Supply Chain Social Media and Updates

From WWI Convoys to Invisible US Navy in Gulf

🚨Return of the Mayflower🚨 On May 4, 1917, six US destroyers of Destroyer Division Eight under Commander Joseph Taussig arrived in Cobh (today Queenstown), Ireland. The ships were the first of a vanguard of 35 American destroyers that arrived in Europe after the US declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917 due to the Kaiser's Navy targeting and sinking 10 American ships and killing 64 merchant mariners. Initially the American destroyers hunted German U-boats and escorted individual ships. But British Admiral John Jellicoe and US Navy Vice Admiral William S Sims initiated convoy operations. While the German U-boats were not eliminated, the tide was changed in the conflict as sinking dropped and the flow of goods to Europe increased. Today, there is no visible presence of the @USNavy inside the Persian Gulf. There are hundreds of ships, including 5 US-flagged 🇺🇲 vessels within the Gulf. A squadron of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers sailing through Hormuz (akin to the Freedom of Navigation the US performs in the Strait of Taiwan) would be a clear demonstration of the status of the Strait. The longer the ships remain inside the Persian Gulf bottle, the harder it will be to restore trade to its historic levels. Make no mistake, the staff at @US5thFleet has a plan to open the Strait and the surface warfare crews on the destroyers would perform this mission just like the crews of Destroyer Division 8 in 1917. The mission would have risk, but it was John Paul Jones, former merchant mariner turned US Navy sailor who advocated, "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way."