Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
USS Biddle was deployed to the Middle East on September 1990 as part of Operation Desert Shield, where she joined the Saratoga battle group at the Red Sea. On 12 September she diverted the first merchant ship of the operation. By 4 December she had made a total of 27 boardings and four diversions. After spending Christmas at Toulon, France, Biddle rejoined the operations, this time to provide antiaircraft support for the two USA battle groups on station in the northern Red Sea. By the beginning of Desert Storm the cruiser had boarded 30 freighters. At the end of hostilities, USS Biddle made another six boardings, and was the only warship to seize a merchant in the war. She left the Red Sea with the highest percentage of boardings of any coalition vessel, 22.2 percent.
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