© Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesA jet after landing on the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis in the North Arabian Sea on Wednesday.
Abroad U.S.S.
John C. Stennis, in the North Arabian Sea - If Iran's warning on Tuesday to this American aircraft carrier was intended to disrupt the ship's routine or provoke a high-seas reaction, nothing of the sort was evident on Wednesday.
Steaming in international waters over the horizon from the Iranian fleet, the
John C. Stennis spent the day and the early hours of the night launching and recovering aircraft for its latest mission - supporting ground troops in Afghanistan. All visible indications were that the carrier's crew was keeping to its scheduled work, regardless of any political or diplomatic fallout from Iran's warnings.
"It is business as usual here," said Rear Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of the carrier strike group, as he watched a large-screen radar image showing the nearby sea and sky cluttered with commercial traffic.
The screen also showed Navy jets flying back and forth in a narrow air corridor to Afghanistan, known as "the boulevard."