Residents of St. Thomas woke Friday morning to the sight of the USS Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy, cruising into Crown Bay. According to Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., the purpose of the visit is shore leave for the reported 2,200 sailors and Marines serving on board.
The ship, whose home port is Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, is in the Caribbean in support of the Southern Command mission, “U.S. Department of War-directed operations, and President Donald J. Trump’s priorities,” according to its Facebook page.
The Iwo Jima has a flight deck supporting numerous aircraft and amphibious capabilities to deliver Marines, their vehicles and equipment for assaults and other shore-based operations. It also has “significant” on-board medical facilities.
In late August the United States began a naval buildup in the Caribbean, purportedly to combat drug traffickers in the region.
“What we have declared — and we are declaring — is that, in international waters, we are not going to tolerate narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth told a gathering of Air National Guardsmen at Muniz Air National Guard Base, just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 9.
Hegseth’s visit came amid the deployment of various U.S. Navy vessels to the region, where they have since destroyed at least three boats alleged to have been operated by members of the Tren de Aragua cartel, which the State Department has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Human rights groups have said the attacks amount to extra judicial killings, and legal experts have said they run afoul of international human rights laws.
