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USS Saratoga Returns - 16April1986

USS Saratoga returned from a historic Med Cruise which lasted nearly eigth months. This cruise took Saratoga through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean, where the ship transited the equator twice. Each crossing of the equator resulted in a time honored ceremony known as the Shellback Ceremony. Those sailors who had not crossed the equator, which was most of the crew, were known as Pollywogs until they participated in the Shellback initiation. While in the IO, the ship made a port visit to Singapore, where the crew celebrated Christmas. The Singapore visit was the highlight port visit of the cruise. The ship departed Singapore and became the first super carrier to visit and moor pier side in Diego Garcia, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean which belongs to Great Britain. The ship was inport in Diego Garcia when it received orders to conduct a emergency sortie in support of a situation happening in the eastern Mediterranean. The Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro had been hijacked by terrorist, where they killed a US citizen Leon Klinghoffer while he was in his wheelchair (see the thumbnail). Saratoga was tasked to get to the Med in the shortest time possible. The US Government made arraignments with the Egyptian Government for the ship to blast through the Suez Canal, which meant that the Suez was closed to commercial traffic until Saratoga was back in the Med. Once Saratoga was in the Med, we launched F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft, as well as an E2-C Hawkeye for Command and Control support. Saratoga's aircraft found the terrorist in a 737 passenger plane trying to fly to Libya. They were forced to land in Sigonella, Sicily in Italy at the US Navy's air station. President Reagan made the historic comment, "You can run, but you can't hide!" A few months later, in March of 1986, Libya declared that the entire Gulf of Sidra was Libyan territorial waters and no ships were allowed to transit through it. The United States, along with the rest of the world, only recognize 12 nautical miles from the coast as their territorial waters. A US Navy task force was assembled to dispute Libya's claims. After it was said and done, two ships from Libya were sunk, two more were crippled, and several SAM sites were either disabled or destroyed. A week or two later, Saratoga made its way to its final port visit for this Med Cruise in Rota Spain. The USS Saratoga returned home to Mayport FL at 1100 on the 16th of April 1986.