⌛ U.S. Navy in Dumaguete

You know postings sometimes end up being read the wrong inflection. I guess I was trying for humor, but it didn't read that way. Yes beer is cold, I owe you one. I admit last night was foggy, had a few SML's. Rhoody came afer jamming, Fiesta now, lots of folks in town.

My god now you really try to hurt my feelings comparing me to Earl. :D I'll try to be less opinionated, but all in all one can not take all this so seriously,

I think the real reason the Navy was here was to look for that Japanese zero at the harbor. Melvin called them...

 

An eloquent and very appropriate response.

 

GiGie's Sports Bar, had alot of the sailors stop in for a great burger. They were well mannered, polite, a pleasure to have met them. They came back every day. Played cards with the Expats, chatted with the locals. My only comment is that the Navy must not know how to make a good burger, the way these guys put them down.

 

Well Rico, in the Navy burgers are referred to as "sliders"....

Does that give ya an idea?

 

French ship to visit Cebu tomorrow

A FRENCH warship carrying two Exocet MM38 missiles will arrive at the Cebu International Port tomorrow for a goodwill visit until Saturday.

Cebu Port Authority (CPA) General Manager Angelo Verdan said that mv Vendemiaire F734, which will arrive from China, has standard armaments on board, without nuclear warheads.

No nukes

Verdan said the passage of vessels with nuclear weapons is against the law.

Nuclear weapons is also banned under the Visiting Forces Agreement signed between the Philippines and the United States.

Verdan said that the shipping agent, Supply Oilfield Services Inc., is only coordinating with CPA on berthing area. The organized tours for the crew are arranged by other agencies.

Vendemiaire F734 has 11 high-ranking officers, 36 non-commissioned officers, 42 men and 11 pilots for helicopter gunships and warplanes.
Boats, landing area

Emmanuel Labella, chief of the Bureau of Quarantine 7, said the vessel, which has boats and a landing area for aircraft, will be also inspected by boarding officers from customs, immigration, veterinary, plant and fisheries.

Donji Flores, logistics manager of Supply Oilfield, said in the notice of arrival he submitted to the Bureau of Quarantine that the vessel is here on a goodwill visit.

The vessel was commissioned by France on Oct. 21, 1993 in service of the French military in the Middle East and Asia.

 

I don't know about the French navy, but the geniuses at the top in the American Navy have started this idiotic practice of giving these ships and sailors liberty call in Mombasa Kenya and other ports in East Africa where the HIV/AIDS infection rate is through the roof.

And than letting the same boys come ashore in ports in the Philippines.

This is insane, almost criminally, on the part of the people letting it happen.

Please lets keep these ships out of Dumaguete.

Ours is a beautiful university and college town, no need to stoop to a level of subservience for the Navy.

 

Well, this has gone downhill faster than a penguin on roller skates.

since this is now yesterdays news, I'll do a recap just in case someone wants the facts. Oo I made a pun...

Facts;

The reuben James was here for a few days, 4 I think
Some personel did volunteer work in the community
some Sailors on the BVLD openly talked about somehow assisting in oil exploration, others did not
Many prostitutes came for the occasion from Bacolod and Cebu
Bars extended their hours in some instances
There were other ships moored next to the RJ that had some strange floats, booms and small craft on board

Everything else is opinion and conjecture.

 

Its been previously speculated by RHB the recent port visit by the USS Reuben James was here on a secret mission to search for oil in the Tanon Strait. I pulled the below article from a Taiwan newspaper. It clearly shows the vessel was diverted to the Philippines since it was denied port call to Hong Kong.

Before accusing the US Navy doing oil searches in the straight lets get our facts straight.
PRC denies entry to more US carriers
REJECTION: Aside from the USS `Kitty Hawk,' China also rejected a request by the USS `Reuben James' and a cargo plane support mission for the US consulate in Hong Kong
By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Sunday, Dec 02, 2007, Page 1

The saga over China's refusal to allow US warships to enter Hong Kong took another twist on Friday, when it was confirmed that Beijing had rejected more US requests for a holiday visit and a consulate support flight to Hong Kong.

