Operation Earnest Will | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Iran–Iraq War | |||||||
![]() Mess Management Specialist 2nd Class Williams Hendrickson scans for mines from the bow of the U.S. Navy guided missile frigate USS Nicholas during an Earnest Will convoy mission. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() |
![]() Iranian coaporated ![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1 aircraft carrier, 1 amphibious transport dock 4 destroyers 1 guided missile cruiser 3 frigates |
4 frigates 4 Corvettes, 1 Iraqi Several Mine Layers Several Missile Craft | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
After end of entire operation; 1 guided missile cruiser heavily damaged, 37 U.S. marines KIA, 49 U.S. marines WIA, 6 remained, 3 frigates damaged, 1 heavily |
2 oil platforms, Several Iranian marines KIA or WIA? |
Operation Earnest Will (24 July 1987 - 26 September 1988) was the U.S. military protection of Kuwaiti owned oil tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988, three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War.[1] It was the largest naval convoy operation since World War II.
Location
The U.S. Navy warships that escorted the tankers, part of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, were the most visible part of the operation, but U.S. Air Force AWACS radar planes provided surveillance and Army special operations helicopters hunted for possible attackers.
The motives
In December 1986, the government of Kuwait asked the Reagan administration to send the U.S. Navy to protect Kuwaiti tankers.[2] U.S. law forbade the use of Navy ships to escort civilian vessels under foreign flag, so the Kuwaiti ships were re-registered under U.S. flag.
The battle
Even before Earnest Will formally began, it became clear how dangerous Persian Gulf operations would be. On 17 May, an Iraqi warplane fired two Exocet missiles at the guided missile frigate USS Stark, killing 37 sailors and injuring 21. Iraqi officials said the targeting of the U.S. warship was accidental.[citation needed]
On the very first escort mission, on 24 July 1987, the Kuwaiti oil tanker al-Rekkah, re-flagged as the U.S. tanker Bridgeton, struck an Iranian mine damaging the ship, but causing no injuries. The Bridgeton proceeded under her own power to Kuwait, with the thin-skinned U.S. Navy escorts following behind to avoid mines.[1]
On 15 October, the reflagged U.S. tanker Sea Isle City was struck while at anchor by an Iranian Silkworm missile, wounding 18. The U.S. Navy responded by destroying two Iranian oil platforms.
Aftermath
Earnest Will overlapped with Operation Prime Chance, a largely secret effort to stop Iranian forces from attacking Gulf shipping. The most dramatic moment of Prime Chance was likely on the September 21, 1987, attack on the Iran Ajr, an Iranian ship converted for use as a minelayer. Using night-vision devices, Army gunship crews watched the Iranian vessel lay several mines, then engaged with miniguns and rockets. A SEAL team landed aboard the vessel and seized it. Several Iranian sailors were rescued from the waters of the Persian Gulf after leaping overboard during the attack. The SEALs scuttled the vessel the following day.
On 14 April 1988, the American frigate USS Copeland, while on patrol, encountered trouble with its primary missile launcher. The Samuel B. Roberts, assuming Copeland's patrol area, struck an Iranian mine and was badly damaged. The frigate deployed from its homeport of Newport, Rhode Island in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War. The Roberts had arrived in the Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous on April 14 when the ship struck an M-08 naval mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area it had safely transited a few days previously. The mine blew a 15-foot (5 m) hole in the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from their mounts. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours, thereby saving the ship. Ten sailors were medevaced for injuries sustained in the blast; six returned to the Roberts in a day or so, while four burn victims were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Germany, and eventually to medical facilities in the United States.
When U.S. divers recovered several unexploded mines, they found that their serial numbers matched the sequence on mines seized the previous September aboard an Iranian minelayer named Iran Ajr. Four days later, U.S. forces retaliated with a one-day attack on Iranian warships, armed speedboats, and oil platforms used as naval bases. Dubbed Operation Praying Mantis, it was the biggest engagement of surface warships since World War II. Two Iranian ships were destroyed, and two American pilots died when their helicopter crashed.
Historical assessment
On 3 July 1988, USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300B2, over the Strait of Hormuz after mistaking it for an Iranian F-14. 290 people were killed.
These two side effects of Earnest Will — Praying Mantis and the downing of the airliner — helped convince Iran to agree to a ceasefire on 20 August 1988, ending its eight-year war with Iraq.
On 26 September 1988, USS Vandegrift escorted the last tanker of the operation to Kuwait.
The battle may have been the first military engagement between Iran and the U.S., with Iran winning the first and third engagement, tying the second, and finally being defeated by the U.S. in the last two U.S. operations.
See also
External links
- Operation Earnest Will on GlobalSecurity.org
- Photos of Operation Earnest Will
- Attack Squadron 95
- Photo Gallery of Operation Earnest Will
References
- ^ a b Stephen Andrew Kelley (June 2007), Better Lucky Than Good: Operation Earnest Will as Gunboat Diplomacy (PDF), Naval Postgraduate School, retrieved 2007-11-09
- ^ “Kuwaiti Call for Help Led to U.S. Role in Gulf,” Los Angeles Times, 4 July 1988.
Further reading
- Peter Huchthausen (2004). America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-200465-0.
- Levinson, Jeffrey L. and Randy L. Edwards (1997). Missile Inbound. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-517-9. (about the Stark attack)
- Palmer, Michael (2003). On Course to Desert Storm. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1-4102-0495-2. (U.S. Navy operations in the Gulf)
- Peniston, Bradley (2006). No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-661-5.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help) (Detailed look at guided missile frigate's operations and mine attack)|title=
- Sweetman, Jack (1998). Great American Naval Battles. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-794-5. (Account of Operation Praying Mantis)
- Symonds, Craig L. (2005). Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517145-4. (Puts Operation Praying Mantis in broader historical context)
- Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987-88. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-970-3.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help)|title=