fenses in preparation for an eventual ground offensive. Codenamed Southern Focus, this new effort was conducted under the guise of no-fly zone enforcement, even as it became clear the Bush administration was clearly on a path to war.
For the next month-plus, CVW-14 formed the spearhead of Southern Focus, joining forces with Air Force, Marine Corps, and British warplanes to tighten the noose around Baghdad and shape the battlefield. If it was not officially a war yet, it certainly appeared that way to the pilots. CVW-14’s commanding officer, Navy Capt. Kevin Albright, summed it up bluntly when he told the media, “They’re shooting a lot at us. It seems to me they’re really trying hard to shoot one of us down.”
Numerous strikes took place during Lincoln’s time on-station, with one of the more significant ones occurring on Nov. 6. That day, an air defense facility and surface-to-air missile sites near Al Kut were struck, almost 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. It was also the combat debut of the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, which had then been in active service for only a few years. Lts. Eric Doyle and John Turner, both assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 115 (VFA-115) “Eagles,” each flew a single-seat Super Hornet on the strike, employing satellite-guided JDAM bombs against a command bunker, achieving direct hits. Despite being fired upon by Iraqi air defenses in response, both pilots returned safely to Lincoln.
Additional strikes followed. The dates vary depending on the source, but CVW-14 warplanes also struck an air defense command and control bunker at Tallil Air Base in the city of Nasiriyah in southeast Iraq. Later in the month, more strikes took place, including an exceptionally large one on either the 23rd or 24th (again, depending on the source). The following morning, a voice on the carrier’s main announcing circuit proclaimed that more bombs were dropped the night prior than ever before.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was still months away from commencement, but, for the pilots of CVW-14, they were already at war.
After a change-of-command at sea and another Bahrain port call, Lincoln was relieved by USS Constellation (CV-64). On Dec. 10, CVN-72 and her escorts set course due east for the journey home that would involve two more stops and take at least another month to complete. By the time it arrived in Perth, Australia on Dec. 22, the carrier had been deployed for five months. While crewmembers were undoubtedly excited to spend Christmas in the Land Down Under and return home, a sense of unease filled the air; tensions with Iraq were not de-escalating and Southern Focus operations continued uninterrupted.
By the first day of the new year, it was clear plans were going to change. Abraham Lincoln was ordered to “be available as required to meet national security requirements,” mil-speak for “you’re going to war.” The carrier returned to Australia, dropping anchor off the port city of Fremantle, and spent two weeks resurfacing the flight deck, which had been worn out by weeks of intense flight operations during Southern Focus. Meanwhile, fighters from CVW-14 trained ashore at an Australian military air base to stay sharp. By Jan. 20, with all aircraft aboard, the battle group began the journey back to the Persian Gulf.
How did the crew react to the news of the extension? Even a Lincoln spokesman admitted to the press that the change was difficult for the crew to take. But the battle group leadership made it clear on the day the extension was announced all were expected to embrace the misery or suffer in silence.
“We don’t need to be home holding our loved ones, we need to be here holding the line,” admonished battle group commander RADM John Kelly in his address to the crew on New Year’s Day, concluding with what could only be interpreted as an order – “Get over it!” The crew later had some fun with this, creating a deployment patch featuring a sailor being kicked in the groin with the phrase “Get Over It!” employed as an unofficial cruise slogan.
Upon its return to the Gulf in early February, Lincoln picked up where it h