to fill in for the units going to Iraq."
The sudden intensification of naval activity has puzzled the world´s ufologists, particularly in light of a strange radio transmission that was intercepted by a ham radio club back in January 2004.
On Monday, January 26, 2004, the group of amateur radio enthusiasts "intercepted a radio transmission" and "made a digital recording of the transmission that took place on January 26, 2004 at 5 a.m. UTC. The frequency was 11.176 Megaherz. The conversation is between SNOWBALL NET and another station. We assume SNOWBALL is the operator."
And a strange conversation it was.
SNOWBALL NET: "Snowball Net comms check. All stations, clock sync, impact at minus 146 days, 5 hours UTC. Standby for ACD link."
A burst of coded digital data then followed.
BURRO: "Snowball, this is Burro. You are not secure, repeat, not secure! Go green! Go green!"
From January 26, a period of "146 days, 5 hours" brings us to either Saturday, June 19, or Sunday, June 20, 2004. Ufologists have been speculating for days as to what might happen on either day.
Some have reported rumors that Al-Qaeda "has two diesel submarines with nuclear weapons that we´re searching like crazy for."
Others speculate that an asteroid might land in one of Earth´s oceans on the appointed day, causing tidal waves and flooding in low-lying coastal areas. The ships were sent to sea, they argue, to keep them from being swept ashore by the tidal waves.
"The British are coming, the British are coming," he joked, "And this time they´ve got tanks!"
UFO Roundup editor Joseph Trainor said, "I am still blown away by the size of that Alaska battle group. It sure doesn´t sound like our ´war president´ is going to pick up the peace pipe any time soon. It all reads like a buildup to some kind of invasion. Is Dubya planning a secret D-Day?"
Trainor said he could think of "four possible targets for invasion."
North Korea - The Stennis battle group might try to land an amphibious task force in Pungsan to race overland and knock out the North Korean nuclear power center at Yongblon.
Saudi Arabia - If it looked like Al-Qaeda was about to oust the Saudi royal family, NATO might land in force and occupy the desert kingdom.
Iran - In a replay of the 1942 Allied invasion in World War II, NATO forces and Russia might invade the Islamic republic and take out the ayatollahs.
Pakistan - NATO might double-cross President Pervez Musharraf and strike at "the Islamic bomb," his country´s supply of nuclear weapons.
"There´s an awful lot of naval firepower floating around out there," Trainor added, "Let´s see what happens- -if anything--on June 20." (See the San Diego Times-Union of May 25, 2004; The Scotsman of May 27, 2004; The Olympian of Olympia, Wash. for May 20, 2004; and The Pilot of Virginia Beach, Va. for May 24, 2004.
But the only TV story getting coverage is of Nancy and Ron.
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