November 2002 was month four of eventu-rnally what became a 10-month deployment onboard USS Abraham Lincoln (GVN-72). After a couple weeks flying OperationrnEnduring Freedom missions over Afghanistan, the battle group had transited the Straits of Hormuz to support Operation Southern Watch. The rhetoric machine was turned up to 11, and the missions that had been exceedingly boring in past deployments had turned to almost daily prosecution of Iraqi air-defense targets below the 32nd parallel.
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