Front Burner Read Online Free PDF

violation of international law, and the United States refused to recognize the claim. The Saratoga battle group, operating with the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea , conducted freedom of navigation operations in the Gulf of Sidra in January and February 1986, specifically to refute it, and again from March 23 to 29, with the carrier USS America ’s battle group now joined. The Libyans, upset by these “unauthorized” incursions into their claimed waters, countered by firing SA-5 anti-aircraft missiles at U.S. jets. Over the next three days, the United States attacked land-based missile sites and missile patrol boats near our ships without the loss of any of our forces or personnel.
    On April 5, 1986, as Yorktown and the rest of the Saratoga battle group were headed home across the Atlantic from deployment, a bomb exploded in a disco in Berlin, Germany. U.S. intelligence quickly found that Qaddafi was responsible, and on April 15, 1986, the United States launched aircraft attacks against Libya with both Air Force and Navy bombers. At last, the United States was finally willing to stand up and fight back against this particular state sponsor of terrorism. Unfortunately, it would also be the last time until 2001 that the United States would draw a line in the sand and send an unmistakable message that it would not tolerate terrorist attacks against our interests.
    After leaving Yorktown in May 1987, I attended the Naval Post-graduate School in Monterey, California. With a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering, my technical skills were honed to prepare for my next assignment as the operations officer to the USS Arleigh Burke, the Navy’s first Aegis guided-missile destroyer. A new class of ship, its construction at the shipyard in Bath, Maine, proved surprisingly challenging. Designed to present a smaller cross section to enemy radar, it minimized the number
of surfaces that met at ninety-degree angles, to decrease the reflected energy from a radar beam. Incorporating many of the lessons learned from Aegis cruisers such as Yorktown , the ship was outfitted with the latest Aegis phased-array radar and, for the first time, all the weapons the ship had were truly integrated into one seamless combat system. The Navy had not built a new class of destroyer in over twenty years, the last one being the Spruance class destroyer, which did not have an anti-air warfare capability—the ability to shoot down incoming missiles or aircraft.
    The leadership of the surface warfare Navy handpicked Commander John G. Morgan, Jr. for this prestigious assignment as the commissioning commanding officer for the Arleigh Burke . His choice for executive officer had been a shipmate of mine on Yorktown , Lieutenant Commander Roger C. “Rick” Easton. As part of this crew, I knew I was in for a lot of hard work, but the chance to bring this new ship to life for the Navy was irresistible and I jumped at the opportunity.
    After six months of learning how to be a department head, once more in Newport, I reported to the precommissioning crew of the ship in Norfolk, Virginia. On July 4, 1991, the Navy commissioned Arleigh Burke as the most combat capable ship in the world at the time. Almost two years later, we deployed to the Mediterranean Sea for operations to safeguard those vital sea-lanes of communication for our nation.
    Mid-deployment, orders came transferring me from the ship to the flatlands of Kansas to learn how to speak “Army” at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth. An interservice assignment like this allows promising officers to learn in an open but structured educational environment how each service develops the procedures and concepts that guide its operations. More important, it allows some of the best and brightest of them to get to know each other and develop bonds of friendship.
    Attendance at one of these schools builds the groundwork for an officer’s