Historical Ironies: The USS Enterprise

There are many ironies about the present situation; I already noted Libya's place in the history of aerial bombing. With talk of establishing a possible no-fly zone (some of the issues involved are discussed here), one of the problems involved is that the US has no carrier group in the Mediterranean at this time. The one that was there, the USS Enterprise, is being transferred to an Indian Ocean deployment and is somewhere en route, perhaps in the Red Sea. A no-fly enforcement would need a carrier (though France, Italy and Spain could also provide carriers), and the nearest American one would be the Enterprise. It's the second oldest commissioned ship in the Navy and is scheduled for decommissioning. (It's actually the oldest operational ship: the oldest on the commissioned list is Old Ironsides. Enterprise, the first nuclear powered carrier, has been in service since 1961.)

If the Enterprise were to deploy off Libya, it would evoke memories of the first US vessel of that name, which played an important role in the First Barbary War. The picture above is of that original Enterprise capturing the Tripolitan corsair Tripoli off Malta on 1801. There have been many successor ships in the Navy to bear the name, and if Star Trek is any guide, will continue to be.

I have some doubts about how useful military power may be in this situation, and am not sure it's time to return to "the shores of Tripoli." But when I checked on what our nearest carrier group was, I was amused by the historical irony. A similar echo of the Barbary Wars occurred in 2009 when the USS Bainbridge, named for a hero of that war, engaged Somali pirates.

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