Latest news with #7thFleet
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
US, Philippines militaries conduct drills in waters adjacent to the China-claimed South China Sea
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The militaries of the U.S. and Philippines have carried out joint drills in waters adjacent to the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, amid a rising number of incidents between China and the Philippines in the vital Southeast Asian waterway. Participating in the maneuvers in the Sulu Sea this week were ships and aircraft from navies and coast guards, along with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. 7th Fleet responsible for the Asia-Pacific said in a statement. It said the drills included 'exercises in maritime domain awareness, division tactics, maneuvering' and search and seizure. There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the drills. In a new national map released in 2003, the Chinese government demarcated its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, with vague dash lines that drew protests and rejections from rival coastal governments, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines. China has transformed seven disputed reefs into what are now missile-protected island bases, including Mischief Reef, which lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The Sulu Sea lies inside that zone. China has ignored a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated China's extensive territorial claims based on historical grounds, and objects to activities by the U.S. military in the region — specifically those that challenge its island claims and threat to invade Taiwan, just north of the Sulu Sea. The U.S. lays no claims in the waters, but has declared that freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of the conflicts are in its core national interests. The U.S. also has a treaty obligating it to defend the Philippines if attacked and has been dispatching additional troops and weaponry to upgrade the island nation's ability to defend itself. China routinely harasses Philippine fishing boats in parts of the South China Sea, also within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) from its coastline.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
US, Philippines militaries conduct drills in waters adjacent to the China-claimed South China Sea
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The militaries of the U.S. and Philippines have carried out joint drills in waters adjacent to the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, amid a rising number of incidents between China and the Philippines in the vital Southeast Asian waterway. Participating in the maneuvers in the Sulu Sea this week were ships and aircraft from navies and coast guards, along with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. 7th Fleet responsible for the Asia-Pacific said in a statement. It said the drills included 'exercises in maritime domain awareness, division tactics, maneuvering' and search and seizure. There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the drills. In a new national map released in 2003, the Chinese government demarcated its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, with vague dash lines that drew protests and rejections from rival coastal governments, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines. China has transformed seven disputed reefs into what are now missile-protected island bases, including Mischief Reef, which lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The Sulu Sea lies inside that zone. China has ignored a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated China's extensive territorial claims based on historical grounds, and objects to activities by the U.S. military in the region — specifically those that challenge its island claims and threat to invade Taiwan, just north of the Sulu Sea. The U.S. lays no claims in the waters, but has declared that freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of the conflicts are in its core national interests. The U.S. also has a treaty obligating it to defend the Philippines if attacked and has been dispatching additional troops and weaponry to upgrade the island nation's ability to defend itself. China routinely harasses Philippine fishing boats in parts of the South China Sea, also within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) from its coastline.
Newsroom
16-05-2025
- General
- Newsroom
How the grand old dame of the US Navy navigated NZ's nuke-free policy
Analysis: Here's one for the ship spotters. One of the biggest American warships ever to visit New Zealand sailed into Wellington on Friday morning. There are brass bands. There are flags and bunting. The 19,600 ton (17,800 tonne) USS Blue Ridge is the flagship of America's Seventh Fleet and, at the age of 56 years, is also the grand old lady of the US Navy. (As best I can discover, the Blue Ridge is the biggest US Navy vessel to visit since the 1968 Vietnam War-era visit of the aircraft carrier USS America, which fully laden was 83,573 long displacement tons, which is 84,914 US tons, or 77,031 metric tonnes, or … oh, never mind, it was big). The ship's leadership is scheduled to meet with Kiwi counterparts and local leaders to discuss ways of improving operational readiness, advancing future military capabilities, and enhancing the US-New Zealand bilateral relationship. 'This historic port visit by the USS Blue Ridge and our 7th Fleet team speaks to deep ties the US and New Zealand share,' says Vice Admiral Fred Kacher, commander of the US 7th Fleet. 