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Report: Chinese ships confronted Kitty Hawk

TAIPEI — A Chinese attack submarine and destroyer shadowed U.S. warships in November in the Taiwan Strait, sparking a 28-hour standoffthat brought the group to a battle-ready halt in the tense waters, areport in a Taiwan daily said Tuesday.

The confrontation occurred as the Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and other ships in its battlegroup were heading back to Japan following China’s sudden cancellationof a long-scheduled holiday port call in Hong Kong, the China Timessaid, citing U.S. military sources.

The carrier strike group encountered Chinese destroyer Shenzhen and a Song-class sub in thestrait on Nov. 23, causing the group to halt and ready for battle, asthe Chinese vessels also stopped amid the 28-hour confrontation, theChinese-language daily reported.

The Kitty Hawk battle group had planned to pass the Thanksgiving holiday in Hong Kong as it had done inprevious years, but China refused it entry without giving a reason.

By the time China reversed its decision, the U.S. ships had already turnedaround and headed for their home port in Japan. China later told theU.S. that its earlier refusal was a “misunderstanding.”

But that incident came on the heels of China’s refusal of safe harbor in HongKong for two Navy minesweepers seeking refuge from a brewing storm. Dueto that refusal, the ships had to get refueled at sea so they couldreturn to their home port in Sasebo, Japan.

The two incidents have ruffled feathers in Washington.

Adm. Timothy Keating, who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, is in Beijing thisweek to discuss what he has called China’s “perplexing” refusals, itsworrisome weapons programs and U.S.-China military ties.

He told reporters Tuesday that U.S. warships will cross through the Taiwan Strait whenever they choose to.

“We don’t need China’s permission to go through the Taiwan Strait,” Keatingsaid, stressing that it is international waters. “We will exercise ourfree right of passage whenever and wherever we choose.”

China has expressed its “grave concern” to the U.S. over the Kitty Hawk’s transit through the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own, vowing to attack the self-ruled island if it moves to formalize its de facto independence.

The U.S., Taiwan’s chief security benefactor, is legally obligated to helpdefend the island in the face of Chinese saber-rattling.

In 2006, a Chinese attack sub stalked the Kitty Hawk without being detected until it surfaced within firing range of the group.

Last November’s incident, however, could have been unintentional as theShenzhen was also headed to Tokyo for an historic port call there, justas the Kitty Hawk was denied Hong Kong entry.

Destroyers are known to travel with a submarine escort.

The confrontation ended without incident as all vessels continued on course toward Japan by Nov. 24.

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I'm not sure that other forces get to experience the same feelings a sailor does at sea. Every once in a while when I drift off, I still think back to starry nights on the deck of the USS Spartanburg County out in the Mediterranean.

A Tank Landing Ship (LST) is a flat-bottom ship so in calm waters it didn't slice the water like a tin can, it tended to bob and weave on it gently. We ran off of a couple diesel generators usually and would slowly make our way across the ocean at 15 knots or so.

In the evening, I'd find myself a quiet place on the deck and just stare out at the sea. In the moonlight, the deep blues made the surface almost glow. You'd trip over a cleat on the deck if you didn't watch out, but looking out - it seemed clear as day.

The air was warm and fresh with a hint of diesel exhaust and the only sound was the diesels purring through the stacks sitting behind you.

Truth be told, I'm not sure I ever had periods of greater solitude in my life. I'm not sure what I thought about out there - but I don't think I was ever at greater peace with myself and the world.

Sometimes I'd sit out there for hours... interrupted by someone heading aft for watch or someone else coming out to have a smoke or a cigar. We wouldn't even speak a word to each other, we'd just sit there and take it in.

There's nothing as peaceful as being out in the ocean drifting along on a US Navy ship, folks! Boy I miss it sometimes.

I sent this out as a broadcast email earlier today (with a spelling error... argh!):

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my thanks for being an early adopter and one of the first members on NavyVets, the social network for the United States Naval Veteran.

NavyVets isn't owned and operated by some media giant who badmouths our military in public and then sells their data for advertising dollars - NavyVets is owned by a Naval Veteran!

2008 promises to be a banner year for vertical social networks. In 2007, as MySpace and Facebook experienced record growth, niche social networks became the buzz. But this next year should see many exciting niche social networks that focus embers around subject of interest. I hope NavyVets will become the network of choice for anyone who has proudly served in the United States Navy.

My goal is to give you a powerful new platform to let you share memories and reunite with others you served with. Together, we can preserve the history of the USN as we saw it and we can pass on our great memories to new generations of proud sailors!

