Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
the US would never, and I mean never, have sent two divisions of Marines into the Persian Gulf without an escort of some type, let alone all the other forces - for one they would get massacred on the way in without at least anti-air equipped ships
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Obviously. Nobody is saying otherwise, however there's no evidence that the ships listed in the RDF Sourcebook are the
same ships that where there in 1997.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
...and they showed up intact as compared to what happened to what they tried to send to Korea.
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Please provide your references. All I can find is that the 16th Regiment of the 6th Marines, came under attack during transit in February 1998. No other Korean theatre units (about 7 Divisions worth) show any evidence of this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
Also keep in mind that the force that escorted the 24th ID, 6th ACCB, etc.. in March could have been part of the Kola debacle and I have no problems with that.
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Umm, that's what I've been saying, however further investigation shows this as unlikely as US Marines conducted landing operations from the 4th of June while "naval guns pounded the Soviet positions". Marines were still landing in the latter half of June which reduces the chance of
their naval escorts being involved off Kola to virtually nil.
However, none of that means those ships remained in the gulf for the remainder of the war. It's very possible given the destruction of the Nato fleets elsewhere, numerous ships in the middle east had to be redeployed to secure resupply convoys. It's possible only a skeleton force was left in the Gulf in latter 1997 and those ships in the RDF Sourcebook represent ships which have migrated to where the fuel is over a period of several years.