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Esta página no está disponible en español. The Associated PressAdmiral: Navy Flexible, Prepared For Whatever President OrdersBy SONJA BARISIC
January 7, 2003 NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - With one Norfolk-based aircraft carrier overseas, another on call and a third in training, the Atlantic Fleet is ready to handle whatever the president asks it to do, its commander said Tuesday. "We are well-positioned and well-equipped right now to deliver whatever's required, to conduct whatever operations we're directed to conduct," Adm. Robert J. Natter said in an interview with The Associated Press. Natter declined to discuss plans for possible war with Iraq or how large a role Atlantic Fleet sailors would play in such a conflict but said he was prepared to send as many carriers "as the president tells me." That could mean redeploying the USS George Washington, which has been on call since returning to Norfolk Naval Station on Dec. 20 after a six-month cruise to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. Or it could mean sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt overseas earlier than its scheduled spring deployment. That carrier left Monday for training, two weeks early, so it could be on call and the George Washington could enter a shipyard for maintenance. "We could deploy either, or both, depending on what we're told to do," Natter said. "I might add, there are lots of Pacific Fleet carriers who are also equally responsive and equally flexible." The Norfolk-based USS Harry S. Truman, which deployed in early December and is in the Mediterranean Sea, also could see action. Right now, there are no plans for the Theodore Roosevelt to head directly to the waters around Iraq after it completes four to five weeks of training, Natter said. "Having said that, the beauty of naval forces is that we can change our plans at the drop of a pin," said Natter, who oversees 156 ships, 1,189 aircraft and more than 129,000 military and civilian personnel. "We can go wherever we're told to go. We can do that. We're prepared to do that." A five-hour delay in the Roosevelt's departure Monday will not affect the carrier's readiness, Natter said. The admiral said there was "a minor mechanical problem" in "a system that had plenty of redundancy behind it." He said it is not unusual for a ship to delay a few minutes or even a few hours to make sure systems are in peak readiness. Natter declined to say where the Roosevelt will train or whether it is likely to be the last carrier to train on the island of Vieques . However, the Navy recently informed Puerto Rico 's government in a letter that bombing exercises on Vieques could start as soon as Jan. 13 and last for up to a month. Demonstrators routinely break onto Navy lands to thwart the exercises. A security guard was killed on the range in 1999 by errant Navy bombs, and the military has used only dummy bombs in the maneuvers since. President Bush has promised the Navy will leave Vieques by May. Natter said the Navy is working on a training resource strategy that folds in new technologies and locations. That includes using ranges at sea and bases on the Atlantic and Gulf coast for exercises. "But it's not a direct result of the potential for leaving Vieques ," Natter said. "In fact, if we still had Vieques , I would have folded that into our training resource strategy."
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