#us pacific command

Shiloh sailors voiced concerns about safety and readiness

(Published Oct. 9, 2017) The cruiser Shiloh in recent years has steamed through west Pacific waters while vital maintenance and readiness issues went neglected, raising crew concerns about their safety and the ships’ readiness in the process.

These are just a few of several recurring complaints revealed in a series of Shiloh command climate surveys obtained by Navy Times.

The surveys are meant to gauge crew morale. Yet in the Shiloh’s case, they also offer a personalized window into Navy issues that have come to light since two destroyer collisions this summer killed 17 sailors in the waters of 7th Fleet.

The three surveys feature hundreds of pages worth of anonymous comments from sailors describing a dismal state of morale aboard the ship during Capt. Adam M. Aycock’s 26-month command.

'USS Bread and Water': Old and rare punishment loomed over a demoralized crew

(Published Oct. 9, 2017) 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 us for being the ‘USS Bread and Water.’”

‘I now hate my ship’: Surveys reveal disastrous morale on cruiser Shiloh

(Published Oct. 9, 2017) “It’s only a matter of time before something horrible happens,” one shipmate warned.

“Our sailors do not trust the CO,” another noted.

It’s a “floating prison,” one said.

“I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea,” a distraught sailor lamented, “because then our ineffectiveness will really show.”

These comments come from three command climate surveys taken on the cruiser Shiloh during Capt. Adam M. Aycock’s recently-completed 26-month command. The Japan-based ship is a vital cog in U.S. ballistic missile defense and the 7th Fleet’s west Pacific mission to deter North Korea and counter ascendant Chinese and Russian navies. 

US military airplanes have ‘unsafe’ encounter over South China Sea

A Chinese military aircraft had an “unsafe” encounter with a US Navy surveillance aircraft near a contested reef in the South China Sea, the US Pacific Command said Friday.

The two planes came within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of each other during Wednesday’s incident near the Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by both the Philippines and China, according to Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis.

The close…

If Batman had a ship, it would be the USS Zumwalt,” Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr., commander of the US Pacific Command

In the above picture we see just one large boat, the USS Zumwalt, and just one plane, an F-35C, but that’s likely all the US Navy will need to dominate the seas in the future.

Despite being the US Navy’s largest-ever destroyer, the USS Zumwalt is a ship so stealthy that it appears as a small fishing boat on enemy radars and sometimes has to deploy mirrors to make it more visible to friendly…

U.S. Military Presence Puts O`ahu At Risk Of Nuclear Strike

According to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Base Structure Report for 2012, the headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Command, being the largest unified command in the world, the Hawaiian Islands is targeted for nuclear strikes by Russia and China. 

North Korea is also of concern.

In 1990, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published Risks and Hazards - A State by State Guide. 

One of the subjects included nuclear targets and identified 6 nuclear targets on the island of O‘ahu that coincided with the locations of military posts of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. 

Also included as a target is the Headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith that lies in the back of a residential area in Halawa.