Yes I know Kenya didn’t produce oil - it’s the fully working refinery that is the important part as well as a working port and shipyard that haven’t been damaged by the war. The Saudis and others are still producing oil but their refineries have taken a lot of damage and aren’t anywhere near full capacity - Mombasa’s is fully functional - that makes it worth the US intervention to keep that refinery going. And the fully functional port is needed to be to support the US efforts in the Middle East as well. The 173rd wasn’t mentioned in the original canon as it wasn’t in existence when it was written. Frank was going to have it be reconstituted for the war and sent to defend Kenya along with other forces - primarily to keep that refinery and port going.
That was going to be in his Kenya module which he was working on when GDW shut down.
Marc Miller has put the East Africa Kenya sourcebook as a canon book for V2.2. Thus it’s now part of canon and those ships are part of the surviving USN forces. And the 173rd - at least as of April 2001 - is still in Kenya and still defending the refinery along with the reconstituted 2nd Armored which was rebuilt using the surviving 300 men who were in Europe and adding forces that had been sent to Kenya in 1998 and 1999.
There are a few test wells by 2001 producing a very small amount of oil - the refinery is refining oil shipped from the Middle East wells to Kenya for refining. Once the Saudis and others get their refineries working again then Mombasa is not going to be so critical to the war effort in the Middle East. But until then it’s the only game in town for a fully working refinery at full capacity.
That doesn’t retcon anything - there are remaining refineries in the Middle East - working at a fraction of capacity. Mombasa’s isn’t one of them. That’s why the US is there - that and the port and also to make use of what is left of Kenya’s working factories - including one that makes ammunition
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