Welcome to the Jungle

Well, thanks to my intense work-out this morning, I took tonight off and hence had time for a second blog today! Now that you heard about all of the crazy runni
ng we did today, let me show you in a little bit greater detail about where exactly this was going on.

But first, a little history lesson.

The Iran-Iraq war in the Gulf in the 1980's was more than just a horrific war of attrition on land. Each side used its new and improved missiles and tactics to cripple the other side where it would hurt almost as much: by attacking the economic base of each country- their ability to control and dominate the export of oil in the region. Given that MANY countries (including Japan, the US, and most of Western Europe) depended on a steady flow of oil of the region, coupled with Iran and Iraq's latest technique of attacking not only each other, but also neutral shipping in the Gulf.

The tanker wars really picked up in 1984 when Iraq self-declared an economic exclusion zone around much of Iran and her ports, which Iraq protected not so much with naval assets, but air assets equipped with the latest missiles of the time period. Neutral shipping, bound for the enemies ports became a favorite target of each side, both trying to strategically up their advantage by cutting their adversary off of the imports and exports that each economy so direly depended on.

During these years, oil exports in the Gulf were cut by 25%, which caused Lloyd's of London to raise up the insurance prices on these tankers, overall increased the cost of oil felt around the world. The US become involved as they sent warships to the Gulf to escort these tankers. Technically the US could only defend tankers that were her own, other nation's vessels would be helplessly attacked while the US could only stand idle. That change when we began re-flagging Kuwait vessels as US, allowing us to not only escort but also protect and defend.

These new developments in Naval weaponry, including the Exocet missile (an Iraqi one "accidentally" found its way into the side of the USS STARK, in the same class as the SAMMY B, in May 1987, killing 37 US Sailors), took a toll on both sides as they performed not only attacks on tankers, but also strategic aerial strikes against each other's oil terminals, situated in the Gulf and without escort, extremely vulnerable to enemy attack.

On a side note: the tragic lessons that the Navy learned from the USS STARK helped shape the way that ships were trained and prepared for battle. A mere 11 months later, the USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS found herself in a similar situation as her sister, the STARK. After being struck by an Iranian mine while escorting tankers throughout the Gulf, the SAMMY B relied on the training, tactics, superb leadership and bravery of her courageous crew to fight to keep her afloat (for more information and an exciting narrative about this incident, I highly recommend NO HIGHER HONOR: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf, by Bradley Peniston. I am sure my mom or dad would gladly provide you with a copy for your enjoyment. Also to note, Mr. Peniston stumbled across my blog way back in the day over 2 years ago and posted a comment- awesome :). President Reagan immediately ordered the commencement of "Operation Praying Mantis," the largest surface-to-surface battle in decades, which helped end the Iran-Iraq War and establish US air and naval supremacy in the Gulf, a title we still proudly carry and execute today. Here is a GREAT video about the US' response to the mining.

Anyways, back to tanker wars. So, over those years, the Al Basrah, and many other oil terminals throughout the Gulf felt the wrath of modern warfare. While some terminals did not survive this attack, many, including ABOT and KAAOT in the North Arabian Gulf, did. Many years later, the talented US Navy Sea Bees have spent much time and effort trying to rectify some of the damage to help make the terminal habitable to US forces stationed on the platform.


There are lots of interesting pieces of damage/reconstruction that you see here. Some are mere holes, not yet filled. Then there are HUGE chunks of missing grates that have been replaced and welded back in place, you can tell because they don't match the original grating. Also, I think that melted wavy looking grate is interesting. Yesterday, you saw the replacement handrail from the ones that fall off a lot. One of the most disconcerting piece of damage is the grates that are not flat across, and are wrapped and tied with what appears to be a nylon rope. That one worries me the most.

Well, you should fret not because everyday, hundreds of pounds traverse these catwalks, luckily, so far, so good. It was a little frightening to run on them, and when someone else on the stretch of the catwalk is running while you are walking, the whole thing bounces a little bit like those rope bridges.












Well, that's off for now folks. I certainly enjoyed my day of rest this morning and getting a chance to talk to you twice. I was super bummed out about not being in Charlottesville this weekend (although super happy for my hubby who is :) and was pretty mopey and fed up after a VERY frustrating watch today; luckily, blogging helped a little. As always, miss you all so much!