USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea – Last month Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 sailed through the Strait of Hormuz aboard aircraft carrier USS En­terprise one month after leaving its homeport of Norfolk, Va. Iran has recently had the intention to control the amount of transits through their territorial waters and the Strait of Hormuz.

“By sailing through the strait aboard a United States warship, we are demonstrating that we will continue to maintain free­dom of navigation and will support our allies in the gulf while deterring pos­sible enemies who may want to close the Strait of Hormuz and impact the economies around the world,” said the Carrier Strike Group 12 Command Master Chief Michael Manning.

The strait, also known as the world oil transit chokepoint, is part of the international waterway connecting the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. Any vessel, regardless of host nation, can use the inter­national waterway.

The carrier is supporting maritime security opera­tions in the United States’ 5th and 6th Fleet area of responsibility before be­coming decommissioned later this year after more than 50 years of service.

The USS Enterprise faced many potential dan­gers during its transit such as; collisions with other ships due to high traffic, fog, surface-to-air threats, air-to-air threats and sur­face-to-surface threats.

Carrier Air Wing 1 air­craft aboard the Enterprise were employed to provide aerial support during the difficult conditions.

“Navy and Marine Corps aviation platforms on an aircraft carrier collectively train to protect our assets and to be proficient in combat scenarios,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Miller, VMFA-251 executive of­ficer and native of Lapeer, Mich. “The beauty of a carrier is being able to go where our nation needs us to show foreign diplomacy or force projection.”

Appropriate vigilant posts and extra navigation details were used due to the restrictive maneuver­ing environment and to provide standard defen­sive precautions.

“It was a simple freedom of navigation and opera­tion, not a prelude of war and service members aboard the USS Enter­prise should feel a sense of pride because we did our job safely and expedi­tiously as military mem­bers carrying out a part of the nation’s mission,” con­cluded Manning, a Wind­ham, Maine native.

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