Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the buildup in the Caribbean reached a significant milestone—as of now, 15,000 U.S. personnel, 11 warships & over 70 carrier-based aircraft are deployed to the Caribbean Sea as one of the largest regional deployments in years. The USS Gerald R. Ford and its Carrier Strike Group—bringing squadrons from Virginia, Florida & Washington—are the center of the buildup. With the USS Ford are the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima; destroyers USS Gravely & USS Stockdale; and guided-missile cruisers USS Lake Erie & USS Gettysburg. Add in the roughly 5,000 additional personnel positioned in Puerto Rico (including the recently reopened Roosevelt Roads) and the 2,200 Marines embarked from Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River (a Marine Expeditionary Unit capable of fully self-supporting amphibious ops) and you’ve got a formidable show-of-force. . The deployment “Operation Southern Spear” aims to cut off the narcotics pipeline flowing north from Venezuela and neighboring j...