History
The United States has maintained a naval presence in the Mediterranean since the early 19th century, when U.S. Naval forces first engaged the Barbary Pirates to prevent them from interfering with commercial shipping. The earliest unit was the Mediterranean Squadron.
On February 1, 1946, U.S. Naval Forces, Northwest African Waters (NavNAW), was redesignated U.S. Naval Forces, Mediterranean. The force was responsible to U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean in London, and had as its flagship, a destroyer tender, anchored at Naples, Italy. In 1946, President Truman dispatched the battleship Missouri to the Eastern Mediterranean, ostensiably to return the body of Münir Ertegün, former Turkish Ambassador to Washington, back to Istanbul. However perhaps a much stronger motive was to demonstrate U.S. power in view of Soviet threats to Turkey and Iran. The cruiser Dayton relieved the tender Shenandoah as flagship and began operating with the fleet. In June 1946 Fargo, flying the flag of Vice Admiral Bernhard Bieri, Commander, Naval Forces Mediterranean, was despatched to Trieste.
On 5 September 1946, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, flying the flag of Rear Admiral John H. Cassady, Commander Carrier Division 1, and accompanied by USS Little Rock (CL-92), USS Cone, USS New and USS Corry visited Piraeus, the port of Athens. USS Randolph, escorted by USS Fargo and USS Perry visited Greece in December 1946.
The title of Naval Forces Mediterranean was changed to Commander Sixth Task Fleet and then, in 1950, Commander, Sixth Fleet. Sixth Fleet's NATO guise was the principal player in Exercise Longstep during November 1952.
In 1957, a naval exercise, Operation Deep Water, took place within the Allied Forces Southern Europe area of responsibility. It was conducted by Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH), commanded by Vice Admiral Charles R. Brown, USN, who also commanded the Sixth Fleet. STRIKEFORSOUTH was effectively the NATO designation for the U.S. Sixth Fleet, though additional NATO headquarters personnel would eventually be assigned, while maintaining American control over its nuclear weapons on board U.S. aircraft carrier as mandated by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
Sixth Fleet operated in support of American forces during Operation Blue Bat in Lebanon in 1958. During the Cold War, the Sixth Fleet had several confrontations with the Soviet Navy's 5th Operational Squadron, notably during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. During the Yom Kippur War Elmo Zumwalt describes part of the Sixth Fleet buildup as follows:
"On 25 October JCS directed TG 20.1, John F. Kennedy and escorts, to chop to ComSixthFleet as TG 60.3 and proceed to join TG 60 south of Crete. Additionally, Franklin D. Roosevelt and escorts (TG 60.2) and TF61/62 were directed to join TG 60.1 south of Crete. ... TG 100.1 (Baltic destroyers) were ordered to proceed to the Mediterranean and chop to ComSixthFleet..'
In an exchange of notes on April 13 and 25, 1974, the United States and Egypt agreed that the United States would provide extensive assistance to clear the Suez Canal of mines, unexploded ordnance, and sunken ships. These operations took the form of Nimbus Star (mine and ordnance clearance), Nimbus Moon (land and sub-surface naval ordnance clearance), and Nimrod Spar, in which a private salvage contractor would clear the canal of the ten sunken ships under the supervision of the Sixth Fleet's Task Force 65. Captain J. Huntly Boyd, the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, was sent to the Canal Zone as Commander, Salvage Task Group (CTG 65.7). He supervised the actual salvage clearing operation which was carried out by the Murphy Pacific Marine Salvage Company of New York. A total of ten ships blocked the canal; 200 civilian specialists worked from May to December 1974 to complete the operation. The canal reopened on June 5, 1975, with the Sixth Fleet flagship Little Rock in attendance.
The Sixth Fleet provided military, logistical and humanitarian assistance to support NATO operations in Kosovo from the beginning of Operation Allied Force. It also participated in Operation Shining Hope and Operation Joint Guardian. In March 2011, it was involved in operations in Libya pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.
The New York Post criticized the shrinking of the fleet since 2003 to the point in 2010 where it could exercise no control in preventing the Gaza flotilla raid.
Read more about this topic: United States Sixth Fleet
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