At a thumbs-up sign from a sailor, a U.S. Harrier
fighter jet takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea as an oil tanker passes, a nautical mile away.
The patrol is "standard" but the situation - growing tension between the
United States and
Iran - is not.
"We want to make sure that we assure allies in the region and to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce," says Colonel Fridrik Fridrikson, commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.