European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 4, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday february 4,1937 columns James j. Kalpa track Nova Power on Parade in Mediterranean in the Mediterranean the Little town of Augusta ii somewhat South of Catania on the East coast of Sicily. Relatively peaking it u not even picturesque. Apart from its Petroleum refineries it has nothing much lore commend it to anyone but on a. Recent tuesday it served a splendid purpose for vice adm Kendall Moranville. He wanted to Send a message. Specifically the Admiral wanted to tend a message to Libya s col.  was a message no Man could fail to understand. Toward that end Moran Ville out together two Battle groups of the6th Fleet and a dozen supporting ships and ordered them to rendezvous off Augusta. A Little after noon on this partic ular tuesday they All came steaming in old timer in the Fleet told me they could remember nothing quite like it since world War ii. The snips formed into three columns each of them 10miles Long. Moranville s flagship the guided missile Cruiser Belknap headed the Center column. One by one the warships came out of a hazy horizon 35ships in a silent As shadows slipping into port on a slate Blua sea. Moranville s purpose was to Send a Anthony Lewis message not of a perception or Power Oran image of Power but rather of the real Ity of Power. The Anchorage at Augusta was pan of a week of exhausting exercises by the two Battle groups. One group headed by the aircraft Carrier Kennedy was finishing its six month our of duly the other group headed by the Carrier Nimitr was just arriving. Moranville wanted Qadhafi and the Ever present soviets to get a Good Long look at the . Navy in action. It was impressive. This correspondent had applied last autumn Tor permission to spend a week with the 6th Fleet. The permission come through inline for me to witness the climactic visit to Augusta. It was an overwhelming experience. Our Navy s task in the Mediterranean is twofold first to protect our own National interest in keeping these vital sea lanes open second to meet our commitments to the North Atlantic treaty organization. Both assignments Are being met superbly. The Carrier Kennedy commanded by capt. John a. Moriarty is a floating City inhabited by 6,000 officers and enlisted men. By the end of the week they were 6,000 weary men. Over a Span of three Days while aircraft were being launched and recovered Moriarty managed to get four hours of sleep. He was not  air Boss cmdr. . Bourland of san Diego a 21 year Veteran was As Active. So too were the hundreds of deck personnel who got the Birds off and brought the pilots Home. Life on an aircraft Carrier is tuned to an eerie orchestration to the rolling Thun Der of the catapults As they fling the planes off the Stem to the Rushing thump and whack of the steel cables As they snare the planes Corning in. It is dangerous work. An aircraft shot from a catapult goes from Zero to 170 Miles per hour in 100 feel the pro Cess takes 1,5 seconds. The returning plane comes in at speeds up to i so Miles per hour and shudders to a Stop in one second. This correspondent has now been catapulted once and landed once and it has done won Ders for his morale but Little for his Diges Tion. The exercises saw the Kennedy operating around the clock. Daylight operations Are sufficiently Complex. Land ing on a Carrier by night is like finding a postage stamp in a parking lot. There is not much deck in a vast sea bul the operations go smoothly. Meanwhile below decks the unseen and Unsung activities go on. Twenty thousand meals have to t e prepared every Day there i laundry to be done and uniforms to be repaired he sick must be treated mail must be handled equipment must con stantly be checked and replaced. In some ways life on a ship at the line has changed Little since the Days of lord Nelson. Enlisted personnel sleep when Ever they can sleep deep in the bowels of the ship. Their bunks Are maybe 22 inches wide stacked three deep with perhaps a foot of headroom All of a Sailor s worldly goods must be stowed in a tiny locker. Privacy is unknown. On an Ordi nary Day a Sailor works 12 hours plus four hours on watch. During Maneu vers he May be called to quarters at any time. Men arc separated from their families for months on end. Mail Call Means More than most of us can imagine. Despite the hardships the sea seems still to hold its old allure. The Navy continues to attract top night recruits who tolerate loneliness and thrive on danger. It s a proud service. The taxpayers ought to be proud of it. Be Syf Lyttal Iron arms Deal deeply damaged . Interests in searching through the obscurities of the Iran affair we Are in danger of overlooking the obvious. So it seems to one resuming to the United states after several weeks abroad away from the Iran Story. The obvious is this the policy carried out by presi Dent Reagan and his collection of while House aides Freebo Oters and foreign Mancu veers was and is a disaster u has done and is Hill doing deep humiliating damage to the interests of the United states and of a decent world. Terrorism has been emboldened by the Reagan policy. More americans Are held hostage by terrorist gangs in Lebanon today than Ever before and More innocent human beings of other nationalities now the iranians have detained an american correspondent Gerald f. Set of the Wall Street journal whom they had invited to visit. We will never Deal with  that was Ron Ald Reagan s line. But he did offering arms for hos tages and obsessively pursuing a Deal in the Teeth of failure. Everyone knows it and his word on terrorism America s word for the moment is Worth Noth ing. Slate supported terrorism is a particular evil in our View. But . Condemnation is so devalued now that Iran docs not bother to conceal its support for terror ism. The speaker of the iranian parliament said Las week that the lebanese were justified in hostage taking and other terrorist acts because they were so ignored and so  he was the very Man with who Reagan s agents tried to Deal the one they identified As a  Secretary of stale George Shutlz said out loud that Iran had very Strong tics to the group thai recently kidnapped tour professors in Beirut. But then Shutlz had seen the iranian link All along Ard called the approach to Iran a perverse idea. But Shutlz s warning was rejected and he was then excluded and lied to so the policy could go Forward. Reagan went so far Aslo make the amazing statement last nov. 13, that Iran had not been connected to terrorism against americans for 18 months. The Reagan policy has had a second effect potentially As serious As the emboldening of terrorists. That is to strengthen Iran s War Effort against Iraq. The latest iranian offensive begun Las month had considerable Success in in opening phase threatening the iraqi port cil of Basra. And some military analyst say thai equipment supplied in the Reagan operations played a significant role in that Success. The arms shipped by the Reagan administration bit year included 2,000 anti Lank missiles and Many or  know Tsumo Ulm k Here. I know i m ,Sflf-5ewln 5cuwm und�., fut1hh a fire won at frs i set Eurof b0rjt? gently needed spare parts for anti aircraft missiles. Re ports of the fighting in Iraq last month said that Iran showed greatly improved capability in anti tank and Ami aircraft warfare. If the iranians were Able to press their offensive and Lake Basra the fail of the iraqi regime might fallow. Then revolutionary Iran would be at the Gates of saudi Arabia and the smaller states of the persian Gulf with the most threatening consequences far the West. Perhaps with that Prospect in mind Peagan has sent . Navy ships to the persian Gulf Are they going to do something to Correct the Reagan North poin Sciler till toward Iran is there anything left in american policy to Lake seriously one other phenomenon strikes an observer return ing to the Iran affair. That is the response Corning from certain segments of the political right namely that president must have the Power Load covertly and decisively in foreign affairs without being Hami rung by accountability to Congress and the people a chorus of Neo conservatives has been saying that America cannot play its necessary role in the world unless the president has such Power. Then last week. Vice president George Bush said the Constitution was designed to Lei a president achieve his goals abroad secretly if necessary. Congress he said should not try to regulate the conduct of foreign policy generally and Covert actions  what those conservatives want to do is to take the example of a disaster and entrench it in the american system. They want mistakes to go uncorrected Lofes Ter. They want to forget our history our Law. But that is another Story. For today it is enough to remember that the president and conspiratorial colleague have wounded this country. Nowls in the   it Del a of a 01 m a Floc l and h v a i Ott Mami sir jut Lam of flu