On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

March 11, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today.

Another day of fierce artillery duels along the Oder-Niesse line. This time USAF A-10 aircraft of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing are on standby, catching the guns of the Polish 23rd Cannon Artillery Brigade in the open while they are scurrying to redeploy away from their firing positions.

PACFLT scrambles together maritime patrol aircraft and surface ships to locate and sink the raiders that broke out of Petropavlovsk the previous day. The carrier Midway is ordered to the southwestern extent of it's patrol zone, and the Constellation rushed east out of the Sea of Japan to hunt down the raiders.

A major mishap occurs on the escort carrier USS Langley's first operational voyage - as one of the ship's AV-8C Harriers makes a low-altitude, high-speed approach to the carrier over the convoy, the Phalanx CIWS anti-missile defense system aboard the transport West Virginia Freedom locks on the the aircraft and, misidentifying it as an incoming SSM, shoots it down as programmed. The pilot and aircraft are both lost.

Convoy 11 is formed at Port Said, Egypt, headed west through the Mediterranean. The escort includes the escort carrier Shangri-La. Many of the ships are returning empty after discharging cargo in the Middle East.

Headquarters, XI US Corps loads its vehicles and equipment on the Ohio Freedom (on its maiden voyage) in Bayonne, NJ for travel to Germany.

Convoy 12 departs from multiple East Coast ports, comprised of ships carrying equipment and supplies to Romania, Jugoslavia and the Middle East.

A month after being alerted, the 101st Air Assault Division closes on Saudi Arabia. The division fields over 15,500 soldiers and 320 helicopters and required 560 C-141, 240 C-5 and 260 C-17 sorties plus 35 widebody airliner flights carrying troops. Commanders around the world breathe a sigh of relief as Military Airlift Command is able to reassign many of the heavy lift aircraft to support other theathers with the conclusion of the 101st's deployment.

The 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard) begins deploying to the CENTCOM area of operations. The aircraft plan to fly across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and are accompanied by six KC-10 tankers that provide refuelling, communications relay and overwater navigation as well as carrying the A-7's maintenance crews, tools and initial package of spare parts.