USS DOLPHIN vs. ECHO

Despite human slavery being a way of life in the antebellum American south, official US policy forbade trafficking in slaves as early as 1807.  On 3 March 1819 Congress granted President James Monroe the authority to use the Navy to suppress the slave trade, and a year later the Africa Squadron was formed to patrol the waters off West Africa.  But the effort fizzled in three years when attentions turned to combating piracy in the Caribbean.  The issue was revived with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with England of 9 August 1842.  This treaty pledged both nations to maintain naval squadrons off West Africa to police their own nation’s slave trade.  Once again, the effort was greeted by our Navy with un-enthusiasm.  The fitting-out of slavers was a profitable business in New York and the slave trade underpinned the southern economy.  Enforcement by the Africa Squadron was lax, and soon slavers of all nations learned to fly our national ensign to avoid interdiction.

This is not to say our Navy was completely complacent about the slave trade.  On 1 June 1858 LT John Newland Maffitt was given command of our 10-gun brig USS DOLPHIN.  Fresh out of refit, the 224-ton, 88-foot sail brig was a veteran of our slave suppression efforts.  Maffitt’s orders were to return her to the Caribbean and there seek out and intercept slavers.  For nearly three months Maffitt cruised, until sighting a sail running west between Sagua la Grande and Cardenas, Cuba, this day.

Neither ship showed any colors, but this vessel was acting suspiciously–loitering off the coast as if looking for a safe place to land.  DOLPHIN approached, ran up false British colors and fired two blank cartridges as a signal to the other to raise her colors.  The American flag quickly appeared on the curious ship’s masthead.  Still suspicious, Maffitt ran up his true colors and fired one, then another, shot across her bows.  When she failed to luff, a third shot through her main topsail forced compliance.

USMC 1^st LT Joseph M. Bradford’s boarding party found her to be Echo, unable to produce any papers as to her nationality.  Below decks were found 318 Africans, chained like cargo onto makeshift decks only 44″ high.  Passed Assistant Surgeon John M. Browne had his hands full as many were near death.  Maffitt placed LT Charles C. Carpenter in command of this prize and sent her to Charleston.  There the Africans boarded the steam frigate USS NIAGARA, 12, who sailed for Africa on 20 September.  Only 199 of the former slaves survived to be repatriated in the new nation of Liberia, a nation that had been founded by the United States expressly for the re-settlement of slaves.  News of the action spread nation-wide and propelled Maffitt to prominence.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  26 AUG 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Capture of a Slave Brig, with over Three Hundred Africans.”  New York Times, 30 August 1858.  AT: http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1858/08/30/78860493.html, retrieved 2 August 2014.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 284-85.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 81.

Robinson, William Morrison, Jr.  The Confederate Privateers.  Reprint of 1928 publication, Columbia, SC:  Univ of South Carolina Press, 1994, pp. 59-60.

Shingleton, Royce Gordon.  High Seas Confederate: The Life and Times of John Newland Maffitt.  Athens, GA: Univ of Georgia Press, 1979, pp. 26-27.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 35-36, 44.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  As a result of this action Maffitt was given command of the screw-steamer USS CRUSADER, 13, a vessel twice the size of DOLPHIN.  But alas, he was to serve only a few more years.  At the outbreak of the Civil War Maffitt “went south” to join the Confederate Navy.  He distinguished himself in command of the commerce raider CSS FLORIDA, which he sailed to England at war’s end rather than surrender to the Yankees.  He returned to the US after amnesty was granted in 1867 but poor health from the lingering effects of yellow fever precluded any further military service.

Echo changed hands several times, eventually ending up as a Confederate privateer JEFFERSON DAVIS.  DOLPHIN lay in Norfolk at the start of the war where she was burned by evacuating Union forces in April 1861, to prevent her capture.

