THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (December 28, 1814-January 3, 1815)

General Packenham’s Decision.

Major General Sir Edward Pakenham
(Courtesy National Park Service)

December 28

Three days after arriving in the swamps of Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta, British Major General Sir Edward Pakenham contemplates the mess his army is in.

When Pakenham arrives with 3,000 fresh troops at the British camp on Christmas Day, he is greeted with cheers and celebratory gunfire. But Pakenham also finds an army suffering from the winter cold and rains, in a soggy area with no tents between the river and a cypress swamp.

The Americans had surprised the British in their camp the night of the 23^rd, killing, wounding and capturing more than 200 redcoats, before they were driven back to the American lines. The camp is continuously shelled by two American ships anchored in the Mississippi across from the British camp. Snipers pick off British sentries, even at night when European military conventions and civility call for a nocturnal cessation of hostilities.

Pakenham calls a meeting of his officers, complains about the location of the camp and, without naming names, chides them for not advancing on New Orleans on the 23^rd instead of halting for the night and leaving themselves open to surprise attack. The two-day delay since that attack gives U.S. Major General Andrew Jackson much needed time to build up the defenses around New Orleans and organize his largely amateur army.

Pakenham wants to pull out and attack the city from a different point on the Chef Menteur Road (which was lightly guarded, although Pakenham didn’t know that.) But Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, the nominal commander of the entire army-navy operation, chides Pakenham, saying there is nothing wrong with the Army’s location.

“If the army shrinks from the attack here, I will bring up my sailors and marines from the fleet. We will storm the American lines and march into the city. Then the soldiers can bring up the baggage,” Cochrane says, in jab at Pakenham, according to noted historian Robert V. Remini, in his The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America’s First Military Victory.

Detail from a 1910 painting of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans
(Library of Congress)

Not one to back down, Pakenham decides to move on the Americans’ defensive line from his current position. He orders cannon placed on the riverbank to eliminate the two U.S. Navy ships. After one, the U.S.S. Carolina is set afire by heated British cannonballs and blows up, the second, the U.S.S. Louisiana, remains a threat even when driven farther upriver toward New Orleans by British cannon fire.

The Louisiana’s guns as well as those on the nearly mile-long U.S. defensive line paralleling the Rodriguez Canal– a dry ditch that runs into the Mississippi – will catch any attackers in a deadly crossfire.

On the evening of the 27^th, the British, formed into two brigades, drive off the American advance guard and march as far as Chalmette plantation – less than a mile from Andrew Jackson’s lines along the Rodriguez canal. The next morning, Pakenham orders his troops to advance. They get within 600 yards of the American defenses, when Jackson orders his men to open fire. Among the cannoneers are Jean Lafitte’s Baratarian pirates and sailors from the sunken U.S.S. Carolina. American cannon, musket and riflefire start to take a toll. The British reply with their own artillery as well as Congreve rockets. But Pakenham orders a general retreat. The Americans lose just 17 killed and wounded in this battle. The British, an estimated 152 killed, wounded or captured. The latest clash may be over, but the Battle of New Orleans is not.

COUNTER TERRORISM: Pakistan Crackdown; Air Strikes on ISIS/ISIL; al Shabab Leader Nabbed [UPDATE]

Islamabad Gets Tough.

Pakistan map via CIA World Factbook

Ten days after a Taliban attack on an army-run school that left 148 people dead – most of them children – Pakistan’s government is giving the military a blank check for two years to do whatever it takes to finish the country’s protracted battle with Islamic terrorists.

According to a McClatchy Newspapers website, the government response was broadened from the Taliban Movement of Pakistan — which has waged a bloody insurgency since July 2007 — to all jihadist and sectarian militants on Pakistani soil. That decision echoes Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s December 17 vow, not to differentiate between so-called “good and bad Taliban,” McClatchy reported.

The military’s nationwide campaign, launched in June with a massive offensive in Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas, is being closely watched by the United States and other countries to see whether it includes Pakistan-based militant groups that have repeatedly attacked neighboring Afghanistan and India, according to McClatchy.

