Friend of Wonk Allen Thompson sends along this little update from the October 2006 issue of Seafarer’s Log:
Twenty-six Seafarers recently were lauded for their contributions to the Department of Defense’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) X-Band Radar (XBR) Project office while working aboard the Interocean American Shipping Corp.-operated SBX-1.
The SBX-1, during the period when the mariners earned the recognition, was involved in classified operations which had been mandated by the Department of Defense (DOD). The planning, training and execution of this mission ran from June 14 to July 5, 2006
Hmm, wonder what SBX might have been doing from June 14 to July 5, 2006?
Right, waiting to see if they could get a glimpse of North Korea’s Taepodong test. The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Karp reported in Novmber that “the Pentagon diverted SBX from its tests to free it up to monitor North Korea’s missile launch in July.”
Now we know the dates of the mission.
