Tag: U.S. Navy

The Chinese are not going to like how the Japanese continue to expand their naval activities in the South China Sea in support of the U.S.’s freedom of navigation mission there:

The littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords joined two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships for training in the contentious South China Sea on Tuesday, a Navy statement said.

The Navy vessel sailed with the JMSDF’s training ships JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki to “emphasize the importance of communications and coordination while operating together,” according to the statement.

“The opportunity to operate with our friends and allies at sea is incredibly important for our combined readiness and partnership,” Expeditionary Strike Group 7 commander Rear Adm. Fred Kacher said in the statement.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese claim nearly the entire South China Sea as part of China. The freedom of navigation patrols by the U.S. and other countries supporting the American effort challenge these Chinese claims.

Just imagine what a message would be sent to Beijing if South Korea joined Japan on one of these patrols. It will never happen under the current government, but maybe a possibility down the road if the politics in South Korea changes.

This is a sign of the changing technology:

An assessment prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense proposes cutting two aircraft carriers from the U.S. Navy’s roster to boost the number of smaller warships. Under the proposal, the Navy would retire two aircraft carriers and plow the savings into buying several dozen frigate-sized ships, as well as large unmanned ships. The proposal is likely to run into stiff opposition from proponents of carriers as well as the carrier lobby both inside and outside government.

The study, according to Defense News, would trim the number of nuclear-powered “supercarriers” from 11 to just nine. The number of large surface combatants, both guided missile cruisers and guided missile destroyers, would remain constant at between 80 and 90, compared to the approximately 83 ships in service right now. The number of frigate-sized small surface combatants, on the other hand, would swell from 15 to 20 to between 55 and 70.

Popular Mechanics

You can read more at the link, but smaller ships including unmanned ships make more sense if the Navy is preparing for a conflict to keep sea lanes open in the South China Sea. Bulky carriers that are big targets for China’s increasing ballistic missile capabilities are more challenging to deploy in response to such a crisis.

This news is not surprising to me after I read the transcript of what Modly told the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt about their commanding officer who was relieved earlier this week:

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday amid mounting criticism for his disparaging comments about the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who he fired over a leaked letter requesting aid for the coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement Tuesday that he had accepted Modly’s resignation.

“He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward,” Esper said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I understand why Captain Crozier was relieved, but it probably would have been better to let an investigation happen first.

However, Secretary Modly just through gasoline on the fire with his remarks about Captain Crozier that was addressed to the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. Most of his remarks were actually spot on and very good points, but attacking Crozier as being “too naïve or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this” was uncalled for in my opinion.

He should have been smart enough to know he should have just thanked Crozier for his service and that this was an unfortunate one-time incident that shouldn’t take away from the brilliant career he had, or words to that effect.

Ultimately here is yet another mess for the U.S. Navy. They are on their third Secretary of the Navy since November. I feel bad for all the great sailors that have to deal with this circus.

The former Captain in charge of the Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved has become something of a folk hero on social media:

A cheering and applauding crowd of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt wished farewell to their captain, whom the Navy relieved of command after he raised concerns about the spreading coronavirus on his ship in a letter that was leaked to the media.

Hundreds were pictured in the gathering in the ship’s hangar deck and many chanted Capt. Brett Crozier’s name in multiple videos posted to social media.

A video posted Friday to the Facebook page of Michael Washington included the hashtags #MYCO and #WEARETRSTRONG.

“That’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” someone says in the video, then using an acronym for greatest of all time, adds: “The GOAT, the man for the people.”

Crozier was dismissed Thursday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and for not using his chain of command to make service leaders aware of his concerns about the virus outbreak that had infected more than 100 sailors on the ship, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.

Stars & Stripes

When I first heard about this story I thought initially he got screwed, but unlike social media I actually will go and read more source documents about what happened.

The memo that was leaked is posted on the San Francisco Chronicle website and the first thing I thought while reading the letter is why wasn’t this sent over a SIPR computer which classified information should be sent? The letter was filled with information about the operational readiness of the ship. Sending the message over a classified network would have avoided this whole mess.

Secondly, here is the part of the San Francisco Chronicle article that was buried that no one is talking about; why was the crew allowed to go on shore leave in Vietnam?:

Gilday told reporters last week it was unclear if sailors became infected following the ship’s previous port of call in early March to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gilday said they debated whether to go on with the Vietnam visit, but at the time there were only 16 coronavirus cases in northern Vietnam and the port was in the central part of the country.

Sailors were screened prior to returning on board. The first three sailors tested positive 15 days after leaving Vietnam, officials said.

San Francisco Chronicle

I read that 16 infected number and instantly did not believe it because it is coming from a regime, just like the Chinese, that can easily suppress information. Vietnam likely has a far larger coronavirus problem that they don’t want the outside world to know about. It seems to me this was a very bad decision to have a port call in a country right next door to the coronavirus epicenter.

Lastly for people that have been to Naval Base Guam, this is not a huge base with a lot of open accommodations for 5,000 people on an aircraft carrier that just showed up. The only place to house that many people in rooms that can be quarantined would be in resort hotels in Tumon. Think of Tumon as the mini-Waikiki of Guam, outside of the military Tumon is the economic engine of Guam with its tourist industry.

