[lentulusgracchus]

Due to be laid up soon, from what I've read. Failed her predeployment ORI's last year, CO and Engineering Officer were relieved........but then you probably knew about that.

What I want to know is, how did they handle the Chinese requirement that the Chinese red rag fly above our colors during port visits? Hanoi's thugs have that law, too. It's also a violation of Navy regs.

I'd boycott Chinese ports before I displayed Old Glory trailing from a low staff below their bloodthirsty rag. That goes for the Canal Zone, too, where Chinese companies have taken over administering the canal and Chinese nationals are being imported by the shipload.

We're going to have issues down the road with these people, and I don't want to see anyone on our side yielding to Chinese one-upmanship, which is 5,000 years old and seems never to stop.

[DustyMoment]

Actually, I wasn't aware that she was ill, although I was beginning to wonder how much longer she would remain on active duty, she has to be pushing 40 years.

My last squadron deployed aboard her - I didn't, I went to the Philippines (tough duty) but spent a little time aboard her each time she came into port (Subic).

I know they don't last forever, but I hate to see them retire.

[GATOR NAVY]

What I want to know is, how did they handle the Chinese requirement that the Chinese red rag fly above our colors during port visits? Hanoi's thugs have that law, too. It's also a violation of Navy regs.

I've never been to China, but I've been to Hong Kong since the turnover and we didn't fly a PRC flag. I saw pictures of USS Vandegrift pulling into Vietnam last year. They had the Vietnamese flag on the signal yardarms and the U.S. ensign at the gaff. Even if they kept up the Vietnamese flag after they moored and shifted the ensign aft to the flagstaff, the U.S. ensign was at the place of honor. No flags (except for the church pennets) ever fly above the ensign on the same halyard. That's what the regs prohibit.