On December 17 – the day after the Peshawar school massacre – Prime Minister Sharif ordered an end a to six-year moratorium on capital punishment. Pakistan’s interior ministry has approved the execution of 400 people convicted of terrorism offenses prior to 2008. In all, there more than 3,000 convicted terrorists on death row — all of whom are to be hanged. Six people have already been handed, the BBC reported.

An additional 6,000 suspected terrorists and their supporters have been targeted for arrest in the nationwide crackdown and summary trial in military courts.

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Strikes on ISIL/ISIS

Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft over Iraq, Oct. 30, 2014. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston)

The U.S. military and its allies carried out 12 airstrikes against ISIL/ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria on December 27, Reuters reported.

Six strikes near the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border destroyed Islamic State buildings, fighting positions and vehicles, according to the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve Public Affairs office.  In Iraq, targets including buildings, vehicles and an Islamic State refinery were hit in six strikes near Al Asad, Mosul, Falluja, Al Qaim and Baiji, it said.

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve — which aims to eliminate the ISIL/ISIS terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community.

Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In Syria, coalition airstrike partners include the United States, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Combined Join Task Force.

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Al Shabab Leader Captured

Authorities in Somalia say they have captured one of the most wanted commanders of the African Islamist terror group, al Shabab.

Zakariye Ismail Hersi was captured in a raid Saturday morning (December 26) in the town of El Wak near the border with Kenya, according to the Voice of America.

General Abbas Ibrahim Gurey, the commander of Somali government troops in the southern Gedo region, told VOA’s Somali service that authorities received a tip from members of the public that al-Shabab suspects were hiding in a house. Gurey said that Hersi was captured with his secretary and without a struggle.

In June 2012, the U.S. put a $3 million reward for the capture of Hersi, describing him as an associate of former al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane. Godane was killed in a U.S. airstrike in September.

Hersi’s capture comes after militants with the group, which is linked to al Qaeda, attacked a large African Union base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week (December 25). Three Ugandan soldiers and a civilian were killed, said CNN. Al-Shabaab has said that attack was revenge for the U.S. airstrike that killed Godane. The State Department had offered a $7 million reward for information on Godane’s location.

FRIDAY FOTO (December 26, 2014)

Holiday S.O.P.

U.S. Army photo

A soldier with a bike (and Christmas lights) tied to his back participates in a Toy Ruck March at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on December 18, 2014. During this holiday march, soldiers are encouraged to decorate their rucksacks and headgear for the holidays … and more than 600 toys were collected for distribution throughout the Fort Polk community.  This  soldier is assigned to the 94th Brigade Support Battalion.

If you are the photographer who took this photo (or know who did) please contact us in the comment section below or email us at: 4gwarblog@gmail.com so we can give credit where credit is due.

And, as you can see from the next photo, Toy Ruck Marches are conducted at several military installations across the nation.

Massachusetts National Guard photo by Sergeant Alfred Tripolone III

A plush toy snowman peeks from a rucksack of as Massachusetts Army National Guard soldiers participate an another toy ruck march sponsored by the 164th Transportation Battalion. The troops trekked  from the National Guard armory in Dorchester to Boston Children’s Hospital on December 18, 2014. The soldiers donated over 300 toys to the children’s hospital.

To see some more photos of the good deeds soldiers, Marines and airmen are doing in Alaska, California, Illinois, Japan and Liberia, this holiday season — click here.

 

AROUND AFRICA: China Troops to S. Sudan, Bombings in Nigeria, Ebola Deaths Climb

Peacekeepers.

South Sudan and its neighbors.
(CIA World Factbook)

China is sending a 700-man infantry battalion to South Sudan, its first combat-trained unit to serve in a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Previous Chinese peacekeepers were mainly engineer, transportation, medical service and security units, according to Xinhua news service.

The unit includes 121 offices and 579 soldiers – 43 members of the battalion have participated in peacekeeping missions before, according to Xinhua. The first 180 soldiers will fly to South Sudan in January. The rest of the unit will travel by air and sea in March.

