The USS George Washington is heading to Gulf within 96 Hours.

Fox News | 12/27/02

[Sparta]

The USS George Washington has been put on the alert and told to prepare to deploy within 96 hours to the Persian Gulf. Developing....

[wireplay]

My guess is that the north korea situation is getting worse and they are moving up the iraq timetable.

[mhking]

My guess is that the north korea situation is getting worse and they are moving up the iraq timetable.

That makes more sense than anything.

[RobFromGa]

what were the dates for the scheduled African trip?

[CougarGA7]

Yep, I was predicting an attack on Iraq by the end of January. Maybe it will be sooner.

[Dog]

Marine Amphibious Unit...

[Mo1]

My guess is that the north korea situation is getting worse and they are moving up the iraq timetable.

That's a pretty good guess .. any chance N. Korea will hear that loud ticking noise and chill out??

[Wright is right!]

"This is breaking news because the ship just returned from a 6-month deployment right before Christmas. This is a very unusual turnaround time."

There were several of us who speculated during her return prior to Christmas that she MIGHT be doing a short turnaround ... and that appears to have been the case. A short turnaround like this is ideal for refreshing the crew and taking on supplies and equipment that you don't wish to have to ship in a visible manner to the group while it's on-station. It costs less and you can do more with fewer prying eyes when you're in port. Plus they needed a crew change.

The Media was SURE that the carrier's return meant certain delay in the implementation of any measures of force. Once again, the Media is WRONG.

Michael

[zarf]

My guess too. Early Jan as opposed to later.....inspectors report to Security Council late in January so I don't know how Bush is going to handle this to push forward before then.

[Dog]

Jan 10-17

[RobFromGa]

Looks like the "War for Iraqi Independence" might be over by end of January.

[EGPWS]

It is VERY hard to get closets cleaned and laundry done with all this stuff going on!

LOL! MM. THAT'S the most accurate post that I've seen in day's!

[Dog]

How long will it take this carrier to get there and get on station???

[Rokke]

Some clarification is required here...I believe that the Washington has been given an order to be PREPARED to deploy within 96 hours. This does NOT mean it is going to deploy in 96 hours. It means it must be able to deploy within 96 hours of being given the order to deploy. This is a fairly common requirement. In fact, many USAF Fighter Wings are almost always on Prepare to Deploy orders ranging from a couple days to a couple weeks.

[RightWhale]

Korea

[hchutch]

Oh, boy...

A rapid turn-around like this can mean only one thing: We're either trying to get more carriers in the Gulf, or we're shifting a couple of carriers for an Alpha Strike on Yongbyong.

[CougarGA7]

Well, at least I was close.

[Miss Marple]

Boy, if we had a dollar for every time the media goofed, we could retire wealthy (and smugly right).

Korea and Iraq both at once...bet we have an increased terror alert soon (with good reason).

[Dog]

I had see how to spell Amphibious....:-)

[CougarGA7]

That works for me. I still think we could have and should have put this in motion last October. We have the intel that Saddam is full of crap on his WMD claims. Time to take him out.

[Dog]

Interesting times we live in Miss M...