Blast from the past...Kitty Hawk as a Special Ops carrier.

Thanks for the article Joe.

The US military has conducted some real life "experiments" with carriers. The 10th Mountain Division conducted a heliborne assault during Operation Uphold Democracy and deployed 54 helicopters along with 2000 troops.

An acceptable performance under adhoc conditions...a situation that really wasn't called for but the Army (US inter service politics) had to get its boys into action.  Interestingly enough, they haven't sought to do it again.  Being an outsider looking in I would bet body parts that it had to do a bit with troop berthing, a bit with helo maintenance and a realization that Army helicopters are not marinized and are not suited to operating at sea.  I bet the bird bath got a workout on that cruise.

Regardless, SOCOM is still trying to get a big deck ship and have laid there eyes on a retiring amphib to make there dreams come true of being a full fledged service unto itself.

There first attempt is the subject of the article that Joe sent.  via the LA Times.

Specially trained forces and elite light infantry units are expected to be instrumental in the effort to locate and strike Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terror network. Some units have already been reported deployed to the region, and others are believed to be on their way.
The dispatch of the half-empty Kitty Hawk "is a little unusual, but this war is a little unusual too," said a defense official who asked to remain unidentified.
Another official noted, however, that aircraft carriers were used for a similar purpose in the 1994 U.S. military intervention in Haiti. In that operation, one carrier transported members of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, and a second carried special operations personnel.
The Kitty Hawk is the fourth carrier heading to, or already in, the region, marking the largest concentration of carrier force since the Persian Gulf War 10 years ago.
Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the Kitty Hawk usually carries about half support aircraft and half attack planes. The attack planes are F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets; the support aircraft include surveillance planes.
Officials said they left a mix of attack and support planes on the carrier.
Military officials stressed that even without the Kitty Hawk, they had more than enough planes for any strike mission the United States was likely to order soon.
Given the limited number of targets in Afghanistan, and the presence of more than 200 U.S. planes in the region, "it's hard to imagine what we'd need more planes for," said a defense official. "What's the target?"
The Kitty Hawk, which is part of the U.S. 7th Fleet, had recently returned from nine days of exercises in the deep waters off Japan. Some observers speculated that the trip may have been intended to allow sailors and fighter pilots time to refresh their skills before they joined the anti-terrorist operation.
Of the 12 U.S. aircraft carriers, it is the only one permanently deployed outside U.S. territory, and its departure leaves East Asia without an American carrier.
A Navy spokesman said that the Kitty Hawk's official mission was to "support efforts to identify, locate and hold accountable terrorists and those who support and harbor them."

Read the whole thing for yourself, but I continue to think that ideas like this are nothing but bad ideas.  Even lacking their attack aircraft, carriers are just not designed to carry troops.

They'll keep trying and they'll keep failing.

What SOCOM really wants (and they just might get it) is a big deck LHA/LHD.  It goes against what they're suppose to be...what they're suppose to do.

But they insist on pushing the idea and too many fanboys will back it instead of calling them on it.