March 16, 2002	Saturday	Muharram 1, 1423

ABOARD USS JOHN C. STENNIS, March 15: US Vice President Dick Cheney visited an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Friday and watched warplanes roar off to Afghanistan, in a gesture of support for troops fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

“I’m in the Middle East on a diplomatic mission... but this is the highlight of my trip,” Cheney told sailors on the USS John C. Stennis, sailing with 5,000 troops in the northern Arabian Sea some 700 miles from Afghanistan.

The vice president, who later returned to Oman the fourth stop in his 11-nation Middle East tour, watched F/A-18 Hornet jets laden with laser-guided bombs shoot off the carrier with a thunderous blast that made the deck shiver as they roared away.

Cheney plans to leave the Gulf Arab state on Saturday, after visiting an Omani mosque, for an unspecified destination.

Wearing a white helmet emblazoned “VP” in blue and a similarly marked white vest over a pink dress shirt, Cheney also saw two F-14 Tomcats returning from their strikes and snapping to a halt as the carrier’s arresting cable caught on their tailhooks.

Cheney, who arrived on a helicopter, is the highest-ranking US official to visit the Afghanistan war theatre since the US-led campaign began in October. Stennis sailors said the visit enlivened what has been for them an unusually long time away from port — 96 days so far.—Reuters