The following are descriptions of naval and military Operations that Hassayampa
was involved in, as defined by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Dominic 
Operation Dominic was a series of 105 nuclear test explosions conducted in 1962 by the United States. Those conducted in the Pacific are sometimes called Dominic I. The blasts in Nevada are known as Dominic II. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to take advantage of the Soviet abandonment of the 1958-1961 test moratorium. Most of these shots were conducted with free-fall bombs dropped from B-52 bomber aircraft. Twenty of these shots were to test new weapons designs; six to test weapons effects; and several shots to confirm the reliability of existing weapons. The Thor missile was also used to loft warheads into near-space to conduct high altitude nuclear explosion tests; these shots were collectively called Operation Fishbowl.

Operation Dominic occurred during a period of high Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, since the Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion had occurred not long before. Nikita Khrushchev announced the end of a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing on August 30, 1961, and Soviet tests recommenced on 1 September, initiating a series of tests that included the detonation of the Tsar Bomba. President John F. Kennedy responded by authorizing Operation Dominic. It was the largest nuclear weapons testing program ever conducted by the United States, and the last atmospheric test series conducted by the U.S., as the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow the following year.

Operation Market Time 
Operation Market Time was the U.S. Navy's effort to stop troops and supplies from flowing by sea from North Vietnam to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was one of four Navy duties begun after the Tonkin Gulf Incident, along with Operation Sea Dragon, Operation Sealords and naval gunfire support.

When a trawler was intercepted landing arms and ammunition at Vung Ro Bay in northern Khanh Hoa Province on 16 February 1965 it provided the first tangible evidence of the North Vietnamese supply operation. This became known as the Vung Ro Bay Incident.

Navy destroyers, ocean minesweepers PCF's (Swift boats) and United States Coast Guard cutters performed the operation. Also playing a key role in the interdictions were the Navy's patrol gunboats (PGs). The PG was uniquely suited for the job because of its ability to go from standard diesel propulsion to gas turbine (jet engine) propulsion in a matter of a few minutes. The lightweight aluminum and fiberglass ships were not only fast but highly maneuverable because of their variable pitch propellers. Most of the ships operated in the coastal waters from the Cambodian border around the south tip of Vietnam up north to Da Nang. Supply ships from the Service Force, such as oilers, would bring mail, movies, and fuel.

Of the many vessels involved in Operation Market Time, one of the more notable was the USCGC Point Welcome (WPB-82329) which, on 11 August 1966, was brought under fire by a number of US Air Force planes. This incident of blue-on-blue killed two members of the cutter's crew (one of whom was the commanding officer) and wounded nearly everyone on board.

Operation Market Time was established by the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff after the 1965 Vung Ro incident to blockade the vast South Vietnam coastline against North Vietnamese gun-running trawlers. The trawlers, usually 100-foot-long Chinese-built steel-hulled coastal freighters, could carry several tons of arms and ammunition in their hulls. Not flying a national ensign that would identify them, the ships would maneuver "innocently" out in the South China Sea, waiting for the cover of darkness to make high-speed runs to the South Vietnam coastline. If successful, the ships would off load their cargoes to waiting Viet Cong or North Vietnamese forces.

To stop these potential infiltrations, Market Time was set up as a coordinated effort of long range patrol aircraft for broad reconnaissance and tracking. These aircraft, initially P-2V Neptunes and later P-3 Orions were armed with Bull Pup air to surface missiles and were therefore capable of engaging these craft directly. Under normal conditions, however U.S. and allied surface forces intercepted suspect ships that crossed inside South Vietnam's 12-mile coastal boundary. On the aviation side, some of the patrol squadrons that were involved and flying from South Vietnam, Thailand, or Philippine bases were: VP-1, VP-2, VP-4, VP-6, VP-16, VP-17, VP-26, VP-28, VP-40, VP-42, VP-46,VP-48, VP-49 and VP-50.

