Loose lips do, indeed, sink ships

Vice Adm. Joe Sestak, USN (Ret.)

The Philadelphia Inquirer

March 28, 2025

When I was commanding an aircraft carrier battle group in the northern Arabian Sea for combat operations in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, we had numerous other supporting tasks, such as boarding commercial ships that intelligence identified as carrying terrorists and arms to the war or targeting al-Qaida leaders in countries such as Yemen.

The battle group is America’s most mobile and powerful, self-sufficient, and versatile force. It is one capable of projecting American power anywhere in the world without reliance on others for subsurface, surface, or air warfare. This includes a nuclear weapons capability in various ships, with the carrier itself powered by a nuclear reactor manned by 5,000 American sailors whose average age is about 19.

These are dangerous missions, but they don’t need to be unsafe.