Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
All depends on the size of the tanker that they get for the trip - and they could be just getting their toys back to Hawaii which is almost 1800 km shorter distance - i.e. escort the freighters till they are past Japan and then take the naval ships to either Alaska, Hawaii or even Guam just so they are back in US territory - that would maximize the fuel and get the USN ships home (but maybe not to CA as to home) and the freighters with the troops and tanks back to CA (or Seattle for that matter)
and that way you could bring the 25th Light survivors back to Hawaii - 600 guys would fit on a couple of destroyers
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And.. what? abandon the 15000 troops to any roaming Soviet sub? The point of evacuating the troops from Korea (and probably Japan, too) would be to bring them back to the US where they can be useful; the point of the escort was to ensure that they get home. Hawaii, with its limited resources is not a useful for 15,000 troops. Disembarking 15,000 troops in a port in the NW (between SF and Seattle) is useful (IMHO).
Ships sitting in Guam, where its crews will eat from the even smaller amount of available food are not useful either, even it is US territory.
Uncle Ted