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Sailors aboard the cruiser Shiloh during the 26-month command of Capt. Adam M. Aycock often worried about the CO’s use of one of the Navy’s most arcane punishments: confinement for three days in the brig while being fed only bread and water. Over time, Aycock’s proclivity for using bread and water to punish junior sailors became well-known on the Yokosuka, Japan, waterfront, where the Shiloh is based, according to sailor comments in three of the ship’s command climate surveys. “I do not wear my ballcap at the (Navy Exchange store),” one sailor wrote. “Even the taxi drivers on base know...

YOKOSUKA, Japan (Reuters) - The USS Shiloh, the first missile-defense capable ship to be deployed in Japan, arrived in the port of Yokosuka on Tuesday, eight weeks after North Korea unnerved the region with a barrage of missile tests. The deployment of the Shiloh, boasting Standard Missile-3 interceptors for shooting down medium-range ballistic missiles, is a highly symbolic first step in a joint U.S.-Japanese program to try to shield Japan and the region from any a missile attack. The two allies stressed the significance of the ship's arrival as an example of the importance the United States attaches to its...

(CBS News) TOKYO A new top-of-the-line U.S. guided missile destroyer with missile-tracking radar was deployed to Japan on Saturday, as tensions mounted over neighboring North Korea's recent missile tests. The USS Mustin arrived Saturday at Yokosuka, homeport to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, with its crew of 300 sailors for permanent assignment to the region, said 7th Fleet spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka. The move comes as the United States restructures its regional defenses amid growing concern about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, which stunned northeastern Asia on Wednesday by test-firing seven missiles. In August, Yokosuka will also welcome the USS...

The U.S. Navy's two Aegis-equipped destroyers temporarily left the waters in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific side of Japan where they had been deployed to detect and track North Korea's missile launches, U.S. administration sources said Friday. The move stems from North Korea's failed test of a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile and a U.S. assessment that it will take time for the North to prepare to launch another one. The two destroyers, the Curtis Wilbur and Fitzgerald, had been deployed in those waters since North Korea accelerated its preparation over the past weeks to launch the Taepodong-2,...

LANCASTER - Brent Sforzini, a U.S. Navy fire controlman, and his shipmates aboard the USS Shiloh spent their deployment in the Persian Gulf as part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Friday, Sforzini brought back stories from the battle group to the students at Lincoln Elementary School in Lancaster. A week ago, when the ship docked in San Diego, the 24-year-old Sforzini and his shipmates were greeted by a crowd of people cheering and waving American flags. At Friday morning's assembly in the school yard, Lincoln School students cheered and waved small American flags to...

Helicopters Provide Surveillance in Gulf By MATTHEW ROSENBERG .c The Associated Press ABOARD THE USS SHILOH (AP) - It was the kind of day pilots dream of - clear skies with visibility all the way to the horizon. Up in a U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter, Lt. Sean Foss and Lt. j.g. Nate Rodenbargar were on patrol, providing an extra set of eyes for the USS Shiloh. Approaching a lone tug boat Sunday afternoon, they swooped in low to get a better look - even such innocuous-looking vessels might be hiding sea mines. As soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition move deeper...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 03/23/03 - Baghdad, burning trenches, Umm Qasr,Basra,Khormal BREAKING: IRAQI MISSILES SEEN IN BAGHDAD -- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Baghdad, Saddam burns trenches- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Baghdad, Saddam centers "orphanage" in military complex- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: Battle of Umm Qasr, 15 Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) BREAKING: Umm Qasr - Iraqis, freed by the USA BREAKING: Battle for Basra, 3/4 Lima company BREAKING: Basra, Freed Iraqis, welcome the British 2nd Royal Tank Regiment BREAKING: al Nasiriyah - Battle by US 3rd Army BREAKING: Safwan -freed Iraqis BREAKING: al-Ratka oilfield - Iraqi war...

ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK, Mar 21, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Navy launched about 320 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Iraq from ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, senior officers said Friday. "We have just begun the next phase of attacks in Iraq," said Rear Adm. Matthew G. Moffit, commander of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk battle group in the north Persian Gulf. "The intention is to convince the regime that it is time to leave, and if they don't we will try to take them out by force," Moffit told reporters...