The nation of Liberia was indeed founded as a re-settlement location for freed slaves.  The name of her capital city, Monrovia, remembers US President James Monroe.  Even the Liberian national flag is reminiscent of our own.

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is perhaps better known for its other unrelated contribution, establishing the definitive border between the US and Canada.

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                                   OPERATION “NOBLE OBELISK”

The Clinton administration’s National Security Strategy emphasized “selective engagement” in world affairs where US interests were at stake.  And by the mid-1990s, US armed forces had executed a dizzying succession of peacekeeping, non-combatant evacuations (NEOs), and operations in support of threatened governments or factions.  In 1997 alone, January saw Operation “Provide Comfort” protecting the Kurds of northern Iraq transformed to Operation “Northern Watch,” a second “no-fly” zone over Saddam Hussein’s territory.  The 26^th Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable (MEU-SOC) spent most of March 1997 evacuating personnel from violence in Albania in Operation “Silver Wake.”  They quickly redeployed in March-June 1997 for Operation “Guardian Retrieval,” an effort to recover threatened relief workers from overcrowded refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) to which oppressed Hutu’s from Rwanda had fled.  Meanwhile, in April 1997 tensions in Sierra Leone prompted the landing of the 13-man US Army Special Operations Detachment Alpha of the 3^rd Special Operations Group A to train and support troops of that nation’s elected democratic government.  But on 25 May, rebels toppled Sierra Leone’s leadership and brought US troops under fire.  Detachment Alpha fought their way past two roadblocks to Freetown, where they secured the compounds of the American embassy and cleared a landing zone for the anticipated evacuation.

Conditions in Freetown deteriorated rapidly.  Marauding rebels roamed the streets exacting vengeance on those they considered their enemies.  Twenty-two nations called on the Clinton administration for assistance in evacuating their citizens from Sierra Leone.  The White House responded with Operation “Noble Obelisk.”  By chance the 22^nd MEU-SOC embarked on USS KEARSARGE (LHD-3) had been standing off Zaire since 2 May in the event that the civil war there threatened the capital of Kinshasa.  KEARSARGE was quickly diverted north, and despite the rebel’s threat to challenge overflight of Sierra Leone’s airspace, the first of her CH-53 Super Stallions landed at Freetown 29 May.  Marines set up a perimeter and began convoying Americans and third-country nationals to the LZ.  The following day the NEO began. 

Over the five days from 30 May to 3 June, 451 American citizens and over 2000 foreign nationals from 40 countries were evacuated from the turmoil in Freetown.  Most were staged to Conakry, Guinea, from whence they were repatriated.  Despite the size of this evacuation, there were no casualties.  The 22^nd Marine Expeditionary Unit received the Meritorious Unit Citation for their actions in “Noble Obelisk.” 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6 JUN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Operation Noble Obelisk.”  AT:  www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ops/noble_obleisk.htm, 7 May 2006.

“Operation Noble Obelisk.”  AT:  www.specialoperations.com/ operations/noble_obelisk/default.htm, 7 May 2006.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 299.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The American military found themselves involved in a plethora of operations along the coast of Africa and Southwest Asia during the 1990s.  The actions encouraged Republicans in Congress to criticize the Clinton National Security Strategy of “selective engagement” as hardly that at all.

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                                OPERATION “DELIBERATE FORCE”

The Balkan cease fire brokered by former President Jimmy Carter in 1994 had failed.  United Nations’ efforts at peacekeeping in the war-torn former Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina had given way to NATO and its guiding body, the North Atlantic Council.  But the Bosnian Serbs proved relentless in their aggressive territorialism and ethnic cleansing atrocities against their hereditary rivals the Bosnian Muslims and Croats.  By mid-1995, the Serb Army had taken UN peacekeeper hostages, shot down NATO aircraft, and in July 1995, overran the NATO-declared “safe areas” in Srebrenica and Zepa.  NATO officials warned the Bosnian Serbs in August to respect the remaining “safe zones” of Sarajevo, Bihac, Tuzla and Gorazde and observe the posted “EZs” (heavy weapons exclusion zones).  The Serbs tested NATO resolve almost immediately, launching a mortar attack on 28 August against a Sarajevo marketplace, killing 38 civilians.

