Carrier Escort

After leaving Hong Kong our mission was to escort the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON out of the South China Sea before turning back for maintenance in Singapore. This should only have taken a couple of days. The Chinese had other plans though. As we escorted the carrier back out to sea, elements of the seventh fleet and the JSDF were trying to track a Chinese submarine. They had lost it sometime after it pulled out of port and after plotting the general area it could have been in, the carrier was too close. It was decided that the CURTIS WILBUR would need to provide extra security until the carrier reached the safety of Japanese waters.

Upon reaching Japanese territorial waters, we turned around and headed for Singapore, we were a few days behind schedule for our maintenance period. What was on most of the sailors minds though was the impending port visit. Some of them had scheduled their leave period to coincide with the visit. More details to follow on the jobs done in port.

We steamed back through the South China Sea alone this time. This was the perfect opportunity to cover the port brief. We had just finished our visit to Hong Kong and that was still where some minds were. Singapore was an entirely different port, friendlier yes, but much more strict. In the meantime I was inventorying the stores I had on board and trying to plan for what I needed ahead of time. I still had vivid memories of all the problems last time the ship was in Singapore. I wanted to avoid making the same mistakes.