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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 19, 2002

Sun sets on 8-nation naval exercise

By Kapono Dowson
Advertiser Staff Writer

The final phase of the RIMPAC 2002 exercises wrapped up yesterday as ships from eight nations began pulling into Pearl Harbor. All 36 ships should be in port today, the Navy said.

Somewhere aboard the USS Lake Erie, sailing into Pearl Harbor after the three-week RIMPAC exercise, is Chris Riley, whose wife, Mary, left, and her mother, Mary Vollono, of Annapolis, Md., are preparing a home-from-the-sea greeting.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the 18th biennial Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, naval training exercises. About 11,000 sailors and Marines took part in the three-week exercises.

"I was very, very pleased with the performances of the ships and their accomplishments," said Rear Adm. Mark J. Edwards, RIMPAC multi-national force commander.

The Navy estimates that $11 million will be added to the Hawai'i economy by the time the sailors leave Hawai'i next week. The war games began June 25.

"That's what we estimate sailors will be spending," Navy spokeswoman Cmdr. Jacquie Yost said.

RIMPAC 2002 focused its training on anti-submarine warfare. Three submarines — one each from Australia, Japan and South Korea — played strategic cat-and-mouse games with the ships.

"Sometimes we won. Sometimes they did. It was significant to focus on anti-submarine warfare," Edwards said. "There are about 206 submarines in the Pacific, and of that 190 are not allied with the U.S."

Two weeks of evaluation will follow, Edwards said.

The exercises also helped build teamwork among the forces of the different nations, Edwards said.

"We got to see our coalition partners not only at sea but also in port," he said. "We got to know them a little bit more, their customs, what they like to do. We're more alike than different."

The July 5 death of the Peruvian sailor was a somber event for all RIMPAC participants, Edwards said. Gilbert Niceforo Flores Castro was killed when he was struck by a gun-loading mechanism while attempting to clear the gun mount aboard the ship BAP Montero.

"It's very difficult to be at sea and have one of these sailors — doesn't matter if it's yours or somebody else's — and have an incident happen like that," Edwards said. The day after the incident, the battle group paused to have special services aboard their ships, he said.

RIMPAC will finish with a formal farewell reception on board the USS Tarawa Sunday.

Reach Kapono Dowson at kdowson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8103.