Thus, Operation “Deliberate Force” launched two days later as an air power offensive against Serbian command and control, lines of communication, air defense capabilities, known SAM sites, fielded troops, and essential military infrastructure.  American, British, Dutch, French, Turkish, German, Italian, and Spanish air forces applied their combined power in 3515 combat sorties against 48 designated Serbian targets.  Navy F-14s and FA-18s from USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71) and AMERICA (CV-66) joined Marine Corps AV-8Bs from KEARSARGE (LHD-3) and WASP (LHD-1) in strikes against heavy weapons caches, command posts, and missile and radar sites.  Orion P3Cs from NAS Sigonella joined Navy E-2s and S-3s in providing reconnaissance and bomb damage assessment.  On September 10^th, the Aegis cruiser NORMANDY (CG-60) launched 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles, eleven of which struck within ten feet of their aim points at the Banja Luka air defense complex.  Coupled with a simultaneous offensive by the Bosnian Muslims and Croats in western Bosnia, the air onslaught proved effective.  By 20 September, Serbian attacks had ceased, and CINC Allied Forces Southern Europe, ADM Leighton W. Smith, USN, declared the “safe areas” no longer under threat.

Historians agree that “Deliberate Force” illustrates the effective use of combat air power in accomplishing political ends.  At a cost of only a French Mirage 2000 lost on the first day, the Serbian Army’s ability to wage their campaign of aggression was effectively negated.  The Serbs and their former Yugoslavian backers were brought to the negotiating table in Dayton, Ohio, and a permanent peace was established with the signing of the Dayton Accords on 14 December.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 SEP 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Goodspeed, M. Hill.  U.S. Navy:  A Complete History. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Foundation, 2003, pp. 689-92.

“Operation Deliberate Force.”  Global Security website, AT:  www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/deliberate_force.htm, 26 December 2005.

“Operation Deliberate Force.”  NATO factsheet website, AT: www.afsouth.nato.int/factsheet/deliberateforcefactsheet.htm, 26 December 2005.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 296.

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                                        THE TROUBLE IN BOSNIA

Bosnia-Herzegovina, the central-most state in the former Yugoslav nation, is a melting pot of all the diverse Yugoslavian cultures.  Serbians, Croatians and Balkan Muslims each control their respective regions of Bosnia–a close association that has bred discontent punctuated with spates of ethnic bloodletting.  Bosnian Serbs, the minority sect, perceive themselves to be the victims of Croat and Muslim (Bosniacs) hatred, factions who likewise mistrust each other.  Thus, when Bosnia-Herzegovina struck for independence from Yugoslavia in January 1992, the Europe was reluctant to extend recognition until a referendum could determine which sect would control the new nation.  The minority Bosnian Serbs boycotted this referendum out of fear of being voted into subjugation by their rivals.  As a result, the Bosnian Muslims gained control of the new nation.  Official recognition by Europe and the US came on 7 April 1992.  This left only Serbia and Montenegro as the remaining provinces within the original Yugoslavian republic.

Bosnian independence further piqued Yugoslavian (Serbian) anger, not just at the loss of another province, but because their blood kin, the Bosnian Serbs, were now at risk for ethnic reprisals.  The Yugoslav Army assailed Bosnia in an attempt to open corridors to Bosnian Serb enclaves.  International economic sanctions shortly prompted the withdrawal of this (largely Serbian) Army, but not before the Bosnian Serbs had been well armed and trained.  Bosnian Serbs now took over the fighting on their own, particularly around the capital of Sarajevo.

