San Diego’s Personal Connection to Tensions in the Middle East

With San Diego being the home of dozens of Navy ships and thousands of sailors and Marines, when something like the attack on nuclear sites in Iran happens, these forces are likely going to be heading somewhere near where a conflict is happening.

And it’s already happened with the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier already deployed in the Arabian Sea along with its Carrier Air Wing, with close to 50 jet fighters and strike aircraft and a task force that includes the guided missile cruiser the USS Princeton and two destroyers.

Joining the Carl Vinson, is the USS Nimitz whose deployment to the region was moved up this month.

The U.S. Military also has 10 bases in the area, including major installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

In all, there are about 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, all ready as they always are to do whatever they are ordered to do when duty calls.

When you live in San Diego, you are more likely than those in other American cities to have a loved one or friend who is among those deployed into potentially dangerous spots in the world.

And that means that with tensions in the Middle East having increased, for those of us here, what’s happening is not about politics or policies, it’s personal.

(Photo Getty Images)