by Clifford F. Thies
The USS Ponce is described as an “Amphibious Landing Dock.” The description hardly communicates what the ship is to a person not already familiar with this type of vessel. It is a multi-purpose ship, capable of carrying a small number of vertical lift aircraft (usually helicopters), and a small number of assault boats (in its “well deck”), along with a contingent of Marines or other troops. The ship displaces about 9,000 tons. In contrast, an Amphibious Assault Ship displaces about five times that, and a Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier about ten times that.
The Ponce and her sister ships, all but one of which have been decommissioned, are usually deployed as part of a larger flotilla, and usually given an auxiliary role. For example, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Ponce served to co-ordinate mine-sweeper operations.
The Ponce was itself scheduled for de-comissioning when – on a request from Central Command – it was requisitioned to serve as what the media is describing as the “mother ship” for special operation forces in the Persian Gulf region. The idea is that highly trained special ops teams could be deployed from the Ponce, via helicopter or assault boat, to deal with pirates, hostage rescue, high value targets and possibly also black ops.
As “mother ships” go, the Ponce is pretty small. And, besides, it is not the only ship being deployed to the region. Joining the 5th Fleet is the USS Abraham Lincoln, giving it three of our aircraft carriers (the other two being the Carl Vinson and the John Stennis). The Navy describes the deployment as routine. As for Amphibious Assault Ships in the 5th Fleet, the USS Makin Island recently and replaced the USS Bataan.
From Eric Dondero:
From Eric Dondero:
Limited government, balanced budget, right to work, reduced foreign aid, repealing national health care — “Yes.”
Fmr. Mass Gov. would “actually take steps to fix social security… reduce payments to welfare beneficiaries…
It was her third girl, and the husband and mother-in-law wanted a boy
Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, most free
“It is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that permit no civil liberties, again occupy the last three places in the index. This year, they are immediately preceded at the bottom by Syria, Iran and China, three countries that… have been sucked into an insane spiral of terror, and Bahrain and Vietnam, quintessential oppressive regimes. 
Several European countries fall far behind rest of continent… The crackdown on protests after President Lukashenko’s reelection caused Belarus to fall 14 places to 168th. At a time when it is portraying itself as a regional model, Turkey (148th) took a big step backwards and lost 10 places. Far from carrying out promised reforms, the judicial system launched a wave of arrests of journalists that was without precedent since the military dictatorship.
While Libya (154th) turned the page on the Gaddafi era, Yemen succumbed to violence between President Ali Abdallah Saleh’s opponents and supporters and languished in 171st position. The future of both of these countries remains uncertain, and the place they will allow the media is undecided. The same goes for Egypt, which fell 39 places to 166th… Already poorly ranked in 2010, Syria fell further in the index, to 176th position… 
by Clifford F. Thies