The battalion will be equipped with drones, armored infantry carriers, anti-tank missiles, mortars, light weapons and other equipment “completely for self-defense purposes,” Commander Wang Zhen said.

China currently has more than 2,000 peacekeepers serving in conflict zones around the world. The U.N. has more than 11,000 peacekeepers in oil-rich South Sudan, which won its independence from Sudan in 2011. Fighting broke out a year ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

Fighting in the capital, Juba – one of the fastest growing cities in the world – set off a series of retaliatory massacres that have claimed thousands of lives and driven the country to the brink of famine, according to The Guardian news site.

A 2011 report by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Saferworld, found that, despite stated neutrality, China is gradually using diplomatic means to push for the resolution of certain conflicts, according to The Guardian. The report also said China is becoming both a major supplier of conventional arms in Africa and has increased its contributions to U.N. peacekeeping missions since 2000 – most of them based in Africa.

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Bus Stop, Market Bombings.

At least 26 people have been killed in bombings in two major cities in northern Nigeria, the BBC reported. Twenty were killed at a bus stop in Gombe, while six more died in an explosion at a market in Bauchi.

Nigeria
(CIA World Factbook map)

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the militant Islamist group Boko Haram is waging an insurgency in the area, the BBC noted.

Meanwhile, a video purportedly released by Boko Haram shows dozens of people being executed at a school dormitory. There is no independent confirmation that Boko Haram produced the video. It is unclear where or when it was shot.

But the video bears Boko Haram’s insignia and shows gun-wielding men chanting “Allah is great” and speaking in the Kanuri language associated with the group’s fighters, says BBC Nigeria analyst Jimeh Saleh.

Meanwhile, Cameroon’s military said it had dismantled a training camp run by Boko Haram near its border with north-eastern Nigeria. Soldiers captured 45 trainers and 84 children between the ages of seven and 15 who were undergoing training, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, Lieutenant Colonel Didier Badjecks, told the Reuters news agency.

Despite a strong military presence, Nigeria’s Boko Haram continues to strike targets in northern Cameroon, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, seeking to create an Islamic state in the region.

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Ebola Roundup

The World Health Organization says the Ebola death toll in in West Africa has risen to more than 7,500, the Voice of America reported.

And the number of cases is nearing 20,000 according to the WHO’s latest data posted on Monday.

The new numbers show Liberia and Guinea with a decrease in the rate of Ebola transmissions, while Sierra Leone’s cases continue to rise. Those three West African countries account for almost all the Ebola deaths.

The death toll in other countries remains the same with six deaths in Mali, eight in Nigeria, and one in the United States. Spain and Senegal have had one case each, but no deaths.

 

 

THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (December 21-December 27, 1814)

Surprise Attack.

U.S. forces, including Choctaw Indians and Free Men of Color, battle British troops in a surprise night attack in the fog south of New Orleans.
(U.S. Army Center of Military History)

December 23

Scouts inform U.S. Army Major General Andrew Jackson that British troops are marching from Lake Borgne to New Orleans and he heads South with two under strength U.S. Army infantry regiments, the 7th and 44th, 1,000 Tennessee and Mississippi state militia, 300 New Orleans volunteers, a rifle company of about 60 sharpshooters, a battalion of free black men and 28 Choctaw Indians warriors — about 2,000 in all. Jackson also orders the 230-ton schooner, U.S.S. Carolina mounting 14 cannon, to sail down the Mississippi River to the bank opposite where about 1,900 British troops are camped for the night. In the growing darkness the British think the Carolina is one of their own ships, allowing it to get within range.

Jackson decides to launch a night attack as fog rolls in, vowing the British “shall not sleep on our soil tonight.” At 7:30 p.m. the Carolina opens up on the British camp, sending the troops scattering in confusion. Next, Jackson’s troops open fire with muskets and rifles, killing several British soldiers. Units on both sides dissolve in the fog and confusion as small groups fight desperate hand-to-hand battles with swords, bayonets, knives, fists and muskets used as clubs.

After the fighting ceases, the Americans discover they have lost 213 killed and wounded, while the British count more than 260 killed and wounded in the nearly four-hour battle.

