Mission Accomplished

FR EXCLUSIVE: "Mission Accomplished" banner was ordered by the Navy, not by the White House

NAVY WEBSITE ^ | 5-1-07 | DFU

Posted on 05/01/2007 2:40:20 PM PDT by doug from upland

Because today is the fourth anniversary of the commander in chief landing aboard the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN with the famous 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' banner, the enemies at home are going to attempt to use it for political purposes. I don't think I need to name the enemies at home. We all know them well. They are the ones who see defeat as politically beneficial to them and will do whatever they can to embolden the enemy and hurt our troops.

To get to the truth of the story, I phoned the media office of the 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, VA. The man who had the answers for me and graciously returned my call was Captain Conrad Chun.

'When something of such high level is planned, such as the landing of the commander in chief on the ship,' said Chun, 'there are several planning meetings. At one of the meetings was the idea for a banner that said MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.' The mission in this case, was the mission of the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The men and women aboard the nuclear-powered carrier accomplished their mission and stayed out for a record time -- 290 days. It was a very long cruise for them.

The banner specifically was designed to celebrate and memorialize the ship's successful deployment. According to Chun, they had no way to make the banner aboard the ship, so the White House was asked to have it made for them.

"There are still those who will doubt the story," said Chun, "but after speaking to those on the ship, I have no doubt that is how it happened."

On a side note, Godspeed to my former son in law Josh who is on the Nimitz now. Go, Navy!"