‘This Ship is a National Asset’

Oct. 17 - Rear Admiral Thomas E. Zelibor is commander of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its battle group. From their floating platform on the Arabian Sea, F-18s, F-14s and other warplanes from the carrier continue to fly around-the-clock attack missions over Afghanistan. Sitting in his ready room aboard the Carl Vinson, Zelibor recently spoke with Newsweek’s Gregory Beals about terrorism, the war and his mission.

NEWSWEEK: Talk how about how this mission has gone so far.

THOMAS E. ZELIBOR: We clearly have air supremacy now and our operations are focused on prepping the battlefield for whatever we are told to do next. You may see things shift from command-and-control and surface-to-air missiles to going against troops and anti-aircraft fire. We want to make sure we have a clear area for anything else.

What exactly has been achieved so far?

“Now we have fragmented the opposition. It allows us to have a lot more ability to support future operations.” — REAR ADMIRAL THOMAS E. ZELIBOR

I think we have severely degraded their command-and-control network. We have severely degraded their anti-air capabilities and we have severely degraded their ability to resupply themselves. Now we have fragmented the opposition. It allows us to have a lot more ability to support future operations.

Like ground troops?

Anything at all. It could be ground troops. The military operation is a small part of this. There are a lot of other things that are going on, there are also the diplomatic and the economic components to all of this. There is a financial side of going after terrorists.

Are you running out of targets?

We haven’t run out yet.

How many sorties have you flown?

We average between 40 and 50 a day.

The missions are long, in excess of five hours. How long will it be before you pilots are too tired to continue?

Fatigue is not an issue. The pilots fess up when they are tired. We give them a period of time, about 12 hours, to break.

What is the difference between this operation and Desert Storm?

I would be very careful about comparing this to Desert Storm. This is a different kind of war. During desert storm we weren’t trying to find people in caves and spread out across the landscape. In Desert Storm, we knew who the adversary was and exactly what was going on. Here, it’s different, it may not be quite as obvious.

How do you attack people who are hiding in caves?

It’s not impossible. We will use the full range of capabilities to accomplish this mission. And I would say we have some great capabilities.

With terrorist threats everywhere, even a large ship like the Carl Vinson can be susceptible to terrorist attack. How can you protect it?

The Cole incident definitely changed the way that we train and how we equip the Navy. A lot of our resources have been spent in force protection. Prior to the Cole attack, force protection wasn’t part of our lexicon. Now it is.

Are you worried about a biological attack via the mail?

Whenever you see things like that you are concerned. You have to look at what you can do to mitigate those kinds of concerns. All of our mail goes through fleet post offices. The mail is screened there until it gets to the ships.

I understand that in the wake of the recent anthrax attacks in Florida and New York, the Navy is developing new protocols to deal with biological terrorism.

I’m always a big fan of taking every precaution. If there are new protocols in the works, I’m all for it. This ship is a national asset and we want to make sure we do everything that we can to protect it.

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.