From: NAVNEWS@nctamslant.navy.mil (NAVY_NEWS)
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: Navy News Service - 27 Aug 92
Date: 30 Aug 1992 18:08:33 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

NAVY NEWS SERVICE - 27 AUG 1992 - NAVNEWS 038/92
    This Navy News Service message follows NAVNEWS 037/92, DTG 
262200Z.  NAVNEWS 038/92 is being released as a means of providing 
more timely information to the fleet; we will release news when it 
is news.  
                               -USN-

NNS 20.   U.S. Planes Reported "First On Station"
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- ABC News reported U.S. Navy planes as "first on
station" off USS Independence (CV 63) today (Aug. 27).  More than
20 U.S. Navy planes made the first patrol as Operation Southern
Watch began at 10:15 a.m. EDT or 5:15 p.m. in theater.  U.S. and
coalition forces from Britain and France were enforcing the edict
banning Saddam Hussein's air force from southern Iraq.  
     President Bush announced Aug. 26 that Iraq had 24 hours notice
to keep warplanes and helicopters from flying south of the 32nd
parallel and to stop attacking Shiite rebels in the marshes of
southern Iraq.  No aircraft, helicopter or fixed-wing, civilian or
military, should fly below 32 degrees, Pentagon officials said. 
Any Iraqi planes caught in the air would be shot down after the
announced time.
     All major national media have been on Independence and other
ships in the Gulf during the past week documenting the readiness
and total quality of U.S. Navy sailors, Navy officials said.
     During the Aug. 27 Pentagon news briefing in Washington, D.C.,
Bob Hall, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
stated, "There have been no flights by Iraqi aircraft today below
the 32 degree line.  Only coalition aircraft are flying below the
32 degree line.  There has been no Iraqi reaction."  
     Hall added that the Iraqis made about 40 flights Aug. 27 north
of the 32 degree line.  "In terms of other activity, additional
U.S. Air Force AWACS and RC-135 assets have been moved into the
theater in the last 48 hours.  Other coalition forces, the British
and the French, are moving in today (Aug. 27) and over the next few
days.
     "I'm not aware of any significant new (Iraqi) forces in the
region," Hall added.  "I'd say there has still been some small
scale activity.  I'm not aware of any drop-off in the activity of
ground forces.  But I think it's too early to make a judgment on
it."
     Since the last briefing Aug. 25, Hall updated numbers of
people, aircraft and ships in the areas, noting the changing
situation:
     PEOPLE:  A total of about 24,000 (people) in theater, broken
down as follows -- Navy, 13,476 (minus 613), Marines, 2,136 (minus
three), Air Force, 4,302 (plus 43) and Army, 1,702 (minus 48).  
     The total comes to 21,804, with 2,092 people involved in
exercise Intrinsic Action in Kuwait, who will leave when the
exercise is finished.  The figures were provided from CENTCOM, but
Hall noted that he couldn't say if the numbers reflected the latest
flights out.
     AIRCRAFT:  "For the record, in the theater we have F-15s, F-
14s, F-16s, F/A-18s, A-10s, F-4Gs, EF-111s, F-117s, U-2, EA-6Bs,
AV-8Bs, E-3s or the AWACS, and RC-135s, as well as we now have
various refueling and airlift assets," Hall said.
     SHIPS:  In the Red Sea, there are five ships -- including two
destroyers, one frigate, and two auxiliary ships.  In the Persian
Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Northern Arabian Sea region -- 18 ships,
including USS Independence in the Persian Gulf; the command ship
USS LaSalle (AGF 3), three cruisers, two destroyers, three
frigates, four amphibious ships (in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian
Sea region) and four auxiliary ships.  
Story compiled from official sources
                               -USN-