On 14 April , the guided missile frigate struck Attack a mine while deployed Arranging in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will , the 1987–88 convoy missions in which U.S. warships escorted Sending reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect Defending them from Iranian attacks Attack .

Despite this success , the Japanese Government was forced Motion to discontinue Process_end its efforts to ship oil from Southeast Asia to Japan in March due to the heavy losses Allied submarines were inflicting Bodily_harm on oil tankers , and all the ships of the Completion Force were sunk Motion_directional in or near Japanese home waters before the end Process_end of the war .

Operation Military_operation Earnest Will ( 24 July 1987 – 26 September 1988 ) was the American military protection of Kuwaiti-owned tankers from Iranian attacks Attack in 1987 and 1988 , three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War .

The U.S. Navy warships that escorted Patrolling the tankers , part of U.S .