Happy New Year and Go Navy!

Douglas Karr
(Owner, Administrator, and US Navy Veteran)

P.S. Please be sure to join your Commands (click the Command tab and search for anywhere you've been stationed - then click Join). And be sure to invite all of your shipmates! You can invite them directly from your Command after you join it!

[ Draft ] I'm 75 year old now but, I can vividly recall boot camp. Roughly a month after my 18th birthday I found myself on the second deck/floor?? of an old WW2 barracks. It was the first time I had been away from home and I admit I was a bit apprehensive (scared even). Who were all these tough looking guys I found myself with? A bunch from Brooklyn and the Bronx. They all seemed to have DA haircuts, a sure sign of tough. (for those to whom a DA is a foriegn term, it stands for Ducks Ass. That's what it looked like. And in my day that's what the tough (read cool) guys had. Scary, but, the next morning we all went for haircuts. After a rather close cut we all looked like lil lost sheep. After shearing that is. No longer did anyone look tough/cool. Our Chief PO was Mr Fisher. A roly poly kinda guy who looked and acted more like our very own Santa Claus. We all loved him and he was great to us. It turned out that he was a WW2 retread who had been called back to active duty from the reserves. Whatever the case, we were a lucky company. Well we were untill we haqd our first seabag inspection. After Mr Fisher had his butt chewed out by the inspecting officer we had to learn how to roll our our clothes and secure them with ties. We must have spent about a thousand hours working on that. Well, maybe ten Hrs. At any rate we finally learned to do it the Navy way. Funny but, I never thought I'd look on boot camp with fond memories but that is surely the case.

I hope that some of you will relate your own bootcamp memories on this blog. If so I'll try to recall more of my own.

Some of you may or may not remember the Sixth Fleet Music Show and singer Diana Peterson. Diana is a former featured vocalist with the Sixth Fleet Music Show who has teamed up with fellow Music Show alumnus, trumpeter Alan Gaumer, and other top notch musicians in the DC area for the record. These musicians have come together again after first meeting more than 30 years ago to make beautiful music for the holidays.

The CD is in the tradition of classic pop Christmas albums and features many old favorites, such as "The Christmas Song," "White Christmas," and "I’ll Be Home For Christmas." But it also includes two originals written by Peterson, "Washington Winter" and "I Love London at Christmastime."

What makes this CD especially unique is that it caps a long career in music for Diana Peterson. The wife of a Naval officer, her vocal and musical skills caught the ear of numerous military musical outfits throughout Europe during the 1970’s. Diana became part of the Sixth Fleet Music Show upon its creation under the guidance of Admiral Jerry Miller in the early 70’s, playing many concerts of note, including a performance at the Munich Olympics in 1972, just days before tragedy struck. By the way, Admiral Miller is now retired and in his late 80’s, is still one of Diana’s biggest fans.

Throughout her husband’s naval career, Diana continued to pursue music as a passion as well as a teacher, but it was only in the past few years, after settling in Northern Virginia, that she began a recording career. This CD is her second.

If you’d like to find out more about the CD, and listen to samples, go to http://cdbaby/cd/dianapeterson.

One of the great things about this Social Network is the ability to see photos of your shipmates and find folks you recognize. Be sure to add your photo to your profile first:

Then, you can continue to add other photos using the Photo tab

We've got a lot of profiles with no photos, so be sure to add yours today!

First, what the heck is blogging? Blogging is nothing more than a journal. It's where you can put down your thoughts - perhaps on the politics of the day, the military, or even sharing a great story with everyone. Blog posts will be displayed on your "Footlocker" and also shared on the home page as they are written.

That's right, when you right a blog post, all the members will see it on the home page, which shows the most recent posts. Or - you could mark it so only your shipmates see it. You can even mark it as "Just Me" and use it as a personal diary. As well, you can open or close the post to comments.

Blog posts are different than Scuttlebutt in that it's usually you wanting to share something with everyone to read. Scuttlebutt may be you reaching out and asking for help. Perhaps you notice I'm missing a Command that you should join and want to request it. Perhaps you're having problems finding your way around NavyVets. Don't feel bad, technology can be pretty daunting - I'd love to help you out.

You may have noticed that there's now a store up

Everything is for sale for $1.00 over the cost of the item and each $1.00 will be donated to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Fund.

Here's a deal:

The first member to write a blog post, the first person to start some scuttlebutt, and the first person to get 5 shipmates to join will have a nice NavyVets.com mug sent to them compliments of me!