A significant action of Market Time occurred on Feb. 29-Mar 1, 1968, when the North Vietnamese attempted a coordinated infiltration of four gun-running trawlers. Two of the four trawlers were destroyed by allied ships in gun battles, one trawler crew detonated charges on board their vessel to avoid capture, and the fourth trawler turned tail and retreated at high speed into the South China Sea. LT Norm Cook, the patrol plane commander of a VP-17 P-2H Neptune patrol aircraft operating from Cam Ranh Bay, was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for discovering and following two of the four trawlers in the action.

Market Time, which operated day and night, fair weather and foul, for eight and a half years, succeeded in denying the North Vietnamese a means of delivering tons of war materials into South Vietnam by sea.

Operation Sealords 
Operation Sealords (SEALORDS is an acronym for Southeast Asia Lake, Ocean, River, and Delta Strategy) was a military operation that took place during the Vietnam War. Conceived by Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., it was a joint operation between U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. Sealords launched on October 8, 1968, and was intended to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines in and around the Mekong Delta. As a two-year operation, by 1971 all aspects of Sealords had been turned over to the South Vietnam Navy.

As U.S. forces prepared the South Vietnamese military to assume complete responsibility for the war, they also worked to keep pressure on the enemy. In fact, from 1968 to 1971, the allies exploited the Communists' staggering battlefield losses during the Tet attacks by pushing the enemy's large main force units out to the border areas, extending the government's presence into Viet Cong strongholds, and consolidating control over population centers.

The Navy in particular spearheaded a drive in the Mekong Delta to isolate and destroy the weakened Communist forces. The Sealords program was a determined effort by U.S. Navy, South Vietnamese Navy, and allied ground forces to cut enemy supply lines from Cambodia and disrupt operations at his base areas deep in the delta. It was developed by Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., appointed COMNAVFORV (Commander US Naval Forces Vietnam) in September 1968.

When Admiral Zumwalt launched Sealords in October 1968 with the blessing of the new COMUSMACV (Commander of US Military Assistance Command Vietnam), General Creighton Abrams, Allied naval forces in South Vietnam were at peak strength. The U.S. Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force operated 81 Swift boats, 24 Coast Guard WPBs, and 39 other vessels. The River Patrol Force deployed 258 patrol and minesweeping boats; the 3,700-man Riverine Assault Force counted 184 monitors, transports, and other armored craft; and Helicopter Attack Squadron Light (HAL) 3 flew 25 armed helicopters. This air component was soon augmented by the 15 fixed-wing OV-10 Bronco aircraft of Attack Squadron Light (VAL) 4, activated in April 1969. The lethal Bronco flown by the "Black Ponies" of VAL-4 carried 8 to 16 5- inch Zuni rockets, 19 2.75-inch rockets, 4 M-60 machine guns, and a 20-millimeter cannon. In addition, five SEAL platoons supported operations in the delta.

Complementing the American naval contingent were the Vietnamese Navy's 655 ships, assault craft, patrol boats, and other vessels. To focus the allied effort on the Sealords campaign, COMNAVFORV appointed his deputy, Rear Admiral William Hiram House, USN the operational commander, or "First Sealord," of the newly activated Task Force 194. Although continuing to function, the Game Warden, Market Time, and Riverine Assault Force operations were scaled down and their personnel and material resources increasingly devoted to Sealords. Task Force 115 PCFs mounted lightning raids into enemy-held coastal waterways and took over patrol responsibility for the delta's larger rivers. This freed the PBRs for operations along the previously uncontested smaller rivers and canals. These intrusions into former Viet Cong bastions were possible only with the on-call support of naval aircraft and the heavily armed riverine assault craft.

