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While the convoy was on the road, A-7 fighter-bombers, in the air off the coast, were on call in case the column came under attack. When the options for evacuation were discussed in the White House, General George Brown, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained that a civilian-style helicopter ferry would be impossible; any helicopter evacuation would have to be a fullblown military undertaking−and that would be provocative.
With American and Soviet ships hovering off the Lebanese coast, with routine Israeli naval patrols operating in the area and with Syrian vessels sealing off Lebanese ports, the air waves of the Eastern Mediterranean crackled with the ships' radio and electronic chatter. "It is crowded as hell out there," said an Israeli intelligence official, "even if you cannot see them all together."