RADM Simon relates: "They called it the Arab-Israeli conflict of October of 1973. That spawned, and I'm quoting now from the military magazine Sea Power that said, "This conflict spawned the most severe naval crisis of the Cold War." The Soviet leader, Brezhnev, threatened to enforce a ceasefire with unilateral intentions.

The Kremlin sent word to the White House that said, "Interfering with the Fifth Escadra would be met with full force". Soviet anti-carrier groups had been targeting the FDR, the Independence, and the LITTLE ROCK, and our amphibious task group was also under targeting. Our DOD ordered a DEFCON Three. On October 26 the Soviets launched an intensive anti-carrier exercise using each American task group as a virtual missile target."

RADM Simon continues...."By 3 November the Soviet force consisted of ninety-five ships capable of launching eighty-eight cruise missiles in a first salvo, approximately thirteen at each of the task groups. We now had sixty ships, including the carrier Kennedy that had just checked in. Admiral Murphy stated: "The two fleets are sitting on a pond in close proximity and the stage was now set for a war at sea." On February 19 a Soviet official briefing on anti-carrier operations stated that the battle would be encapsulated as a 'battle of the first salvo', meaning all Soviet ships would fire all their weapons on the order to shoot.

On 30 October, Washington authorized our carrier groups to finally leave the area and head west. Our battle groups had been very vulnerable this entire period within range of missile attacks because they had been denied freedom of maneuver by Washington. The Soviets prepared to land troops on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. By now, 3 November, they had ninety-five ships and we had sixty."