United States Sixth Fleet
The Sixth Fleet is the United States Navy's operational fleet and staff of United States Naval Forces Europe. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Sixth Fleet in 2011 is that it 'conducts the full range of Maritime Operations and Theater Security Cooperation missions in concert with coalition, joint, interagency and other parties in order to advance security and stability in Europe and Africa.' The commander of the Sixth Fleet is Vice Admiral Frank Craig Pandolfe.
The Sixth Fleet was established in February 1950 by redesignation of the former Sixth Task Fleet. Since that time, it has been continually engaged in world affairs around the Mediterranean, and, on occasion, further afield. It was involved in numerous NATO maritime exercises, the U.S. Lebanese intervention of 1958, confrontation with the Soviets during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, clearance of the Suez Canal post 1973, several confrontations with Libya during the 1980s (including Operation El Dorado Canyon), and maintenance of task forces in the Adriatic during the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Most recently it launched airstrikes on Libya again during the Libyan civil war of 2011.
Since the establishment of NATO it has constituted the most powerful Allied maritime striking force in the NATO Southern Region, and has retained the title of Naval Striking and Support Force Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH) in its NATO identity. However with the reorganization of NATO in the early twenty-first century the title became Striking Force NATO. Thomas A. Bryson's 'Tars, Turks, and Tankers: The Role of the United States Navy in the Middle East' covers the fleet's activities from 1950 to 1980.
Read more about United States Sixth Fleet: History, Structure, Past Command Ships, Sixth Fleet Commanders
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, sixth and/or fleet:
“A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Money is power, and in that government which pays all the public officers of the states will all political power be substantially concentrated.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Thou shalt not kill.”
—Bible: Hebrew Exodus, 20:13.
The sixth commandment.
“On the middle of that quiet floor
sits a fleet of small black ships,
square-rigged, sails furled, motionless,
their spars like burned matchsticks.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)