14 January 1991 - Captain Ernest E. Christensen, Jr.'s Address
to the crew of USS Ranger and Air
Wing Two
Recorded in VF-1 Personnel Office by PN2 Robert David Graham
As we round the corner and start heading into southwest
into the Gulf itself, we'll enter out of the Silkworm threat, and yet remain in
the condition I told you about earlier today, Readiness Condition One.
We received on board a message here not too long ago,
which placed this particular area of the world, by the President, CENTCOMM,
under what is called Defense Condition Two. It is meaning that hostilities, if
not imminent are probably imminent. I don't know if that's a very good
definition for you, but we normally exist in DEFCON Four worldwide, and
worldwide the US is still in DEFCON Four. This area of the world is in DEFCON
Two, and it is gone to DEFCON Two in preparation for hostilities as a result of
our impending meeting the deadline that was imposed by the UN Resolution.
It would be
anticipated that as we reach hostilities we would
slide into what is called DEFCON One. So, when I told you last night that we
would not be calling GQ's away very often saying, "This is a drill, this is a
drill," I did say that we would call 'em away for real. And when I tell you that
we're in DEFCON Two, here in this area, this is for real.
I'll let you know as things transpire. You probably know,
if you're able to see the flashes on TV on channel six, on CNN News -- and we're
still working to get that darn satellite working right -- you've probably
maintained as much of an up to date picture of what's going on as I have. This
morning I picked up, turned on channel six on CNN and found out that the Ranger
was in the North Arabian Sea. So the CNN network, the intelligence network is
alive and well.
If you have a chance to get up on the flightdeck and look
around, if the visibility improves, love to have ya out there and see a little
bit of history out here. We'll be rounding the corner here in a couple, in an
hour, an hour and a half or so, and then heading southwest towards our modloc,
our modified location for operations for the next, few weeks.
I'll talk to ya again a little bit this afternoon when we
clear the area, for the time being though that's all.
We received on board a message here not too long ago,
which placed this particular area of the world, by the President, CENTCOMM,
under what is called Defense Condition Two. It is meaning that hostilities, if
not imminent are probably imminent. I don't know if that's a very good
definition for you, but we normally exist in DEFCON Four worldwide, and
worldwide the US is still in DEFCON Four. This area of the world is in DEFCON
Two, and it is gone to DEFCON Two in preparation for hostilities as a result of
our impending meeting the deadline that was imposed by the UN Resolution.