Free Republic

HASC chair: Don’t mothball the cruisers, upgrade them House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon said Wednesday he wants the Navy to keep the seven cruisers it has proposed decommissioning because the fleet needs the ships to reach their full lives. He told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library out in California that he would try to help save the ships that Secretary Panetta and other top leaders — though not Navy leaders — have basically characterized as worn out. “We will try to hold back cuts to the Navy’s cruiser force,” he said, “finding the money...

Story Number: NNS040310-05 Release Date: 3/11/2004 3:00:00 PM By Fire Controlman 2nd Class Joseph W. Lovett, USS Port Royal, and Lt. Chris Davis, ESG 1 Public Affairs PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- USS Port Royal (CG 73) returned home to Pearl Harbor March 11 following a six-and-a-half month deployment with Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 1. The 350 crew members assigned to Port Royal returned to “the Navy’s best homeport” following operations in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Port Royal deployed Sept. 2 with ESG 1, supporting a Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps-sanctioned...

Story Number: NNS040310-04 Release Date: 3/10/2004 8:58:00 AM By Stacey Byington, Naval Station Pascagoula Public Affairs PASCAGOULA, Miss. (NNS) -- USS Ticonderoga (CG 47) will depart its homeport at Naval Station Pascagoula for its final deployment March 10. The ship is scheduled to be decommissioned Sept. 30. While deployed, the ship will initially conduct counter-drug operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and then participate in UNITAS operations off the coast of South America. UNITAS is an annual series of multinational training exercises and operations conducted by the Navy, Marine Corps, Special Operations and U.S. Coast Guard forces...