In the first phase of the Sealords campaign allied forces established patrol "barriers," often using electronic sensor devices, along the waterways paralleling the Cambodian border. In early November 1968, PBRs and riverine assault craft opened two canals between the Gulf of Siam at Rach Gia and the Bassac River at Long Xuyen. South Vietnamese paramilitary ground troops helped naval patrol units secure the transportation routes in this operational area, soon named Search Turn. Later in the month, Swift boats, PBRs, riverine assault craft, and Vietnamese naval vessels penetrated the Giang Thanh-Vinh Te canal system and established patrols along the waterway from Ha Tien on the gulf to Chau Doc on the upper Bassac. As a symbol of the Vietnamese contribution to the combined effort, the allied command changed the name of this operation from Foul Deck to Tran Hung Dao I. Then in December U.S. naval forces pushed up the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers west of Saigon, against heavy enemy opposition, to cut infiltration routes from the "Parrot's Beak" area of Cambodia. The Giant Slingshot operation, so named for the configuration of the two rivers, severely hampered Communist resupply in the region near the capital and in the Plain of Reeds. Completing the first phase of the Sealords program, in January 1969 PBRs, assault support patrol boats (ASPB), and other river craft established patrol sectors along canals westward from the Vam Co Tay to the Mekong River in Operation Barrier Reef. Thus, by early 1969 a patrolled waterway interdiction barrier extended almost uninterrupted from Tay Ninh northwest of Saigon to the Gulf of Siam.

Operation Earnest Will 
Operation Earnest Will (24 July 1987 - 26 September 1988) was the U.S. military protection of Kuwaiti owned oil tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988, three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War. It was the largest naval convoy operation since World War II.

The U.S. Navy warships that escorted the tankers, part of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, were the most visible part of the operation, but U.S. Air Force AWACS radar planes provided surveillance and Army special operations helicopters hunted for possible attackers.

In December 1986, the government of Kuwait asked the Reagan administration to send the U.S. Navy to protect Kuwaiti tankers. U.S. law forbade the use of Navy ships to escort civilian vessels under foreign flag, so the Kuwaiti ships were re-registered under U.S. flag.

Even before Earnest Will formally began, it became clear how dangerous Persian Gulf operations would be. On 17 May, an Iraqi warplane fired two Exocet missiles at the guided missile frigate USS Stark, killing 37 sailors and injuring 21. Iraqi officials said the targeting of the U.S. warship was accidental.

The USS Crommelin (FFG-37), USS Kidd (DDG-993), and USS Fox (CG-33) were the first U.S. Navy ships assigned to escort the Kuwaiti oil tankers. On the very first escort mission, on 24 July 1987, the Kuwaiti oil tanker al-Rekkah, re-flagged as the U.S. tanker Bridgeton, struck an Iranian mine damaging the ship, but causing no injuries. The Bridgeton proceeded under her own power to Kuwait, with the thin-skinned U.S. Navy escorts following behind to avoid mines.

On 15 October, the reflagged U.S. tanker Sea Isle City was struck while at anchor by an Iranian Silkworm missile, wounding 18. The U.S. Navy responded by destroying two Iranian oil platforms.

Earnest Will overlapped with Operation Prime Chance, a largely secret effort to stop Iranian forces from attacking Persian Gulf shipping. A dramatic moment of Prime Chance was the 21 September 1987 attack on the Iran Ajr, an Iranian ship converted for use as a minelayer. U.S. Army gunship crews used night-vision devices to watch the Iranian vessel lay several mines, then fired miniguns and rockets at it. A SEAL team and Special Boat Unit personnel landed aboard the vessel and seized it. Several Iranian sailors were rescued from the waters of the Persian Gulf after leaping overboard during the attack. EOD technicians from EOD Mobile Unit 5 scuttled the vessel the following day.

On 14 April 1988, the American frigate USS Copeland, while on patrol, encountered trouble with its primary missile launcher. The Samuel B. Roberts, assuming Copeland's patrol area, struck an Iranian mine and was badly damaged. Four days later, U.S. forces retaliated with a one-day attack on Iranian warships, armed speedboats, and oil platforms used as naval bases. Dubbed Operation Praying Mantis, it was the biggest engagement of surface warships since World War II. Two Iranian ships were destroyed, and two American pilots died when their helicopter crashed.

