[Targan]

I don't really have any issue with the idea of the Tarawa being seaworthy and in active USN service, if it's post-Omega. Heck, there have been a couple of scenarios suggested for the Tarawa's ongoing service that I would support, given a bit more fleshing out. There are other examples where information on USN vessels is open to interpretation. An example - there are USN destroyers mentioned in A Rock in Troubled Waters that may well have been involved in escorting the Omega fleet either as part of the fleet all the way from Bremerhaven or for only part of the way. Those vessels weren't specifically stated as having been in the Omega fleet, but then again they weren't stated not to have been either.

Tarawa kind of falls into that category, too, but as I've said in previous posts it just seems unlikely to me that with a Spruance-class destroyer being specifically mentioned in Going Home, the Tarawa would be part of the fleet and not mentioned (and even more unlikely that it wasn't the flagship).

I like the idea of Tarawa not being in a suitable condition for the main Omega evacuation but being seaworthy enough by some time during 2001 to evacuate the Marines (and maybe 8th ID) from Poland/the Baltic States. It strikes me as a bit more unlikely, but possible, that the Tarawa was one of the ships that split off from the main Omega fleet to bring the 6000 troops to the RDF. That could certainly explain how it was initially with the Omega fleet but wasn't the flagship.