December 24

On Christmas Eve, British reinforcements arrive before dark by row boats that have traveled 36 miles from Pea Island in Lake Borgne to a strip of land between the bayous, in cold rainy weather. The invasion force now totals nearly 6,000. They have no tents to shield them from the dispiriting weather. Two West Indian regiments without winter clothing lose about 100 men — dead and gravely sick — to the elements. The acting commander, Major General John Keane, decides to wait for the new commander, Lieutenant General Sir Edward Pakenham to arrive. Pakenham finally catches up with his command, the next day, Christmas 1814.

The American army withdraws to a new position about 10 miles from New Orleans on the Mississippi River behind the Rodriguez Canal, a ditch four feet deep and 10 feet wide that runs at a right angle about three-quarters of a mile from the Mississippi to a cypress swamp. Jackson orders his men to dredge and deepen the ditch and use the debris to build a rampart of the side closest to New Orleans. Slaves are sent out from the city o do much of the dirty work and spare the soldiers’ energy for the fighting to come. Like so many civil engineering projects in the early days of the Republic, the defenses of New Orleans rested largely on the labor of men who were not free.

Meanwhile, 4,800 miles (7,725 kilometers) away, British and American peace negotiators have reached agreement on ending the war.  The Treaty of Ghent essentially returns things to how they were before Congress declared war on Britain, the legal term is status quo ante bellum. No mention is made of the impressment of seamen from U.S. ships, on of the key catalysts of the war. The British relinquish their plans for an Indian buffer state between the Old Northwest (today’s Upper Midwest) and British holdings in Canada. The United States did not conquer Canada and Great Britain did not hem in the United States between the Atlantic and the Mississippi.

In the painting below, Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, the head British negotiator, shakes hands with his opposite number, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Quincy Adams.

A 1914 painting by Amedee Forestier illustrates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent between Great Britain and the United States, Dec. 24, 1814.
(Courtesy Library and Archives Canada-via Parks Canada, Historica Dominion Institute and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society)

December 27

Pakenham orders eight cannon and a heavy mortar brought up and emplaced on the riverbank opposite the Carolina, which has continuously bombarded the British . Shortly after 7 a.m., the guns  fire with heated shot to set the pesky schooner afire. Most of the ship’s crew are pirates/smugglers from Jean Lafitte’s stronghold in Barataria Bay east of New Orleans, which is a bit ironic since the Carolina demolished Lafitte’s base in September, when the Americans feared the pirates would join forces with the British.

After two rounds of cannon fire, the Carolina catches fire. The captain orders the crew to abandon ship and at 9:30 a.m. the ship blows up. Built in Charleston, South Carolina and commissioned in June 1813, the Carolina spent her short service years based in New Orleans — patrolling the Gulf against the British and chasing pirates in the Caribbean. Her loss leaves only the smaller U.S.S. Louisiana to block access to New Orleans via the twisting Mississippi.

Jackson orders the Louisiana — farther up river but still within range of the British guns — to be moved, but the wind and current made sailing upriver impossible. So 100 Baratarian pirates rowed out to the stranded vessel, attached hawsers to the Louisiana while under fire and hauled her to safety. Only on cannon ball struck the ship’s deck.

British Advance on New Orleas
(Map: U.S. Military Academy, Department of History)

 

FRIDAY FOTO (December 17, 2014)

Airpower.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Alexander Guerrero)

This is what U.S. strategy planners are talking about when they discuss projecting power.

Twenty-four big U.S. Air Force cargo airplanes prepare to take off Dec. 6, 2014, from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas in support of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School’s Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 14B. This gathering of eagle includes 11 C-130H Hercules and 13 C-130J Super Hercules heavy lift aircraft.  The C-130H models are from various Air National Guard units and the C-130J models are from the 317th Airlift Group at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

In addition to the C-130s, the JFEX included approximately 20 C-17 Globemaster IIIs and various other aircraft.

 

EYE ON LATIN AMERICA: Cuba-U.S. Deal

Cold War Frozen?

