page_title: Operation Earnest Will
section_title: Operation Nimble Archer
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Earnest Will / Operations / Operation Nimble Archer
caption_attribution_description: An Iranian oil platform, Rostam, is set afire after being shelled by four US Navy destroyers during Operation Nimble Archer. The shelling was a response to an alleged recent Iranian missile attack on a reflagged Kuwaiti super tanker. ID: DN-SC-88-01042
context_page_description: Operation Earnest Will was the American military protection of Kuwaiti-owned tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988, three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War. It was the largest naval convoy operation since World War II.
  The U.S. Navy warships that escorted the tankers, part of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, were the operations' most visible part, but U.S. Air Force AWACS radar planes provided surveillance and U.S. Army special-operations helicopters hunted for possible attackers.
  Other U.S. Navy vessels participated in Operation Earnest Will. They were then under the command of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet which had primary responsibility for combat operations in the Persian Gulf region. The numerous ships used in Operation Earnest Will mostly consisted of Carrier Battle Groups, Surface Action Groups and ships from the Pacific's Third and Seventh Fleets and the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet. They generally operated in and near the Gulf for parts of their normal six-month deployments.
context_section_description: On 15 October, the reflagged U.S. tanker Sea Isle City was struck by an Iranian Silkworm missile while at anchor near the oil terminal outside Kuwait City. Seventeen crewmen and the American captain were injured in the attack. On 18 October, the U.S. Navy responded with Operation Nimble Archer. Four destroyers shelled two Revolutionary Guard bases, located on oil platforms, that had been used to stage attacks on shipping. in the Rostam oil field. After the shelling, USS Thach landed a SEAL platoon and a demolition unit that planted explosives on one of the platforms to destroy it. The SEALs next boarded and searched a third platform two miles away (3.2 km). Documents and radios were taken for intelligence.
caption: Rostam, one of two Iranian oil platforms set ablaze after shelling by American destroyers.
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