Gulf War
While en route to the island of Diego Garcia, CVW-14 and the USS Independence were diverted to the North Arabian Sea in support of Operation Desert Shield. Independence arrived on station on 6 August 1990 as part of the United States Central Command buildup.
On 5 August 1991, CVW-14 embarked aboard the USS Independence and commenced transit to Pearl Harbor for swap-out with the USS Midway. The CVW-14 staff cross-decked to USS Midway in Pearl Harbor 24 August. VF-21, VF-154, and VS-21 were detached from CVW-14 but remained on board USS Independence as part of the CVW-5 organizational structure. CVW-14, then embarked on the USS Midway and returned to San Diego, marking USS Midway's last operational underway period prior to being decommissioned from active fleet service.
On 17 February 1994, CVW-14 embarked aboard USS Carl Vinson for another WESTPAC deployment, returning 15 August 1994. In May 1996, the air wing deployed again for another WESTPAC on USS Carl Vinson. During this deployment, the Carl Vinson Task Group took part in Operation Southern Watch and Operation Desert Strike in which USN and USAF forces conducted Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) and Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) strikes against Iraq in response to Baghdad's invasion of Kurdish-held territory in Northern Iraq. CVW-14 escorted B-52 aircraft in support of their CALCM strikes and subsequently flew numerous sorties to enforce the newly expanded No-Fly Zone to 33 degrees north latitude. The Task Group departed the Fifth Fleet operations area on 8 October and returned to San Diego on 12 November 1996.
On 11 June 1998, CVW-14 moved from NAS Miramar, San Diego, to Naval Air Station Lemoore and deployed on USS Abraham Lincoln for WESTPAC '98 where it participated in Operation Southern Watch and Maritime Interdiction Operations in the Persian Gulf. CVW-14 returned to NAS Lemoore on 7 December 1998.
While deployed aboard USS Abraham Lincoln in May and June, CVW-14 participated to the Hawaiian operating area in Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC). In August 2000, CVW-14 deployed on WESTPAC 2000 during which the air wing executed over 1400 combat sorties over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch. CVW-14 returned to Lemoore on 8 February 2001.
Read more about this topic: Carrier Air Wing Fourteen, History
Famous quotes containing the words gulf and/or war:
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)