Cuba in the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico region.
(CIA World Factbook)

The United States and Cuba are ending more than 50 years of suspicion and hostility with both countries agreeing to resume diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday (December 17).

There are many angles to this story, good news for banks and maybe American automakers and U.S. antique car collectors and connoisseurs of fine rum and Cuban cigars — and baseball, don’t forget baseball.

But here we’re wondering what the security implications are. Will Venezuela lose another supporter in Latin America? Will Russia? And will this aid the war on drugs? Last year, at a Countering Transnational Organized Crime conference in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. Marine Corps General John F. Kelly, the head of U.S. Southern Command, said one of the biggest ideological opponents of the United States in the Western Hemisphere was also one of the biggest allies in the war against illegal narcotics.

Kelly noted that nearly all the navies and maritime police units of U.S.-friendly nations in the region are cooperating in the battle against drug trafficking “but of all the partners we deal with, the Nicaraguans are probably our most effective allies in Central America,” even though “we don’t like them and they don’t like us.”

Despite the political and ideological differences between the two countries, Kelly said he wanted to “give a shout out” to the Nicaraguan Coast Guard and Navy for their aggressive policing of the littoral (shallow)  waters, which forces drug dealers out on to the open sea where they are more vulnerable to U.S. surveillance.

ARCTIC NATION: Denmark’s Polar Claim

The Cold Rush is “On”.

The Greenland ice sheet.
(NSASA photo by Michael Studinger)

Denmark has joined a growing number of countries in the Far North laying claim to at least a part of the North Pole and surrounding region.

In a statement issued Tuesday (December 16) by Copenhagen, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced that the Kingdom of Denmark together with the government of Greenland (formerly a Danish colony) would file a submission with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf “to define the outer limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.

“The submission of our claim to the continental shelf north of Greenland is a historic and important milestone for the Kingdom of Denmark. The objective of this huge project is to define the outer limits of our continental shelf and thereby – ultimately – of the Kingdom of Denmark. It has been a process characterised by the very good cooperation not only between authorities within the Kingdom of Denmark but also with our Arctic neighbours,” the statement said in part.

At stake are rights to fishing areas and maritime commerce transit lanes in the Far North now that climate change has ben steadily melting Arctic sea ice. but also the prospect of huge petroleum, natural gas and other minerals. As much as 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of the is estimated to lie beneath Arctic waters.

All countries’ borders currently end 200 nautical miles from their coasts in the Arctic, leaving a vast patch of land owned by nobody. Denmark is following Norway, Russia and Canada in submitting a claim under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to a portion of the Arctic, according to the Financial Times.

The five Arctic countries — the United States, Russia, Norway, Canada and Denmark — all have areas surrounding the North Pole, but only Canada and Russia had indicated an interest in it before Denmark’s claim, according to the Associated Press.

Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told the AP that the Arctic nations so far “have stuck to the rules of the game” and he hoped they would continue to do so. In 2008, the five pledged that control of the North Pole region would be decided in an orderly settlement in the framework of the United Nations, and possible overlapping claims would be dealt with bilaterally.

Map of Denmark’s polar claim (black lines) and the Lomonosov Ridge in green.
(Map courtesy of Kingdom of Denmark)

The area Denmark is claiming consists o approximately 895,541 kilometers beyond the 200 nautical mile limit, 200 nm from the coast of Greenland. The focus of the dispute, according to the BBC,  is the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,800km-long (1,120 miles) underwater mountain range that splits the Arctic in two [see map].

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ARCTIC NATION is an occasional 4GWAR posting on the Arctic. The U.S. “National Strategy for the Arctic Region” describes the United States as “an Arctic Nation with broad and fundamental interests in the Arctic Region, where we seek to meet our national security needs, protect the environment, responsibly manage resources, account for indigenous communities, support scientific research, and strengthen international cooperation on a wide range of issues.”

(Polar bears explore a surfaced U.S. submarine in the Arctic. U.S. Navy photo. For a better look, click on the image to enlarge)

THIS WEEK in the War of 1812 (December 14-December 20, 1814)

Prelude to New Orleans.

