Description As violence in Liberia increased in mid June 2003 the US Ambassador to Liberia requested military aid in the event that embassy personnel and American citizens had to be evacuated from the country.
Operation Shining Express was the July 2003 deployment of an American naval task force, consisting of the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and support, to rescue U.S. embassy personnel and American citizens during the Second Liberian Civil War. The deployment was announced on June 13, 2003 and lasted until July 2003.
It followed the successful 1990 rescue effort in Liberia, Operation Sharp Edge.