By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE UNITED STATES NAVY’S Carrier Strike Group 9 is currently paying a visit at Laem Chabang port in Chonburi until the end of this month before heading out for naval exercises in the West Pacific region.
Led by US navy’s aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), the Carrier Strike Group 9 which is currently engaging in naval patrols and joint exercises with US-treaty allies such as the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea is providing crewmembers a one-week shore leave in the eastern seaboard area and elsewhere as far as the Thai capital Bangkok.
Between Laem Chabang port and the Thai navy’s Sattahip naval base, which is the country’s largest, lies the world-renowned Pattaya in the middle where most of the US sailors are having a good time.
Over the last decades, US naval ships had anchored off Pattaya for sailors to take shore leave for a week. Today, their docking site is located 25 kilometres to the north of the resort city.
Accompanying USS Theodore Roosevelt, the flagship of the Carrier Strike Group 9 which has sailed from home port San Diego, are four of the US navy’s destroyers, namely USS Russell (DDG-59), USS Howard (DDG-83), USS Halsey (DDG-97) and USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118), among others.
On the flight deck aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt are the US navy’s Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II fighters and Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet jets, among other combat aircraft.
Destinations for the Carrier Strike Group 9’s sustained naval drills in the West Pacific region are not available to disclose but largely believed to be on the perimeters of the tension-filled South China Sea where the Chinese naval and Coast Guard ships have been spotted making an intimidating presence. Chinese naval ships have been usually seen shadowing the US treaty allies’ naval exercises in the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard have held formal talks on bilateral maritime cooperation in Hanoi in a sustained effort to safeguard the South China Sea where the Chinese navy and Chinese Coast Guard have been literally standing in the way.
Vietnamese Coast Guard commander Maj. Gen. Le Quang Dao and his Philippine counterpart Ronnie Gil Gavan were reportedly obliged to see to it that the bilateral maritime cooperation be put to work to the extent that a free and prosperous navigation in the open seas be practically secured in the face of sustained provocations and standoffs between their respective maritime forces and the Chinese naval and Coast Guard ships.
Tensions have intermittently occurred between the Philippines and China in natural resource-rich reefs and atolls in the South China Sea around the Spratly Islands such as Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, fly in formation during a multi large deck event (MLDE) held in the Philippine Sea, Jan. 31, 2024. MLDE provides the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defence force an opportunity to engage in joint operations to include enhanced maritime communication operations, air warfare operations and cross-deck flight operations to strengthen maritime integrated-at-sea operations and combat readiness. Photo: US Navy photo and published by navalnews.com
Front Page: The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) transits the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 25, 2020. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Kaylianna Genier and published by Wikipedia
Also read: Chinese foreign minister arrives in Cambodia, Beijing’s closest Southeast Asian ally
Joint drills by US navy, 3 allies a success despite Chinese ships dogging them
US, Filipino air forces holding joint air exercise over South China Sea
B-52H joins in Philippine air patrol over South China Sea
French naval units to join Asean exercises, patrols
‘Turn around immediately’: Taiwan warns off Chinese coast guard boats again as tensions simmer
F-35A stealth fighters land for the first time in Thailand
One Reply to “US Navy’s Carrier Strike Group sailors on shore leave at Laem Chabang”