Aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Harry S. Truman during an October 2004 to April 2005 cruise in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Russell served as the operations officer for the Truman Strike Group's destroyer squadron. The majority of the group's operations were conducted under the auspices of an exercise called Sea Dragon, which aimed to "deter international terrorism" and "push it out of the maritime environment." "Whether it be smuggling people or arms or weapons of mass destruction," Russell said, "we were there to work with other regional navies to identify potential terrorist routes … help protect oil platforms" and develop and further enhance alliances with such countries as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Recommending how the effectiveness of such exercises can be improved, he argues that six-month deployments are not often long enough to build solid training relationships, especially considering two months are spent in transit. “Every four months, there’s a new group rolling in, and I think it’s hard in that part of the world. You have to convince them it’s worth their effort,” Russell observed, “because they know if there’s a personality conflict, they can just wait you out.” In this interview, he also discusses the importance of Arabic and Islamic cultural awareness, the virtually “unlimited communications capabilities” and high quality of life onboard carriers, as well as the unique “political nature of the ship,” which caused staff members to jokingly create “an additional warfare area called ‘diplomatic warfare.’”

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