As U.K. warships sortied planes and fired cruise missiles at Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen Thursday, American F/A-18s sat pilotless on flight decks, and cruise missiles were dormant in vertical launch tubes—even though Kamala Harris and Deputy Defense Secretary Hicks had ordered the Navy’s 5th Fleet to join in the assault.
With U.K. Storm Shadow cruise missiles streaking toward Houthi targets, the commander of a U.K. guided missile destroyer, the HMS Diamond, radioed his American counterpart aboard the USS Eisenhower and asked why the ship’s aircraft hadn’t catapulted off the deck and U.S. cruise missiles hadn’t left their tubes.
“We’re resolving issues; please stand by,” came the reply.
What ought to have been a coordinated, synchronous strike was anything but orderly, for the commanding officers aboard U.S. aircraft carriers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were in the midst of reconciling what can be described only as interminable uncertainty over whether Harris or Hicks had authority to deploy U.S. ordnance on foreign soil.
The breakdown in the chain of command, as previously reported by RRN, began in October when U.S. Navy flag officers, both ashore and on-board carrier strike groups, debated the legitimacy of the criminal Biden regime and whether they would obey a launch order issued by an illegitimate president and election thief. At the time, 5th and 6th Fleet commanders Charles Cooper and Thomas Ishee and four strike group captains denounced Biden’s presidency as fraudulent, saying only President Trump or his delegates had the authority to activate the Armed Forces.
However, not all the ships’ skippers agreed with their appraisal of the situation. The USS Laboon’s commanding officer, Commander Eric Blomberg, said he, his first officer, and the chief of the boat recognized Biden as a legitimate president. He had defiantly told Admiral Cooper that if Biden, Harris, Austin, or anyone in Biden’s presidential line of succession gave the order to fire, he would unflinchingly obey that directive.
“To refuse is mutiny,” he had said.
The tumultuous chaos escalated Thursday as the United Kingdom’s missiles illuminated the sky. A panicky Blomberg was on the horn with the fleet commander, urging him to abide by Harris and the defense secretary’s decision to engage the Houthi, who had been terrorizing merchant vessels. Vice Admiral Cooper reportedly retorted that the U.S. had no defense secretary and that Lloyd Austin, the man claiming to be the defense secretary, had been MIA for almost two weeks.
As an aside, although the Russians say Austin is dead, White Hat sources have expressed ambiguity over Austin’s true fate: “We can’t confirm or deny at this time he was killed in Ukraine.”
From aboard the Laboon, Blomberg told Adm. Cooper he would fire even if the USS Eisenhower refused to launch aircraft. According to a high-ranking source speaking under the promise of anonymity, the admiral cautioned Blomberg to not overstep his rank and said he would have no qualms about “bombing the Houthis to oblivion” if the order came directly from President Trump or General Eric M. Smith.
As Gen. Smith was unavailable, the call went to President Trump, the lawful commander-in-chief. Admiral Cooper hurriedly summarized the situation and wanted to know whether Trump, the actual president, would personally give the order to engage the enemy. Trump said his Mar-a-Lago War Room had been watching the crisis, and he asked the admiral two questions: “Are the Houthis a threat to U.S. assets? Are they a danger to commercial shipping?”
Admiral Cooper replied in the affirmative to both questions, and President Trump instructed him to pummel the Houthi encampments in Yemen using the full force and might of the United States Military.
At once, strikes came from the air, the surface, and the subsurface. Air Force strike fighters originating from a base in the Middle East and Super Hornets from USS Eisenhower roared into the air, armed with precision munitions. The strike was at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time, about 30 minutes after the Houthis launched an anti-ship ballistic missile at shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden. In all, U.S. forces hit 60 Houthi targets in 16 locations.
This is an evolving story, and we are receiving hourly updates. We will post more on it ASAP.