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"No question" of France's aircraft carrier going to Gulf: navy
France's only aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, will return to its home port next week "as planned", after a tour of the east Mediterranean that included exercises with a US carrier, the French navy said Monday. "There is no question at all about us going to the Gulf," a spokesman for the Charles de Gaulle's battle group, Lieutenant Commander Bertrand Bonneau, told AFP by telephone."G'bye. Hope you had fun. We must do it again sometime..." The aircraft carrier left its home port Toulon in southern France on February 4 for three weeks of exercises, including some last week with a US counterpart, USS Harry S. Truman, which has been deployed in the Mediterranean ahead of a possible US-led war on Iraq. "Phew! Thought those suckers would never leave. Now, what were we doing?" "As planned, we are leaving the 21st and we should arrive in Toulon the 25th," he said. "Hey, Bob! I don't feel like there are eyes boring into my back anymore. Why do you suppose that is?" Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-17 |
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