On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 13:00:51 +0100, "b"
<nospam.bengabenga@caramail.com> brought down from the Mount tablets
inscribed:


>'82 was an interesting year, I think it's in '82 that the New Jersey 
>battleship was shooting over our heads to Druze positions in the mountains, 
>I loved watching the flames come out of the canons and counting the seconds 
>until the sound of impact while having lunch.

Close, but no cigar.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/battleships/newjersey/bb62-nj.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    New Jersey was recommissioned at Long Beach, Calif., on 28
December 1982. She was modernized, receiving an installation of 16
Harpoon missiles, with a range of about 60 miles, and 32 Tomahawk
missiles, with a range of about 500 miles.

    In 1983, a bloody civil war was raging in Lebanon, and U.S. naval
forces were offshore to protect U.S. interests and U.S. Marines who
had landed in the war-torn country. On September 19, after a period in
which U.S. ships fired when U.S. position were attacked, USS Virginia
(CGN 38) and USS John Rogers (DD 983) fired 338 rounds from their
5-inch guns in support of Lebanese Army forces defending the
strategically important village of Sug el Gharb in the Shouf Mountains
east of Beirut. This signaled a shift in U.S. policy, and on 25
September, New Jersey took up station off Beirut.

    On 28 November, the U.S. government announced that New Jersey
would be retained off Beirut although her crew would be rotated. On 14
December, New Jersey fired 11 projectiles from her 16-inch guns at
hostile positions inland of Beirut. This is the first 16-inch shells
fired for effect anywhere in the world since New Jersey ended her time
on the gunline in Vietnam in 1969.

    On 8 February 1984, New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze
and Syrian positions in the Bekka Valley east of Beirut. Some 30 of
these massive projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post,
killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several
other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since
the Korean War.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It got sort of hard to justify the expense of keeping battleships in
the fleet when Spruance class destroyers carried more destructive
firepower (thanks to larger missile loadouts), had far smaller crews
and operating expenses, were better able to protect themselves from
threats from the air, and had anti-submarine capabilities. Not nearly
as impressive to look at, though.




--

Michael Cash

"I am sorry, Mr. Cash, but we are unable to accept your rap sheet in lieu of
a high school transcript."

                                Dr. Howard Sprague
                                Dean of Admissions
                                Mount Pilot College