Shiloh and War in the South China Sea

Well, the USS Shiloh:

War Clouds Over South China Sea As U.S. Declares Right To Waters And U.S. Warship Arrives At Subic

The drumbeat of war on distant horizons is reverberating through Southeast Asia with increasingly strong declarations of U.S. determination to stop the Chinese from expanding their writ over the South China Sea, notably islands claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

While Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was in Singapore vowing that U.S. planes and ships would go wherever they wanted in international waters WAT -0.71%, the U.S. navy missile cruiser Shiloh was hoving into view at the historic Subic Bay port northwest of Manila.

Reports of Carter’s tough remarks at a gathering of defense ministers and the Shiloh’s visit to Subic Bay, the largest U.S. navy base before the Americans were forced to give it all up more than 20 years ago, were couched in euphemisms that scarcely masked the impression of spiraling tensions. “We want a peaceful resolution of all disputes,” Carter began. “A routine port call,” said a Philippine navy spokesman when asked what the Shiloh was doing at Subic Bay, in the once roaring American base town of Olongapo.

How far is the South China Sea from the United States and how far is the 'West Bank' (Judea and Samaria) from Israel?

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A Loss Off The USS Shiloh

Having blogged about the American warship named after Shiloh, the Civil War battlefield location named after the village I live in, I felt that this bad news should be up:

The search for a USS Shiloh sailor who fell overboard Wednesday in waters
near Tokyo Harbor has ended without success, Navy officials said Saturday. U.S. Navy and Japanese Coast Guard ships and helicopters stopped actively looking for Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Geathers on Friday evening, after 2½ days of a search effort that spanned much of Tokyo Bay.

The Shiloh, a Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser with about 360 servicemembers aboard, returned to Yokosuka Naval Base on Friday night, 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Davis said Saturday. "After a thorough review of search and rescue data collected during this period, Navy officials determined that every reasonable effort had been expended, and expectations for recovery no longer existed," a 7th Fleet news release said.

Geathers’ duty status is now listed officially as "whereabouts unknown," Davis said.

A Salute from Shiloh to the USS Shiloh

The USS SHILOH is a US Navy Seventh Fleet's forward-deployed Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) cruiser.



It's name doesn't reflect on the Biblical Shiloh, site of the Tabernacle and my home, but rather it commemorates a Civil War battle in Tennessee near a church named after Shiloh. In two days of fighting, some 23,000 Americans lost their lives.



Some details:

Length: 567 feet (173 meters)
Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft: 34 feet (10.2 meters)
Displacement: approx. 9,600 tons full load
Speed: 30+ knots
Cost: about $1 billion
Aircraft: two SH-60 Sea Hawk (LAMPS 3)
Armament: Mk 41 VLS for Standard missiles, Tomahawk, ASROC; Mk 46 torpedoes, Harpoon missile launchers, two Mk 45 5-inch/54 caliber lightweight guns, two Phalanx CIWS
Homeport: Yokosuka, Japan
Crew: 33 Officers, 27 Chief Petty Officers and approx. 340 Enlisted



This past Friday,

The USS Shiloh, a United States Navy cruiser, arrived in Manila Friday for a goodwill visit that includes community building projects as well as a chance to foster friendship with their counterparts and local citizens...

Sailors form the ship will also be participating in the construction of homes through the Gawad Kalinga project in Western Bicutan, Taguig City this weekend, according to US Embassy spokesperson Rebecca Thompson.

Well, if they ever come near Israel, they are welcome to visit Shiloh and do some archeological excavations.