'Our partnership is rooted in our common values and respect, and our visit here represents an important opportunity for us to further strengthen the bond between our nations and our navies.' So, umm, the question not addressed by the US State Department press release: how are we getting around the nuke ship ban to allow US warships to visit again? Like I say, this is one for the ship spotters. New Zealanders had protested US nuclear-powered ships since the visits of the cruisers USS Truxtun and Long Beach in 1976. But things really came to a head when the destroyer USS Texas visited Auckland and Wellington in 1983. My recollection (but I'm damned if I can find a source to confirm this) is a protester in a kayak banging his paddle on the side of the ship and declaring gleefully, 'I can hear the nukes rattling inside!' Kevin Hackwell went on to lead Forest & Bird, but he was a young member of the peace movement at the time. He and a friend got wind from the police, a month out, that the Texas would be visiting. So they spent that month training in the sea – and when it steamed into Wellington Harbour, they swum out from Point Jerningham. The plan, Hackwell tells me, was to spraypaint 'Ban the Bomb' on the hull – but that proved impossible in the choppy waters. So instead, he tied a neoprene ribbon to the anchor chain. They got spotted and had to swim away; when they got back to shore, police were waiting to arrest them. The following year, the Fourth Labour Government was elected and soon after, David Lange banned visits from nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships. To America, this act of defiance undermined its strategic position in friendly ports around the world. Although New Zealand was still willing to accept visits from non-nuclear US ships (as it always has from French and Royal Navy ships), the Reagan Administration stuck resolutely to its 'neither confirm nor deny' policy. That's not to say there weren't attempts to send US ships to New Zealand. The US quietly negotiated to send an ageing tub named USS Buchanan. While theoretically nuclear-capable, everyone knew it didn't carry nukes. But when the New Zealand Government (in something of a communications breakdown) turned down even the Buchanan, that was the final straw. The US barred any visits by any naval ships to New Zealand, and the visits of any New Zealand navy ships to its ports, and the Anzus alliance crumbled. There was one more comms breakdown in 2003, that I discovered and reported as political editor of the Sunday Star-Times. The US Army landing craft USS Great Bridge, based in Guam, sought permission for a routine US$1.4m refit in a commercial dockyard in New Zealand. It was halfway down the Pacific, when an American official somewhere found out and ordered action stations. The ship's captain was cabled and reminded of the US ban on military ship visits, and the vessel was redirected to Australia. Subsequent diplomatic cables, published on Wikileaks, revealed American embassy discussions of the incident, and my reports. 'Milne's article posited that the US Government lost a chance to break the 20-year diplomatic stalemate, noting that PM [Helen] Clark claimed it was 'highly likely' that a request for such a refit would have been approved once it was determined that the ship fit New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation.' Perhaps my articles back then were overly sympathetic to the US Government – because the subsequent leaked cables to Washington DC described me as 'the respected Sunday Star-Times reporter', and my articles as 'well-balanced'. I guess you take the wins where you can get them! Then, after years of negotiations between successive New Zealand and US governments, the long stalemate finally ended in 2012, when US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta announced he was lifting the prohibition on ship visits. And in 2016, PM John Key agreed to the arrival of the destroyer USS Sampson, for the New Zealand Navy's 75th birthday celebrations in Auckland. The Sampson never made it to the birthday party. The Kaikōura earthquake hit, and the American ship instead detoured to the small South Island town, where captain and crew assisted with the emergency response. The first US warship visit in 30 years was not to Wellington or Auckland, but to Kaikōura. In 2021, PM Jacinda Ardern welcomed another destroyer, the USS Howard. And this week, the biggest post-rapprochement visit of all, the USS Blue Ridge. The difficulty is, New Zealand's nuclear-free policy hasn't changed. And neither has the American policy to 'neither confirm nor deny'. So how have the two nations negotiated their way through this? With a lot of determination and goodwill, is the short answer – and perhaps a degree of grace and humility. There won't be any visits from nuclear-powered aircraft carriers or submarines – New Zealand law prohibits visits from nuclear-powered vessels. As for nuclear weapons, the law reads: 'The Prime Minister may only grant approval for the entry into the internal waters of New Zealand by foreign warships if the Prime Minister is satisfied that the warships will not be carrying any nuclear explosive device upon their entry into the internal waters of New Zealand.' So ahead of this week's visit, we may be certain that the US sought diplomatic clearance. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have conducted an assessment, before advising Christopher Luxon that the Blue Ridge is neither nuclear-powered, nor nuclear-armed. That would allow him to satisfy himself, as the law requires, that the USS Blue Ridge is compliant with New Zealand's nuclear ships ban. And the US is not required to compromise its 'neither confirm nor deny' policy. Kevin Hackwell doesn't question the PM's assessment that the Blue Ridge isn't nuclear armed. US Navy surface ships, by doctrine, do not carry nuclear weapons. But he got close to the US Navy once before; he doesn't think New Zealand needs to get close again. 'The US is proving to be a very unreliable ally,' he says. 'Given the stance of the US, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region against China, we should be distancing ourselves. We shouldn't be militarily aligned with them. We shouldn't be aligned with China either. New Zealand should be taking an independent foreign policy and military stance.' To be fair, New Zealand's foreign policy remains officially independent. And what is apparent is that Luxon is taking a wait-and-see approach as tensions between the US and China, on either side of the Pacific, heighten. His initial instincts to align more closely with the US have clearly been shaken by Donald Trump's volatility on foreign policy, and his fervour for a trade war. Luxon is right to pause and take time. As for Hackwell, he is now 69. He lives in Wellington, but his days of swimming out to warships are done. 'I just about died last time. I got hypothermia. No, I'm not swimming out to the Blue Ridge today!'