The United Nations intervened in this morass, endeavoring to broker a ceasefire while undertaking to protect and feed the innocent.  United Nations personnel quickly found themselves in harm’s way.  To care for casualties among the UN forces, a US Army mobile surgical hospital was set up at UN Camp Pleso, near the airport in Zagreb.  Staffing for this hospital rotated between US Army, Navy, and Air Force medical personnel.  From March to August 1994, Navy Fleet Hospital 6, staffed from NMC San Diego, ran this facility.

Numerous failed ceasefires culminated, in February of 1994, with Bosnian Muslims and Croats forming the “Bosnian Federation,” an alliance against the better-armed Serbs.  The ensuing stalemate led all parties to the negotiating table at the Dayton Peace Proximity Talks in 1995.  This accord assigned enforcement to NATO in the form of a Stabilisation Force (SFOR).  SFOR was replaced in December 2004 with the more permanent “EUFOR Althea,” whose tripartite governance and peacekeeping activities continue today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 JUL 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Covey, D.C.  “Another First-Hand View of the Former Yugoslavia”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, p. 61.

Grun, Bernard.  The Timetables of History, 3^rd ed.  New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Hamilton, J. Bruce.  “Navigating the Balkan Crisis”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, pp. 54-60.

Mazower, Mark.  The Balkans: A Short History.  New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002.

NATO SFOR website.  www.nato.int/sfor/indexinf.htm, 16 June 2004.

Spencer, Christopher.  “The Former Yugoslavia:  Background to Crisis”.  Canadian Institute for International Affairs, Vol 50 (4), Summer 1993, p. 7.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Initial NATO enforcement of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) produced at Dayton was through an Implementation Force (IFOR), which gave way to the SFOR.

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                                               THE 10-DAY WAR

The culturally diverse and ethnically proud peoples of eastern Europe’s Balkan region have been subjected to domination for centuries.  Between 600-650 AD, Slavics from further east gained control, in particular, Yugoslavs moved into Serbia, pushing Serbs and Croats into the area that is now Bosnia.  A succession of Slavic empires flourished over the following centuries culminating in the Austro-Hungarian empire that dominated eastern Europe until the turn of the 20^th century.  Encouraged by their strong alliance with Hungary, the Austrians unilaterally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, much to the displeasure of the people there.  Six years later on 28 June 1914, Serbian nationals exacted revenge when the Austrian crown prince, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, were assassinated while visiting Sarajevo, the region’s largest city.  Angry Austrians accused Serbia of fomenting the assassination, and the Austrian Army marched defiantly into that latter country.  The event set off a cascade of dominoes among European nations having mutual defense treaties that resulted in World War I.

The end of WWI saw the collapse of Austro-Hungary and the expulsion of the Turks, who had used the opportunity of the war to occupy the Balkans.  The Republic of Yugoslavia was formed.  But from it’s start, the diversity of languages, cultures and creeds sparked regional clashes.  Most deeply divided were the Croats and Serbs, who perpetrated unspeakable atrocities against each other and were still fighting when the Nazis overran the region in 1941.  Hitler supported the Croats and Balkan Muslims against the Serbs allied with emerging Communists under Marshal Josip Tito.  Indeed, throughout the Balkans, European turmoil took a back seat to intersectional fighting.  Following the Nazi capitulation, Tito gained control and reforged the Yugoslavian republic.  The states of Slovenia and Croatia to the north, and Macedonia and Montenegro to the south became united with Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.  From his Communist headquarters in Belgrade (in the Serbian region), the iron-fisted Tito and his Yugoslavian Army (largely Serbian) squelched any further fighting.

Tito’s death in 1980 reignited the centuries-old conflicts.  The northernmost state of Slovenia was the first region to rebel, formally declaring independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991.  The same day neighboring Croatia also seceded, followed shortly by Macedonia, the remotely mountainous southernmost province.  The Yugoslav Army vented its spleen on Slovenia, invading the new nation in what became known as the “10-day War.”  Only European mediation and Yugoslavian exhaustion brought the short war to a cease fire and Slovenian victory on this day.  The newly born nations of Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia were internationally recognized in early 1992.

