[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Possibly the frigates - but Salem and the two landing ships are definitely ones that came with the Marines when they came in 1997.

There's no definitive evidence of those three ships at that time. They could have arrived later.
In fact I'll go further and say the Salem was very unlikely to have been there due to it having been decommissioned in 1959 (and IRL removed from the reserve list in 1991), and the disastrous Kola battles didn't occur until after the June landings. There would be no pressing need to rush an ancient cruiser armed only with guns back into service prior to then.

Originally Posted by Olefin

And the 6th Marine division is what I was referring to - i.e. what happens to a unit that insnt properly escorted into a war zone.

There's more and larger units which were attacked in the Atlantic in early 1997. This was before the Kola battles and the destruction of Nato fleets.

Originally Posted by Olefin

We know that the Salem had to be there June 4, 1997 for instance

No, we don't. We only know naval gunfire was provided, and have been given no indication of it's source.

Originally Posted by Olefin

We also know the Salem was there for sure in 1997 by this line

We only know it was there by September. However, how likely is it that any ship would remain on station for 3 years without returning to home. Even in WWII ships didn't stay away that long.
All we really know is the Salem was there in 1997 and there again in 2000. We have little knowledge of what happened to it in the meantime and no knowledge of it's escorts and how they changed.

Originally Posted by Olefin

I highly doubt those naval guns were just a bunch of frigates with their one or two guns

Agreed, but it is possible. Sustained and accurate 76mm gunfire can be quite effective.

Originally Posted by Olefin

so those ships in the RDF have probably been there the entire time since I doubt they had the fuel to go all the way back to the US and then come back - especially with the US putting sailing ships into commission in the USN as early as May of 1998 according to A Rock In Troubled Waters to be used as patrol ships

It's possible, however it's also highly probable a resupply ship was included in the task force at the time. Additionally, fuel could have been obtained from other ports along the way.
As I've indicated before, any resupply ship would have been a prime target for the enemy and could have been attacked and sunk at any time up until 2000 (although it's likely it would have been hit much earlier due to it's strategic value), which explains why it's not listed in the RDF Sourcebook.