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Meet Lt. Preston, one of the only PT crewmen to be awarded the MOH
On Sept. 15, 1944, the 31st U.S. Infantry Division landed on the southwestern beach on the island of Morotai, Indonesia, which was deemed necessary as a base to support the upcoming campaign in the Philippines. This step across the South Pacific was garrisoned by only 500 Japanese soldiers and was virtually taken without a fight. In contrast, the nearby island of Halmahera had 37,000 Japanese troops and ample artillery, but the Americans contented themselves with bypassing it. On Sept. 16, however, a 7th Fleet task group of escort carriers under Rear Adm. Daniel Barbey bombed and rocketed the isolated installations on Halmahera, unwittingly triggering one of the war's high dramas. It began shortly before 7 a.m. when eight FM-2 Wildcats of Navy fighter squadron VF-26 from the escort carrier Santee strafed three barges east of Lolabata. One FM-2 was hit by antiaircraft fire and its pilot, Ensign Harold Thompson, was blown out of it at 350 feet altitude with a mangled hand and a lacerated leg. Thompson landed 50 yards from the enemy-held coast in Wasile Bay and took cover behind a lugger that, fortunately for him, was unoccupied and camouflaged with palm fronds. Despite damage to his life vest, Thompson found that a tide was slowly carrying him seaward, where a Consolidated PBY-5a Catalina spotted him and braved Japanese antiaircraft fire to drop a one-man raft, which unluckily landed among the enemy. Making an even more daring second run, the PBY succeeded in dropping another life raft 50 yards from Thompson, who swam to it. Meanwhile, Thompson's squadron mates kept Japanese troops distracted until 9:30 a.m. when their fuel and ammunition gave out, but their places were taken by four Wildcats of composite squadron VC-66 from the escort carrier Fanshaw Bay, led by Lt. J.P. Fox. The hours that passed saw more rotations among the escort carrier planes against the Japanese gunners, the latter taking their toll on pilots grimly determined to save one of their own at any cost. Ensign Jesse McNinch of VF-37 from the escort carrier Sangamon was bombing Japanese installations at Galela when he was shot down and killed. A Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat flown by Ensign Paul Lindskog of VF-60 from the escort carrier Suwannee was hit by a 5-inch shell, but he managed to bail out unhurt in safer waters and was rescued. Less fortunate was Ensign William Bannister of VF-60, whose F6F-3 crashed in the water 100 yards from Thompson, but never emerged from his sinking fighter. Oil starvation compelled another VF-37 pilot from the Sangamon, Ensign Merville Knackstedt, to ditch at sea and spend the night in a life raft. At this point, with Thompson still trapped within Wasile Bay, Barbey requested assistance from a new source: With Morotai secured, 41 patrol torpedo boats in four squadrons, supported by PT boat tenders, sent 16 boats out on their first overnight patrol. That patrol order, however, soon turned into the command to perform a seaborne rescue right from under the enemy's noses. Lt. Arthur Preston, commander of motor torpedo boat squadron Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, stepped forward to lead the attempt and quickly gathered volunteers. Born in Chevy Chase, Maryland on Nov. 1, 1918, Preston attended the Phillips Academy in 1931, followed by study at Yale University and the University of Virginia School Law. He was a practicing attorney in 1938, but in September 1940 he joined the U.S. Navy Reserve. Wartime found him commanding a PT boat and during the Solomons campaign he was friends with PT-109′s commander (and future president) Lt. John F. Kennedy. When Preston led his two wooden craft into the bay at 1350 hours, Thomas, his raft and the lugger in which he hid were still only 200 yards from the beach. Preston called for a smoke screen from the aircraft and Lt. George Stouffer, piloting a TBM-1 Avenger, accommodated him while the PTs again entered Kao Bay and turned east into Wasile. Over the next two and a half hours, PT-489 and PT-363 dodged shells through the bay while a TBM, piloted by Lt. Dwight Long, laid more smoke between the PTs and the questing Japanese gunners. As the boats finally reached their objective, they found Thompson too exhausted to make the final five yards to reach them. Without hesitation, PT-489′s intelligence officer, Lt. Don Seaman and Motor Machinist 1st Class Charles Day dove overboard, cut the rope by which Thompson had bound himself to the lugger and returned to the boat. As they departed, still under constant shelling, the PTs bid the enemy goodbye with their 40mm cannons, setting the lugger on fire before departing. Miraculously, only minor damage was inflicted on the boats and none of the participating rescuers were hurt. After 11 hours in the water with his hand and leg wounds, Thompson remarked in retrospect that it 'sure was a wonderful show to watch.' For their roles in Thompson's rescue, Seaman and Day were awarded the Navy Cross, while Preston received the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman on Dec. 19, 1947. He is one of only two PT boat crewmen awarded his country's highest honor during WWII. Preston retired from the Navy as a commander in 1953 and worked as a banker thereafter, before his death on Jan. 7, 1968. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
