Ronald Reagan made secret plans to loan U.S. warship to Britain... (Falklands War)

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 28th June 2012 | Graham Smith

[naturalman1975]

Ronald Reagan made secret plans to loan Britain a U.S. warship if she lost an aircraft carrier during the Falklands War, it has emerged.

The then-president was prepared to support Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher despite the U.S. being officially neutral during the 1982 conflict.

The stunning revelation was made by John Lehman, the former U.S. Secretary of the Navy, to the U.S. Naval Institute on Tuesday.

Mr Reagan would have loaned Britain the use of the amphibious warship USS Iwo Jima should harm have come to either HMS Invincible or HMS Hermes, which the Royal Navy had deployed to defend the islands from Argentinian forces.

Mr Lehman said that he formulated the plans to stand behind Mrs Thatcher with Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger following a British request.

Mr Reagan is said to have approved their proposal without hesitation, telling Mr Lehman: 'Give Maggie everything she needs to get on with it.'

The plans were put together in complete secrecy.

[gandalftb]

In 1956 the USAF reopened the RAF Ascension Island airfield, now called Wideawake Airfield USA and have continued to operate it since. The runway was lengthened and widened in the mid 1960s to allow for larger aircraft.

USAF and NASA have a missile tracking facility at Cat Hill.

In 1982, the RAF re-garrisoned the airbase as a staging base for the Falklands War. Operation Black Buck, the long range bombing raids, were carried out from there.

Every hangar, drop of fuel from the tank farm, bunk bed and coffee pot was initially provided to the RAF courtesy of the USAF.

Of course the RAF resupplied later, but the USAF laid the red carpet for the initial Falklands campaign. We did much of the air to air refueling for Vulcan bombers of Black Buck as the Victor refuelers were in short supply. We air refueled the Victor refuelers that went on to the Falklands.

[Trueblackman]

I was quoting my Senior Chief, who was a young airman in Norfolk during the Falkland’s War. He was on the Indy and said that a large number of U.K. Officers were in Norfolk assessing which carrier would be best to handle their F-4s. According to him this was the most far fetched approach if the they had lost the HMS Hermes as she was the best of the two carriers they fielded. The Iwo class could handle the Harries, but was more a Helo carrier than Harrier Carrier as I worked with the Guam in the mid 1990’s. A big deck carrier of the Midway or Forest Class would have been a better selection for a mix of F-4s and Harriers. Heck Reagan could have loaned them the old Lexington CV-16, if they just wanted to operate Harriers from a big deck.

[tanknetter]

Well, by that point the Lex had lost all her defensive armament, plus would have required rehabilitation of a lot of her spaces, particularly the weapons magazines and handling equipment.

But the irony of loaning the Brits a ship named “Lexington” (or Saratoga or Independence for that matter) would have been utterly delicious.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. It was better than we didn’t have to do it.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Read my post, I said “available”.

I'm well aware of what you said and I'm well aware that you are wrong. I mentioned the 1977 deployment onboard the FDR only to provide photographic evidence that you were wrong in your claim. Sit up in your chair higher so reality doesn't sail so far over your grape.

The USS FDR, CV-42 that you mentioned was decommissioned in 1977 and was sent to the scrapyard. The Falklands War was five years later.

I'm well aware of the disposal of FDR. Midway and Coral Sea, same class as the FDR, remained in service into the 90s.

The Iwo Jima was a platform for Marine Expeditionary Units, MEU’s

Incorrect. MEUs were known as MAUs back then along with the MABs and MAFs. The renaming transition for all MAUs to MEUs began to occur in late 1982 after the Falklands skirmish was over. As only two examples, you should be aware that in 1983 the 24th MAU was deployed to Beirut when the BLT was destroyed and the 22nd MAU was diverted to Grenada prior to relieving the 24th. 24th MAU and 22nd MAU were redesignated 24th MEU and 22nd MEU in February 1988. Perhaps you're too young to remember that.

At the time, the Iwo Jima was the only MEU(sic) platform operating in the Atlantic Ocean that could directly and fully support Brit Harriers that were almost identical to the Marine Harriers onboard.

Incorrect. The Iwo Jima was not the only LPH homeported in Norfolk and Harriers had embarked aboard other LPHs as well as LHAs prior to the Falklands. Numerous boats; 12 LPHs, 5 LHAs not to mention the CVs and CVNs, were available to be loaned to the Brits.

You're entitled to your own opinion, wrong as it may be, but you aren't entitled to your own facts.

[gandalftb]

“I’m well aware of the disposal of FDR”

The FDR, that you say could have been used in the Falklands, was scrapped 5 years before the Falklands War......but I’m still wrong? Oh, you were only referring to that class of ship and that several others in that class were operational... OK, fine, no disagreement, thank you for the clarification.

MAU’s were renamed as MEU’s with no force structure changes, just a renaming to more clearly defined the multiple capabilities of forward deployed MAGTF units. A distinction without a difference.

Let’s both be corrected along with the incorrect article.

Of the class of amphibious assault ships capable of directly (maintenance and arms) supporting Harriers, and home ported in Norfolk in 1982:

The Iwo Jima LPH-2 was home ported for major refitting from July 1981 to May 1983, unavailable.

The Guadalcanal LPH-7 was home ported from Nov 81 to Aug 82, unavailable.

The USS NASSAU LHA-4 was deployed from Jan to June 82 and available during the Falklands War.

The USS Guam LPH-9 was deployed from Mar to Dec 82 and available during the Falklands War.

The USS INCHON LPH-12 was in port at Guantanamo Bay Feb to March 82, then at Norfolk until Aug 82 and could have been available during the Falklands War.