Talk:USS Inchon

Ship's Motto
A citation needed tag was added to the motto in the info box. The web is littered with uses of the term in blogs by former crew members. This link and this one specifically identify as Inchon's motto, and thousands of sailors and marines who sailed that ship can verify the truth. I'm willing to learn different but to date I've not seen infoboxes to require citations for the basics. Some facts are just too well known to require footnotes. kcylsnavS 02:49, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Missing 1974 Major Historical Involvement
Will try to find references. My father, Maj. Robert Blanton USMC at the time, was executive office of a Marine helicopter group stationed on the Inchon. The Inchon was involved in two major historical events. All of this is oral history from him. Any advice on how to incorporate this would be appreciated. Exact dates unknown.

1. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The Inchon's Marine helicopters were called on to evacuate British citizens as they were nearby on a Mediterranean cruise. The situation was tense as a US Marine embassy guard had been killed and there was chaos from the fighting between the Cypriots and Turks. Marine pilots waited on deck in their helicopters ready to take off, only awaiting word directly from the White House whether they would go into Cyprus with an aggressive posture, guns visible outside the helicopters, or go in a more passive "guns in" posture with the Cypriots and both the Greek and Turkish U.S. allies aware of and complicit with the mission. The Inchon received the word "guns in" and the evacuation proceeded without incident and the evacuees were taken to Beirut, Lebanon - at the time a safe city.

2. Another operation on the Inchon's 1974 Mediterranean cruise was to assist Egypt and remove the mines from the Suez Canal. The Egyptians had mined the Suez Canal during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War as a deterrent to Israel, but were then unable to clear the mines from the canal afterward. The Inchon's U.S. Marine helicopters towing mine-clearing sleds removed the mines and paved the way for the eventual reopening of the canal in 1975. A tense situation in a recent war zone, Egypt still had a "shoot on sight" no-fly ban at night. The American military was warmly received by the Egyptian military, who had recently turned away from the Soviet Union and toward the U.S., so this operation had relevance in the larger political context. The commanding officer of the operation was Maj. Ilzhoeffer and the executive officer, in charge of flight operations, was Maj. Blanton. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seanblanton (talk • contribs) 15:39, 1 December 2011 (UTC)