How many resort hotels you think were eager to fill their business with sailors possibly infected with coronavirus? Plus how many residents of Guam wanted these sailors in the community when they see photos like this of sailors congregating on the beach in defiance of orders put out by the local government to practice social distancing:

Getting this many sailors into resort hotels was going to take Navy leaders time to make happen with the local government and hotel owners:

Moving sailors out of Naval Base Guam into hotels was criticized by Sen. Sabina Perez and community groups. 

Eight community groups said in a statement: “The decision to house them in the middle of our community is playing a game of chance with the health of our people.”

Pacific Daily News

This was not going to be something easily done especially when you take in consideration the sensitivities the people of Guam have of past colonization. The Navy was going to have to work carefully with Guam’s political leadership to make this happen and all indications are they did:

When the vessel docked, there were no beds and now, a week later, there are almost 3,000 beds for the crew, Modly told reporters at a press briefing. Creating available space for the sailors happened in a week, he said.

“That’s not because of this letter,” Modly said, referring to Crozier’s letter. “That’s because of stuff going on well before the letter was sent.”

Modly added the letter was sent via email and copied to 20 or 30 other people. The letter created the perception the Navy wasn’t on the job and created a degree of panic, he said.

It seems like people on social media are looking for a COVID-19 hero of some kind, but Captain Crozier in my opinion is not it. If people want some COVID-19 heroes here are the people that get my vote.

Does anyone think that a bio-attack will be used in a future conflict when an aircraft carrier can be taken out like this:

The Navy, the military service hit hardest by the coronavirus, scrambled Friday to contain its first at-sea outbreak, with at least two dozen infected aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of 11 active aircraft carriers whose mission is central to the Pentagon’s strategy for deterring war with China and Iran.

The Roosevelt and its contingent of warplanes may be sidelined for days, sitting pier side in Guam as the entire crew — more than 5,000 — is tested. Navy leaders say the carrier could return to duty at any time if required, but the sudden setback is seen as a harbinger of more trouble to come.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Unlike how the Korean court system handles sex criminals, this how the US military handles them:

A Navy police officer was sentenced to 39 years in prison after his conviction Friday of seven child sex crimes involving an acquaintance’s 6- and 8-year-old children.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Pyron, 29, a former master-at-arms at Yokosuka, was found guilty of rape of a child; two counts of attempted rape of a child; and four counts of sexual abuse of a child by indecent communication, indecent exposure and sexual contact after a weeklong jury trial.

The charges stem from the night of Feb. 4, after a Super Bowl party at a new friend’s house, when Pyron was accused of exposing himself to the children, rubbing himself on the 8-year-old and having the 6-year-old perform oral sex on him, according to court testimony.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but unsurprisingly alcohol was involved in this incident.

There has been another horrible murder incident on Okinawa that will probably get the anti-US protesters riled up again:

A U.S. sailor fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself on Okinawa, Japanese officials said.
The two were found dead Saturday morning inside a six-story apartment building in the Kuwae district of Chatan, according to an Okinawa Prefectural Police spokesman.
The woman’s child was present when the incident occurred and called a relative, who then called police at 7:26 a.m., the spokesman said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder how long this guy has been doing this considering he was so open and flamboyant about it before being caught:

The commander of a fast-attack submarine was relieved of his duties last summer after admitting he paid for “female accompaniment” during a stop in the Philippines, a Washington state newspaper reported Friday.
Capt. Travis Zettel, who lost his job aboard the USS Bremerton in late August because of “a loss in confidence in his ability to command,” was reassigned to the Submarine Squadron 19 staff at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Navy officials said at the time. (……)

During the submarine’s March visit to Subic Bay, Philippines, Zettel was seen with 10 “provocatively dressed females outside the front door of [his] hotel,” a sailor told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after calling an Inspector General hotline, according to the newspaper.
The tipster said Zettel told him and another sailor that he’d “ordered ten girls,” the report said. Another sailor told investigators he saw Zettel walking around and talking to other sailors in his command with “three local females holding onto his arm.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is a lot of people to get rolled up all at once for drug crimes:

Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

Another 10 sailors with the Japan-based ship were administratively disciplined on LSD-related charges, Keiley said.

A 15th sailor was also disciplined, but that person was not assigned to the carrier’s reactor department.

I think you can put this in the poor excuse department;

In an email arranging to hand off proprietary Navy information to the flamboyant contractor Leonard Francis, Navy Cmdr. Troy Amundson described himself as “a small dog just trying to get a bone.”

Later that night, Francis procured the services of several prostitutes from Mongolia for Amundson, prosecutors say, just one in a string of bribes that Francis paid for leaked military data.

On Friday, Amundson was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He joins the ranks of more than a dozen other Navy officials whose military service is now tarnished with felony records for getting cozy with Francis in what has become the worst corruption scandal to hit the Navy in decades.

Amundson, a decorated combat pilot, told the judge that, at the time, he didn’t realize what he was doing was illegal. The ship schedules laying out port visits in Southeast Asia that he passed on to Francis weren’t classified and were regularly given to contractors, his lawyers said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but like the judge in this case I find it hard to believe that this naval commander did not know accepting prostitutes in return for information was illegal.