U.S. Navy Visits Vietnam for First Time Since War

Bloomberg.com ^ | 19 Nov 03

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Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S.S. Vandegrift, the first U.S. Navy ship to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War, arrived in the city formerly known as Saigon and now called Ho Chi Minh City to begin a four-day visit.

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USS VANDEGRIFT (FFG-48)

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ping

[Skwidd]

Blah! I missed the trip. Oh well.

[Severa]

Think I can speak with all certainty that my husband's boat won't be there any time soon...

[GATOR NAVY]

I'll go any place I've never been before, although I don't care for the sweat-ex that usually accompanies port visits like this.

[Skwidd]

Probably not. You're lucky it's on a six-month deployment--OR IS IT?!?!?!

Fact is, there are a lot of 'firsts' when you are forward deployed to 7th fleet. The Vandegrift was also one of the first US Navy ships to visit Zhangjiang, China ever. That was two months ago.

[Skwidd]

Zhangjiang was pretty sweaty itself. "No maintenance! CLEAN!!! PAINT!!!"

(one week later) "Hey! Why didn't any of the maintenance get done last week?"

It's like talking to my dog, except my dog doesn't outrank me.

[Graybeard58]

It's like talking to my dog, except my dog doesn't outrank me.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

-----Winston Churchill

[Severa]

It's like talking to my dog, except my dog doesn't outrank me.

Dammit Skwidd *L* You owe me a new keyboard. And it's a scheduled 6 month deployment, we're not even a third of the way through and they've already tossed the original port call schedule right out the proverbial window.

[68skylark]

That's a really impressive picture.

We have the coolest looking military hardware in the world -- makes me proud to be American!

[snippy_about_it]

I hadn't realized our Navy hadn't been there yet. Interesting read Gator Navy.

[Skwidd]

we're not even a third of the way through and they've already tossed the original port call schedule right out the proverbial window.

Oh, that's standard deployment practice. What is planned is never what happens. I have never been on a deployment that stayed on schedule.

[Severa]

This is our second deployment so I figured as much. *L* He's working on Sonar Sup on this one. That should keep him busy for a while.

[GATOR NAVY]

Looking at google news it doesn't look like there's been much coverage. Stars and Stripes had a good article in today's edition with some photos but the web site hasn't been updated yet.

[Ronin]

The pics of the arrival ceremony were on Japanese TV yesterday. It looked pretty good to me. Made me feel a bit jealous that my sea-going days are all in the past.
]

[Doe Eyes]

Good to see us return to Vietnam. At least they aren't a bunch of communists like Cuba.

[Doe Eyes]

Good to see us return to Vietnam. At least they aren't a bunch of communists like Cuba.

[oyez]

I got a view of socialism's bright future in my local daily paper today. There was a large color photo of two American sailors being transported by human powered vehicles. Marx must be spinning in his grave.

[Steely Glint]

It should have gone in with all guns blazing.

[oyez]

Here we go.

The enviros should love this.