On 3 July 1988, USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300B2, over the Strait of Hormuz after mistaking it for an Iranian F-14. 290 people were killed.

These two side effects of Earnest Will — Praying Mantis and the downing of the airliner — helped convince Iran to agree to a ceasefire on 20 August 1988, ending its eight-year war with Iraq.

On 26 September 1988, USS Vandegrift escorted the last tanker of the operation to Kuwait.

Operation Nimble Archer 
Operation Nimble Archer was the October 19, 1987 attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's October 16, 1987 attack on the MV Sea Isle City, a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait, with a Silkworm missile. The action occurred during Operation Earnest Will, the effort to protect Kuwaiti shipping amid the Iran-Iraq War. In response, Iran filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice.

When the Sea Isle City set out for Nimble Archer, just three days before the initial operation, it was hit by an Iranian Silkworm missile launched from the Iranian occupied Al-Faw Peninsula. The missile struck the wheel house and crew quarters of the ship. The ship was not carrying oil at the time it was struck and was moving to be loaded. The ship's master, a US citizen, was blinded and a total of 18 crew members were wounded. Sea Isle City was in Kuwaiti waters and was no longer under the protection of US escort ships. Sea Isle City was heavily damaged by the missile and it took 4 months to repair the damage to the bridge and crew area.

The platforms, located in the Rashadat oil field (named Rostam oil field prior to 1979), were not producing oil, having been damaged by Iraq a year earlier.

Twenty minutes before the surface action group opened fire, USS Thach (FFG-43) radioed the platforms, telling the crews to abandon them. At 2 p.m., four U.S. warships opened fire: USS Hoel (DDG-13), USS Leftwich (DD-984), USS Kidd (DDG-993), and USS John Young (DD-973). One platform was boarded by U.S. special forces, who recovered teletype messages and other documents, then planted explosives to destroy the platform. Air cover was provided by USS William H. Standley (CG-32), two F-14 Tomcat fighters and an E-2 Hawkeye from USS Ranger (CV-61). The high-explosive shells did negligible blast damage to the steel-lattice platforms, but eventually set them ablaze. U.S. officials said the platforms were being used by Iranian forces as command-and-control posts with radars to track shipping in the area and communications gear to relay messages between the mainland and Iranian forces operating near the platforms. As well, U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said Iran used the facility to "launch small boat attacks against nonbelligerent shipping."

On November 2, 1992 Iran filed suit with the International Court of Justice, the legal salvo that began a decade of claims and counter-claims by the United States and Iran. On November 6, 2003 the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of neither party, saying that "the actions of the United States of America against Iranian oil platforms on October 19, 1987 (Operation Nimble Archer) and April 18, 1988 (Operation Praying Mantis) cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America." The Court also ruled that it, "...cannot however uphold the submission of the Islamic Republic of Iran that those actions constitute a breach of the obligations of the United States of America under Article X, paragraph 1, of that Treaty, regarding freedom of commerce between the territories of the parties, and that, accordingly, the claim of the Islamic Republic of Iran for reparation also cannot be upheld."

Operation Praying Mantis 
Operation Praying Mantis was an April 18, 1988 attack by U.S. naval forces in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf and the subsequent damage to an American warship.

On April 14, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine while deployed in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will, the 1987-88 convoy missions in which U.S. warships escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect them from Iranian attacks. The explosion opened a 25-foot hole in the Roberts's hull and nearly sank it. The crew saved their ship with no loss of life, and Roberts was towed to Dubai on April 16.

After the mining, U.S. Navy divers recovered other mines in the area. When the serial numbers were found to match those of mines seized along with the Iran Ajr the previous September, U.S. military officials planned a retaliatory operation against Iranian targets in the Persian Gulf.

This battle was the largest of the four major U.S. surface engagements since the Second World War, which also include the Action of 2 July 1950 during the Korean War, the Gulf of Tonkin incident during the Vietnam War and the Action in the Gulf of Sidra in 1986. It also marked the U.S. Navy's first exchange of anti-ship missiles by ships.