Beijing told Washington on Nov. 22 that it was rejecting a request for a New Year's visit by the USS Reuben James, Pentagon East Asia public affairs officer Stewart Upton told the Taipei Times.

That was the same date that Beijing told Washington it made a mistake in rejecting a request by the USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group to visit Hong Kong for Thanksgiving. But by that time, it was too late, and the group sailed back to its Japanese base.

At the same time it rejected the Navy frigate Reuben James' visit, Beijing also nixed the flight of a C-17 cargo plane to Hong Kong for its scheduled quarterly support mission for the US consulate, Upton said.

The rejections appear to have deepened the military crisis between Beijing and Washington, which Chinese foreign ministry officials have linked to the expansion of US arms sales to Taiwan this year.

Over the past three months, the Pentagon has notified Congress of plans to sell more that US$2 billion in major defense systems aimed at countering a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

concern

That has come as Beijing has expressed serious concern over President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) plan for a referendum on joining the UN using the name "Taiwan" to coincide with the presidential election in March.

Potentially adding to the tensions are reports that the Kitty Hawk group, after sailing from the Hong Kong area, traveled through the Taiwan Strait and may have encountered a secret Chinese military exercise simulating an invasion of Taiwan.

At the White House, spokesman Dana Perino said that the Bush administration was "communicating with [Beijing], and I am sure that we will be able to work it out with them ... We are working to make sure that this situation can be resolved."

For the second day in a row, Perino tried to put a positive face on the crisis, emphasizing the positive aspects to US-China relations.

"This incident has not prevented us from being able to work with the Chinese," she told reporters on Friday. "We have a deep and mature relationship."

President George W. Bush believes, Perino said, that "this relationship is growing and maturing, and this is something the two nations should be able to work through, and I don't think escalating it everyday is necessary."

nine in all

The latest Chinese actions brought to nine the number of US warships denied entry into Hong Kong since China took over the territory from Britain in 1997.

That includes the Kitty Hawk and five vessels in its group, the USS Reuben James, and two minesweepers turned away from Hong Kong last month after getting caught in a violent storm at sea.

After the handover, the US and China reached an agreement on port visits that gave China veto over the port calls, but anticipated a routine approval of such visits.

Some 50 US warships visit Hong Kong annually, and port calls have been rejected only in extreme periods of US-China tension, such as the EP-3 incident in 2001 in which a US reconnaissance plane was forced down over Hainan.

The level of turndowns is unprecedented and some observers in Washington think it reflects a new period of US-China tension over Taiwan and Tibet.

 

Well then good detective work.
But please don't shoot the messenger. Read clealry my posts, It is no accusation of mine, or theory of my creation regarding the "secret" (your words not mine) mission of the Reuben James.
The fact remains that sailors repeated stories to locals regarding some sort of involvement with oil operations here. More than once to one person. Maybe they were joking, or using it as a cover story to hide the fact that they were kicked out of China. It doesn't matter really.
And since we did not have privy to this info at the time, speculation was certainly justified. Plus it was fun... Wasn't it?

 

Actually the US is really in a bad way with China now because they are intentionally devaluing their greenbacks to pay down their 9 TRILLION dollar debt. They claim to support a strong dollar but it's BS. They just don't want an uncontrolled plummet when everybody dumps them. Anyhow, China has 1 TRILLION in foriegn reserves and they are smoking pissed off right now because those reserves are plummeting in value. The US is also loading up Taiwan with missles now and having State dinners with the Dalai Lama further infuriating Bejing. There is no way to really test out a port and maybe do some underwater mapping than coming into port. If things ever got to the point of violent conflict with China, guess where the US ships will be looking for viable ports ? It makes perfect sense in terms of military intelligence for war ships to check out as many ports as they can especially in the ever important asian seas. Yet another reason to not buy property there. It will be the battle ground for any Chinese military conflict.