In response to my inquiry about the ships in port this year, a family member of mine had this to say:

"It is Christmas. Normally the Navy does it's best to have ships and submarines in port over the holidays. It is much easier to make a morale boosting phone call from port than it is underway. Three years ago I spent Christmas in XXXXXXXX. Last year I spent the day before Christmas eve loading 40,000 pounds of mail for the XXXXXXX group. We worked hard into the night like Santa's elves sorting the Christmas packages for our fellow shipmates for delivery over the next couple of days. It felt good to spread Christmas cheer. This Christmas I am sitting at my computer in my Jammies. Being home is better than being away.

"One carrier battle group just returned from their six month deployment a week ago. The next group is scheduled to leave after the dawn of the end of the world as we know it (sarcasm).

"You seem to be worried about the number of ships inport. It could be Y2K nerves. I have not paid attention in the past on percentage of ships in port. In the job I am in now, I can see that several ships are still out there. Alot have been allowed port calls, but I am really not alarmed.

"We are going to cook our New Years day ham in our Y2K cast iron skillet. (sarcasm)

"Merry Christmas."

Bob

-- Bob (bob@bob.com), December 24, 1999

Answers

oh and I really thought ships were in port due to Y2K fears, another myth debunked,

great comments, the troops should have fine party's this year...

Llama

-- Bernard (Llama man@cool.net), December 24, 1999.

bob,

your family member and bernard the llama man are idiots. this situation with the navy is not normal!

-- the wiz (sure@its.ok), December 24, 1999.

lil' wizzer,

The family member is no idiot. A man does not reach his rank (don't be misled by the mail part of his comments) by being an idiot. You, however, are a rude little boy.

Bob

-- Bob (bob@bob.com), December 24, 1999.

Common Sense Failure = Bob

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it. - Stephen Vizinczey

-- shoot yourself in the foot (and.then.you.will@complain.about.it.later), December 24, 1999.

Bullcrap.

The Navy has (or at least had) one concern, projecting US power throughout the world via its waterways. Holidays never stopped them, or changed their operations before. I was once supposed to be back home just before Thanksgiving from a cruise one year. For reasons I consider minor (lack of some supplies on our relief carrier group), we were extended six weeks. Through Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND New Year's.

The military celebrates holidays in the field, if possible, and the doesn't bring ships in to home ports because it's a holiday, ANY HOLIDAY.

If there are more than two or three carriers in port, in the SAME city, there is definitely something amiss.

-- Powder (Powder@Keg.com), December 25, 1999.

Check this out

======================================================================

RFMG (On U.S.Carriers in port.) ID#413218:

Copyright ) 1999 RFMG/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved

The U.S.S. Kitty Hawk and the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy are older ships. They are oil-fired. So is the U.S.S. Constellation. The other nine carriers are nuclear. They and the Constellation are in U.S. ports.

But . . . the new home port since 1998 for the Kitty Hawk is Yokosuka, Japan.

KITTY HAWK departed San Diego on July 6, 1998 to assume new duties as America's only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier from USS INDEPENDENCE ( CV 62 ) . Hawk also welcomed aboard Carrier Air Wing FIVE, operating from Atsugi, Japan. KITTY HAWK arrived at her new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan, on Aug. 11, 1998. So, it may be that this ship is in port, too. The Navy says it is "forward deployed" to Yokosuka. This does not say where the ship is.

The question is: Why are over 80% of our capital ships -- carriers and submarines -- in U.S. ports? I have four possible answers:

1. Navy scientists are not sure if nuclear ships will still be operational on January 1. If they are not, the brass wanted them in port, where they can be repaired ( ? ) , or at least not become floating targets. To have our capital ships visibly adrift is to lose naval superiority overnight: no more "forward presence." Of course, if word gets out that they are in full repair status, we will lose our superiority for a time, no matter what.

2. The President had to cut a deal with the Russians to get them to cooperate in the joint y2k observation project: we pull our capital ships out of service as a sign of our peaceful intentions.

3. The Navy has been asked to have its nuclear ships in port because they are floating power-generating plants. They can be used to re- boot shut-down power plants on land.

4. It's just one of those things -- just one of those crazy things.

This week, the Russians delivered the first of two new destroyers to China, according to the WASHINGTON TIMES ( Dec. 23 ) . It will have cruise missiles and the capacity to sink our ships.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

. . . A Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyer will be delivered to the Chinese navy at a shipyard in St. Petersburg on Saturday  Christmas Day  and will depart for its home port in China two days later, Russia's official Itar-Tass news agency announced on Monday.

A christening ceremony involving the hoisting of a Chinese flag on the ship will take place at the shipyard ceremony Saturday and the ships "will become Chinese property," the news agency said.

The Pentagon's main worry is that the destroyers will be equipped with advanced anti-ship cruise missiles that are part of China's expanding military role in the region, according to defense officials and private analysts. . . .

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 25, 1999.