The attack by the U.S. helped pressure Iran to agree to a ceasefire with Iraq later that summer, ending the eight-year conflict between the Persian Gulf neighbors.

Operation Fiery Vigil 
Operation Fiery Vigil was the evacuation of all non-essential military and United States Department of Defense civilian personnel and their dependents from Clark Air Base and U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, during the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. This noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) operation resulted in the transfer of roughly 20,000 people from Clark Air Base and U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay back to CONUS, by way of Cebu, Philippines. The commanding general, 13th USAF, was in command of the Joint Task Force.

Operation Desert Shield 
One of the main concerns of the west was the significant threat Iraq posed to Saudi Arabia. Following the conquest of Kuwait, the Iraqi army was within easy striking distance of Saudi oil fields. Control of these fields, along with Kuwaiti and Iraqi reserves, would have given Hussein control over the majority of the world's oil reserves. Iraq also had a number of grievances with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had lent Iraq some 26 billion dollars during its war with Iran. The Saudis backed Iraq, as they feared the influence of Shia Iran's Islamic revolution on its own Shia minority (most of the Saudi oil fields are in territory populated by Shias). After the war, Saddam felt he should not have to repay the loans due to the help he had given the Saudis by stopping Iran.

Soon after his conquest of Kuwait, Hussein began verbally attacking the Saudi kingdom. He argued that the U.S.-supported Saudi state was an illegitimate and unworthy guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He combined the language of the Islamist groups that had recently fought in Afghanistan with the rhetoric Iran had long used to attack the Saudis.

Acting on the policy of the Carter Doctrine, and out of fear the Iraqi army could launch an invasion of Saudi Arabia, U.S. President George H. W. Bush quickly announced that the U.S. would launch a "wholly defensive" mission to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi Arabia under the codename Operation Desert Shield. "Operation Desert Shield" began on 7 August 1990 when U.S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia due also to the request of its monarch, King Fahd who had earlier called for U.S. military assistance. This "wholly defensive" doctrine was quickly abandoned, as On 8 August, Iraq declared Kuwait to be the 19th province of Iraq and Saddam Hussein named his cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majid as its military-governor.

The United States Navy mobilized two naval battle groups, the aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Independence and their escorts, to the area, where they were ready by 8 August. A total of 48 U.S. Air Force F-15s from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, landed in Saudi Arabia, and immediately commenced round the clock air patrols of the Saudi–Kuwait–Iraq border areas to discourage further Iraqi military advances. The U.S. also sent the battleships USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin to the region. Military buildup continued from there, eventually reaching 543,000 troops, twice the number used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Much of the material was airlifted or carried to the staging areas via fast sealift ships, allowing a quick buildup.

Operation Desert Storm 
The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), commonly referred to as the Gulf War, and also known as the First Gulf War, the Second Gulf War, by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, and commonly as Desert Storm for the military response, was the final conflict, which was initiated with United Nations authorization, by a coalition force from 34 nations against Iraq, with the expressed purpose of expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after its invasion and annexation on 2 August 1990.

The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought both immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces to Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the Coalition of the Gulf War. The great majority of the military forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Around US $40 billion of the US $60 billion cost was paid by Saudi Arabia.

The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial bombardment on 17 January 1991, this was followed by a ground assault on 23 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased their advance, and declared a cease-fire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on the border of Saudi Arabia. However, Iraq launched missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia. 

A day after the deadline set in Resolution 678, the coalition launched a massive air campaign, which began the general offensive codenamed Operation Desert Storm with more than 1,000 sorties launching per day. It began on 17 January 1991, at 2:10 am, Baghdad time, when Task Force Normandy (eight U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters led by two MH-53 Pave Low helicopters) of the U.S. Army destroyed Iraqi radar sites near the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian border which could have warned Iraq of an upcoming attack.