Crew members on the flight deck of the Navy aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt last Tuesday morning. The carrier is stationed on the Arabian Sea off Pakistan. Tamara Abdul Hadi for The New York TimesFrom The New York Times:
ABOARD U.S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, on the Arabian Sea — Every day from the deck of this nuclear-powered aircraft carrier off the coast of Pakistan, two dozen combat planes are catapulted into the sky for the 500-mile trip to southern Afghanistan. There the pilots circle Taliban strongholds like an airborne 911 service and zoom in when American and British troops, spread thin and often panicked, call in airstrikes.
The Navy has been back in these waters providing more air power since August, in large part because the ground reinforcements that commanders have been pleading for have not yet come. From 15,000 feet up, the pilots protect supply lines under increasing attack, fly reconnaissance missions to find what they call “bad guys” over the next hill, and go “kinetic” with bombs that kill three, four or five Taliban fighters at a time. They can always tell when troops who call in airstrikes are under direct fire.
“They’re trying to talk to you at the same time that they’re running and being shot at, so obviously there’s a lot of urgency in their voices,” said Capt. Kevin J. Kovacich, the Roosevelt’s air wing commander.
Read more ....
My Comment: A revealing article on the air war in Afghanistan from a carrier's perspective. This New York Times reporter plays the civilian casualty card without shading light on Taliban tactics of using human shields, but the article is still a good read.