Continued tomorrow…

Covey, D.C.  “Another First-Hand View of the Former Yugoslavia”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, p. 61.

Grun, Bernard.  The Timetables of History, 3^rd ed.  New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Hamilton, J. Bruce.  “Navigating the Balkan Crisis”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 122 (6), June 1996, pp. 54-60.

Mazower, Mark.  The Balkans: A Short History.  New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002.

NATO SFOR website.  www.nato.int/sfor/indexinf.htm, 16 June 2004.

Spencer, Christopher.  “The Former Yugoslavia:  Background to Crisis”.  Canadian Institute for International Affairs, Vol 50 (4), Summer 1993, p. 7.

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                    OPERATION “SILVER WAKE”

Against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein’s continued recalcitrance in Iraq, and the discord in Bosnia-Herzagovinia, the Adriatic coastal nation of Albania experienced a financial collapse in early 1997 that brought anarchy to that nation.  On March 13^th American ambassador Mirisma Lino requested assistance in securing the embassy and evacuating those caught up in the danger.  Out of concern for the 1800 US citizens then in Albania, President William J. Clinton acted.  The 2200 Marines of the 26^th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Special Operations Capable (MEU-SOC), who had been standing as a reserve for Bosnia aboard an Amphibious Ready Group composed of USS NASSAU (LHA-4), NASHVILLE (LPD-13), PENSACOLA (LSD-38) and RAMAGE (DDG-56), were ordered to Tirana, the Albanian capital.

That same day CH-46 and CH-53 helicopters landed at the embassy compound and began a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO).  Fifty-one were brought out the first day.  About 170 Marines, including a rifle company, secured the embassy compound and a housing area about a half mile distant.  Pesky 14.5mm gunfire and shoulder-fired SAMs plagued the operation the following day until an AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunship took out a lone Albanian national responsible for the aggression.  Three hundred and fifty-seven were brought out the second day.  They were processed aboard Nashville then transferred to Brindisi, Italy, for repatriation.  Ultimately 400 American citizens were evacuated from Albania, about a quarter of those known to be in-country.  Some 477 third country nationals were concurrently evacuated, bringing the total whisked to safety to 877.

Meanwhile, ashore, CPL Daniel Bush of the 1^st Battalion, 8^th Marines carried out his duty in guarding the embassy.  From a bunker dug into the ground, he watched the embassy perimeter until, with a dull “thud,” the bunker collapsed.  Nearly two tons of debris fell on CPL Bush, who was trapped and severely injured.  Bush required eight months of recuperation at a Cleveland, Ohio, hospital, and was ultimately retired for medical reasons.  He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Armed Services Medal for his actions in support of Operation “Silver Wake.”  He went to work afterward for the Broome County Veterans Service Organization, bringing benefits to hundreds of deserving veterans.

On this day, USMC LGEN Peter Pace of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that the evacuation phase of Operation “Silver Wake” was complete.  A contingent of US Marines remained in Tirana until 29 April when a fleet anti-terrorist unit arrived to take over the embassy security mission. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  31 MAR 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

DoD News Briefing.  Friday March 14, 1997.  AT:  www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/1997/t031497_t0314pac.html, retrieved 15 April 2006.

“Operation Silver Wake.”  AT:  www.specialoperations.com/Operations  /silver.html, retrieved 16 April 2006.

“NYS Senate Veterans Hall of Fame, Daniel Bush.”  AT:  www.senate.state.ny.us/sws/vethallfame/bush.html, retrieved 16 April 2006.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 299.

US DoD News release 139-97, 26 March 1997.  “U.S. Evacuation Operations in Albania Completed.”  AT: www.defenselink.mil/releases/1997/b032797_bt139-97.html, retrieved 16 April 2006.

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