‘Wouldn’t Want to Wait’ for 2nd, U.S. Commander Says : 1st Libya Missile Triggered Clash

Vice Adm. Frank B. Kelso II, commander of the 6th Fleet, said Wednesday that he gave the order to attack Libyan missile boats immediately after hostile forces fired their first missile at U.S. jets on Monday, setting off the confrontation at sea in the Gulf of Sidra.

“They committed a hostile act,” Kelso said. “I wouldn’t want to wait around for a second to shoot at me to find out what he was going to do, so I activated the first shot.”

One airman said simply: “America got shot at and that’s wrong and they paid the price for it.”

Outlines Battle

Kelso outlined the 16-hour battle, which began Monday, for a group of pool reporters who were flown to the aircraft carrier Saratoga as it steamed in the Mediterranean Sea about 130 miles north of what Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi has declared as the “line of death.”

The Saratoga is one of three carriers--the Coral Sea and the America are the others--taking part in the maneuvers that challenge Libya’s claim to territorial rights to the entire Gulf of Sidra, extending 200 miles from Libya at its widest point. The United States recognizes only the generally accepted 12-mile limit along the Libyan coast.

The carrier crew conducted regular flight operations between 8 p.m. Tuesday and noon Wednesday with F-14 Tomcat, A-6E Intruder and EA-6B Prowler attack planes and E-2C Hawkeye radar aircraft taking off and landing at regular intervals.

The commander and his aides said there had been no new clashes between U.S. and Libyan forces since 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, when Navy warplanes attacked a fifth and last Libyan target. Nor have any Libyan jets been intercepted in the area, they said.

Rear Adm. David Jeremiah, commander of Cruiser-Destroyer Group 8, said “a little bit of moving around” by patrol boats had been spotted within 12 miles of Libya’s coast.

Kelso said that although no missile had been fired from the surface-to-air missile site at Surt after it was damaged by U.S. forces, “my evaluation is that it’s probably been repaired, but I’m not sure.”

Libyan forces fired a total of six missiles Monday at U.S. naval aircraft, American officials reported. In retaliation, U.S. forces destroyed radar at a missile site at Surt, the former Wheelus Air Force Base, and attacked four Libyan missile boats.

Kelso said the boats were considered hostile because they were “closing to within their missile range, roughly 40 to 50 miles, of U.S. vessels. They have not done that since then.”

During the engagements with the Libyans “everything was perfectly controlled,” according to one of a group of half a dozen air crews permitted to talk to reporters on condition they not be identified by name or appearance.

Missile Attack Described

Describing what it is like to be the target of a missile attack, an airman said, “You can see a very bright ball of fire lifting off the ground” and growing steadily larger on the radar screen.

“It’s just sitting there coming at you very fast and you’ve got to do something about it,” a second airman said.

They said a pilot has from three seconds to three or four minutes to react. But one said, “There are cases when you might not even know the missile is coming. In that case you get hit.”

Kelso described the performance of the men of the 6th Fleet under attack as “first rate.”

“They did their job very well,” he said. “These kids have been flying around the clock--ships have been manned around the clock--not knowing whether they were going to be shot at, and I think they used very good judgment and operated very well.

“We haven’t had one aircraft incident or aircraft accident,” Kelso said. “It’s a fantastic record to put three carriers together and operate like that.”