Up until recently, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was supporting NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, of the Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
But now that the Eisenhower has been diverted to the waters off Africa, we have exactly zero aircraft carriers assigned to Afghanistan.
According to an article in Stars and Stripes, on January 10, 2007, the Navy confirmed that the Eisenhower had taken up position off the coast of Somalia and begun surveillance missions over the Horn of Africa nation.
The disclosure came right about the same time as the news about our ill-fated attack targeting suspected terrorists in Somalia. We'll learn details about this latest fiasco as they trickle out over the coming days.
But what about Afghanistan, the real central front on the war against terrorists? It follows reason that the Eisenhower is steaming straight back to provide air support for embattled NATO Troops, right?
Sadly, no.
There was no stated timeline as to how long the Eisenhower and the other vessels would continue to monitor Somalia.
"We’ll be there as long as required," Brown said.
Aircraft from the carrier known as the "Ike" had been flying missions into Afghanistan in support of the war effort there.
"Ike is the only carrier in the region, so we don’t have another carrier flying ... missions" into Afghanistan, Brown said.
Here's where the diary author's parting shot usually goes.
Some are snarky, some are provocative, some are concerned, some are outraged.
But after reading what seems to be about the one-hundreth story like this, I got nothing.
How about you?