How many planes in a modern USAF "wing"? Original Syria strike was to include two B-52 wings

London Review of Books ^ | April 17th, 2014 | Seymour Hersh

[gaijin]

Seymour Hersh first exposed the My Lai Massacre and kicked off the hubbub regarding Abu Ghraib. He is now writing a history on the W.O.T.

How many bombers are typically in a "wing" of B-52's...? Is the proper number SIXTY, or is it less?

I think Hersh is describing a once-planned bombing mission of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY B-52's, ordered by a NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER...?

I must be mistaken...?

As Mr. Hersh wrote at the London Review of Books:

In the aftermath of the 21 August attack Obama ordered the Pentagon to draw up targets for bombing. Early in the process, the former intelligence official said, ‘the White House rejected 35 target sets provided by the joint chiefs of staff as being insufficiently “painful” to the Assad regime.’ The original targets included only military sites and nothing by way of civilian infrastructure. Under White House pressure, the US attack plan evolved into ‘a monster strike’: two wings of B-52 bombers were shifted to airbases close to Syria, and navy submarines and ships equipped with Tomahawk missiles were deployed. ‘Every day the target list was getting longer,’ the former intelligence official told me. ‘The Pentagon planners said we can’t use only Tomahawks to strike at Syria’s missile sites because their warheads are buried too far below ground, so the two B-52 air wings with two-thousand pound bombs were assigned to the mission. Then we’ll need standby search-and-rescue teams to recover downed pilots and drones for target selection. It became huge.’ The new target list was meant to ‘completely eradicate any military capabilities Assad had’, the former intelligence official said. The core targets included electric power grids, oil and gas depots, all known logistic and weapons depots, all known command and control facilities, and all known military and intelligence buildings.

[tcrlaf]

I forgot about Romania, as well...

[RitchieAprile]

if we duke them some cash ..

[tcrlaf]

Just a reminder, folks....
We had A LOT of aircraft in the region at that time, mostly Navy.

Add in the ground-based stuff from Incirlik, Izmir, Akrotiri, Aviano, and Romania.

Buffs/B1’s could launch easily from Diego Garcia, or have we forgotten that??

Times of Israel article from 8/31/2013 describing U.S. Navy movements at the time:

WHO LAUNCHES WHAT

Five US Navy destroyers — the USS Gravely, USS Mahan, USS Barry, the USS Stout and USS Ramage — are in the eastern Mediterranean Sea waiting for the order to launch. And the USS San Antonio, an amphibious assault ship has now joined them. The USS San Antonio, which is carrying helicopters and Marines, has no cruise missiles, so it is not expected to participate in the attack. Instead, the ship’s long-planned transit across the Mediterranean was interrupted so that it could remain in the area to help if needed.

The destroyers are armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles and are used for deep, precise targeting. Each one is about 20 feet long and less than two feet in diameter and carries a 1,000 pound warhead.

The missiles fly at low altitudes, and their range allows the ships to sit far off the coast, out of range of any potential response by the Syrian government. Some ships have cameras that can provide battle damage assessments.

The Navy also now has two aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea that are loaded with fighter jets. The USS Truman arrived in the region to take the place of the USS Nimitz, which was supposed to head home. But the Navy ordered the Nimitz to stay for now.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-possible-us-strike-against-syria-could-unfold/#ixzz328FZYSNN

[Kirkwood]

Not for a long time. They fly global drones out of there now.

[Smokin' Joe]

You are correct. I recall seeing the BUFFs on the runways out there, but I guess that just shows how old I’m getting...

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

This, my friend is what got obama, the cowards attention:

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So how does one get the attention of obama and it's ilk and minions?

This is how the Iranians got Congress, Kerry, the Generals, and the illegal alien terrorist in the oval office to show their true colors and back down on Syria.

World

Iran threatens brutal attacks on Americans, Obama family if US hits Syria

As Congress debates whether to support President Obama’s call for a limited strike against Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons, Iran is vowing to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the hilt and threatening to unleash terrorism should the U.S. strike.

Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Forces, Wednesday told the Assembly of Experts — the body that chooses the supreme leader — that “[w]e will support Syria to the end.”

And in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of Obama’s daughters should the United States attack Syria.

Alireza Forghani, the former governor of southern Iran’s Kish Province, threw down the gauntlet last week. Forghani is an analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.

“Hopefully Obama will be pigheaded enough to attack Syria, and then we will see the … loss of U.S. interests [through terrorist attacks],” he threatened. “In just 21 hours [after the attack on Syria], a family member of every U.S. minister [department secretary], U.S. ambassadors, U.S. military commanders around the world will be abducted. And then 18 hours later, videos of their amputation will be spread [around the world].”

A similar act was committed in a video of the torture of William Buckley, a CIA station chief who was abducted in Beirut in 1984 and later killed by Hezbollah on Iran’s order. That video was dropped off at the U.S. Embassy in Athens. Former CIA Director William Casey later described what he saw in the video: “They had done more than ruin his body. His eyes made it clear his mind had been played with. It was horrific, medieval and barbarous.”

In addition, Forghani warned, “We should remind Obama that if you are a bastard, there are other bastards all around the world who can assault Sasha.” The statement is written in both English and Farsi, but in the Farsi version, Forghani clearly stated that Sasha will be raped by someone who has been able to get close to the Obama family.

“Obama will attack Syria and then you’ll go to hell, and the world’s public opinion will accept that you deserve to be attacked and assaulted, so please attack,” Forghani concluded.

Forghani’s threats last Wednesday were further emphasized by the chief commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, who on the same day told the regime’s Fars News Agency that “America’s vision in its ability for a limited strike in Syria is an illusion. The reactions will be beyond Syria’s borders … [and] those who participate with America in this matter will soon witness threats on their national security.”

Taeb, the head of the Ammar Strategic Base, had previously stated that, “Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us … if we lose Syria, we won’t be able to hold Tehran.”

Regime officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have made it clear on many occasions that Assad’s regime is their red line and that any attack on Syria will have grave consequences for Israel and America.

Obama has stated that he is determined to punish Assad for the alleged recent chemical attack on his own people that killed more than 1,400 civilians, hundreds of them children.
Read more at the source:

Editors note: Sasha Obama is the younger daughter of U.S. president Barack Obama. Her formal name is Natasha, but she is most often called by her nickname, Sasha. She was born in 2001 to Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, who were married in 1992. Sasha Obama has one older sister, Malia, who was born in 1998. Both girls attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Chicago until January of 2009, when they began attending Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. Sasha Obama entered the fourth grade in 2010. Her father became president on 20 January 2009, and in 2012 he was re-elected for a second four-year term as president. She will be 15 years old at the end of Barack Obama's second term in 2017.

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[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

"One wonders why the CIC seems prepared to obliterate Assad's regime, but has been reluctant to use force against other Muslim regimes."

I relayed your question ot the Pastor, he replied by saying this: "Under Assad Christians were treated no differently than any other group, under other muslim led governments they are treated much more harshly. The same with Libya."

[okie01]

"Under Assad Christians were treated no differently than any other group, under other muslim led governments they are treated much more harshly. The same with Libya."

Undeniably, that is one point of distinction in Assad's favor (or disfavor, as viewed by the Obama regime).

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

Obama is a demon, the religon of the demons is islam.

[hattend]

BTTT