2002 – Coalition forces battled enemy forces in Operation Condor in the Khost region. A pan-Arab newspaper quoted Mullah Mohammed Omar as saying Osama bin Laden is alive and that the future of the US in Afghanistan is “fire, hell and total defeat.”
2003 – In Iraq US forces arrested Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, former secretary of the Republican Guard (listed as No. 10 and the queen of clubs). Univ. students and teachers returned to their campuses.
2004 – The US military in Iraq reported that a roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent had exploded a few days earlier near a U.S. military convoy.
2005 – U.S. authorities detain Luis Posada Carriles, a CIA-linked anti-Castro militant, considered a terrorist by Cuba.
2006 – Operation Mountain Thrust was launched. There was heavy fighting during June and July 2006, with Afghanistan seeing the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taliban regime. The Taliban showed great coordination in their attacks, even capturing two districts of Helmand province at the end of July, which were retaken a few days later. The Taliban suffered during the fighting more than 1,100 killed and close to 400 captured. Heavy aerial bombing was the main factor. But even so the coalition forces had close to 150 soldiers killed and 40 Afghan policemen captured by the Taliban.
2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef. USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34) – nicknamed Mighty O, and occasionally referred to as the O-boat – was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed only after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Oriskany. The history of Oriskany differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Originally designed as a “long-hulled” Essex-class ship (considered by some authorities to be a separate class, the Ticonderoga class) her construction was suspended in 1947. She eventually was commissioned in 1950 after conversion to an updated design called SCB-27 (“27-Charlie”), which became the template for modernization of 14 other Essex-class ships. Oriskany was the final Essex-class ship completed. She operated primarily in the Pacific into the 1970s, earning two battle stars for service in the Korean War, and five for service in the Vietnam War. In 1966 one of the worst shipboard fires since World War II broke out on Oriskany when a magnesium flare was accidentally ignited; forty-four men died in the fire. Oriskany’s post-service history also differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Decommissioned in 1976, she was sold for scrap in 1995, but was repossessed in 1997 because nothing was being done (lack of progress). In 2004 it was decided to sink her as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. After much environmental review and remediation to remove toxic substances, she was carefully sunk, settling in an upright position at a depth accessible to recreational divers. As of 2008, Oriskany is “the largest vessel ever sunk to make a reef”. Oriskany is mentioned in the 1986 film Top Gun as the ship from which the main character’s father had flown during the Vietnam War. She has been featured in films such as Men of the Fighting Lady and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and What Dreams May Come (1998).
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/17/may-17/