U.S. Navy gunboats battle scores of oar-powered Royal Navy barges on Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
Painting by Thomas Horbrook courtesy of U.S. Naval Academy via Wikipedia.

Most Americans know little about the War of 1812, except, maybe for the Battle of New Orleans – thanks to two movies (in the 1930s and the 1950s) and the popular song recorded by Johnny Horton in 1959.

“The Battle of New Orleans” was written by Jimmy Driftwood, an Arkansas high school history teacher in 1936, to make learning history more palatable for his students. But at 4GWAR we’ve come to learn that there was no single battle of New Orleans but a series of engagements on land and water between mid-December 1814 and early January 1815.

This week’s post marks the bicentennial of the first engagement, on the swampy waters of Louisiana’s Lake Borgne (thanks to years of erosion, a lagoon now instead of a lake).

December 14

The Americans spot British warships just outside Lake Borgne southeast of New Orleans on December 13. Entry to the lake is guarded by five small U.S. Navy ships — gunboats really — with the awe-inspiring names of Number 5, Number 23, Number 65, Number 162 and Number 163. They are manned by less than 200 sailors under the command of Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones. The lake waters are too shallow to accommodate the 50 warships of the British fleet which arrived a few days previously from Jamaica. So the British pile 1,200 sailors and Royal Marines into 45 longboats and barges, most armed with a cannon in the bow, and row furiously at Catesby Jones’ flotilla.

The lieutenant orders his tiny fleet to withdraw to the Western side of the lake to block a channel into Lake Pontchartrain and lure the British boats under the guns of a small U.S. strongpoint, Fort Petites Coquilles. But in the early hours of December 14, the wind dies and the ebb tide pushes the Americans the wrong way, leaving them becalmed as the faster moving longboats and barges approach.

Map of Battle of Lake Borgne
(Courtesy of National Park Service)

Beyond the protective range of the Fort Petite Coquilles’ guns, Catesby Jones decides to fight anyway. His U.S. ships open fire around 11 a.m., taking a heavy toll on the open boats, which are firing back. Eventually the British swarm the American ships, clamber aboard and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, capture all five ships. The Americans suffer six killed and 35 wounded (including Catesby Jones). The toll is even greater for the British: 94 killed and wounded.

The British are now even closer to New Orleans, although the 8,000-man attack force will have to be ferried by rowboats from the entrance of Lake Borgne some 36 miles to the far Western shore where a makeshift British base is set up in an unhealthy, marshy area for the big push against New Orleans about 15 miles away.

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With the loss of the Lake Borgne flotilla, Major General Andrew Jackson has lost his “eyes” on the lake approaches to New Orleans. But that same day, he receives word from Major General William Carroll that he is in Natchez (Mississippi Territory) heading for New Orleans with about 3,000 Tennessee militia and 1,400 muskets and ammunition. He is accompanied by more than 100 Mississippi dragoons under Major Thomas Hinds. On December 20, Brigadier John Coffee arrives from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with some 1,200 mounted infantry. Carroll’s troops arrive the next day. It’s beginning to look like Jackson will have enough troops to hold off the British after all.

Please click on the photos to see a larger image.

FRIDAY FOTO (December 12, 2014)

Big Boat, Big Mission.

(U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen)

An MH60-S Sea Hawk helicopter takes off from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) as part of at-sea training. Anchorage participated in the first Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) for the NASA Orion program. As you can see from the photo below, the training paid off.

EFT-1 is the fifth at-sea testing of the Orion crew module using a Navy ship’s well deck (the garage-like opening in the Anchorage’s stern) for recovery of the spacecraft that someday will take humans to Mars. The Sea Hawk is assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8.

Navy divers attach recovery lines to the Orion spacecraft crew module in the Pacific Ocean, Dec. 5, 2014. The lines were used to guide the capsule into the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage.
(U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Paul Seeber )

Please click on the photos to enlarge the image. And before we start getting mail from all the Navy types out there: Yes, we know the Anchorage is a “ship” not a “boat.” Your 4GWAR editor was just exercising a little “alliterative license” in this post’s headline.