By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group may stop over on Guam as part of its new assignment in the Pacific, Navy sources said.
The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group departed San Diego on Jan. 27 on a surge deployment in order to fill in for the USS Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s only permanently forward deployed aircraft carrier, as it undergoes scheduled maintenance in Yokuska, Japan.
The Reagan CSG is comprised of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, Commander Carrier Strike Group 7, Carrier Air Wing 14, Destroyer Squadron 7, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, the guided-missile destroyer USS Russell, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit 11, Detachment 15.
Navy sources said the aircraft strike group might schedule a stopover on Guam from Feb. 18-21 before heading off to Japan and South Korea “for a show of force.”
Aside from the Reagan CSG, the USS John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group reportedly passed near Guam on its way to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf where U.S.-Iran tensions have been on the rise.
The Reagan CSG’s unexpected deployment is an indirect result of President Bush’s new decision to station a second carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf.
The Reagan CSG will fulfill patrol duties in the western Pacific in place of the Stennis Carrier Strike Group, which the president sent to the Persian Gulf as added muscle to supplement the strike group of the Virginia-based carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Stennis carrier strike group includes three aviation squadrons as well as the cruiser Antietam, destroyer Preble and frigate Rentz.
It was scheduled for a routine cruise in the western Pacific before it was diverted to the Persian Gulf.