Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
NAVY
Pearl Harbor subs part of buildup
As the threat of war with Iraq dominates the news, at least six of 18 attack submarines based at Pearl Harbor are part of carrier battle groups or operating independently at sea.
In strikes on Afghanistan, U.S. submarines accounted for more than one-third of all Tomahawk missiles fired
Cmdr. Kelly Merrell, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Fleet submarine force, said the Honolulu and Cheyenne are with the USS Abraham Lincoln battle group. The carrier is in Perth, Australia, for maintenance.
The USS Nimitz carrier battle group was expected to include the submarine Pasadena for a three-week compressed training schedule that expedites the battle group's availability for deployment, the Navy said.
The carrier Constellation deployed to the Arabian Gulf with the submarine USS Columbia.
Pearl-based subs Louisville and Chicago are operating independently in the Western Pacific.
Chung-Hoon warship launched
Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Walter Doran told those gathered for the Jan. 11 christening of the destroyer Chung-Hoon in Pascagoula, Miss., that the ship "will enter the fleet at a time when our Navy and our nation needs her desperately."
"I am confident that like her namesake, she will sail tall and strong, and answer every challenge with the same courage and tenacity displayed by Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon."
Rear Adm. Chung-Hoon, born in Honolulu in 1910, received the Navy Cross for "conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism" during World War II as commanding officer of the destroyer Sigsbee.
Michelle Punana Chung-Hoon of O'ahu, the admiral's niece, smashed a bottle of champagne across the destroyer's bow during its ceremonial launching by Northrop Grumman.
The destroyer will be homeported at Pearl Harbor after it is commissioned in 2004.
ARMY
New commander gets first star
Col. John Y.H. Ma recently became the Army Reserve's latest brigadier general in a promotion ceremony at headquarters, 9th Regional Support Command, at Fort Shafter Flats.
Ma succeeds Brig. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee as commander of the 9th support command. Lee recently was selected by Gov. Linda Lingle as the new adjutant general for the state of Hawai'i.
In his new assignment, Ma will command approximately 3,000 soldiers assigned to 24 units in Hawai'i, American Samoa, Guam, Saipan, Japan and South Korea.
ASIA-PACIFIC CENTER
Security college reaches milestone
Lt. Col. Nattawut Sabyeroop, an artillery officer in the Royal Thai Army, recently became the 1,000th graduate of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies' College of Security Studies.
Sabyeroop and 73 other military and government leaders from 33 countries graduated from the 12-week "Executive Course" at the Asia-Pacific Center's Fort DeRussy facility. Since its first class in September 1996, the College of Security Studies has conducted 18 Executive Courses for lieutenant colonels, colonels, brigadier generals and their civilian equivalents.
The mission of the Asia-Pacific Center is to enhance cooperation and build relationships through study of security issues among military and civilian representatives of the United States and other Asia-Pacific nations.
