SAN CLEMENTE : Trying to Make Practice Perfect
Navy and Marine Corps teams are conducting joint exercises off the coast at San Clemente as part of “Kernal Blitz ’95.”
The teams are demonstrating how to carry out amphibious landings and conduct war games.
More than 12,000 sailors and Marines are taking part in the four days of exercises.
Navy Seals and Marines demonstrated how to take over a “hostile” ship suspected of violating United Nations sanctions.
About 65 armed U.S. servicemen stormed the Roanoke, a 658-foot replenishment oiler that acted as a commercial tanker during the exercise.
The demonstration showed how the military intercepts vessels in the Arabian Gulf when the ship’s crew refuses to let U.S. personnel aboard to inspect cargo suspected of violating U.N. sanctions.
Officials said that 99% of the time, a ship’s crew complies with requests to allow U.S. military personnel aboard, but it always pays to practice for that other 1%.
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