Pacific briefs: Coast Guard, Navy team up in rescue

U.S. Coast Guard and Navy personnel this week rescued a stranded fisherman about 35 miles off Tinian, according to the U.S. Navy on Guam.

The 43-year-old man was rescued from a 17-foot Bayliner fishing boat on Tuesday, Navy spokesman Lt. Donnell Evans said Thursday. The man, whose name was unavailable, was taken to the Commonwealth Health Center on Saipan for treatment of dehydration, according to a Navy release.

The Coast Guard received a call about a missing boat around 8 p.m. Monday. Units that assisted in the rescue included Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, the USS Reuben James, the CGC Assateague, and three E-2C Hawkeyes from the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 117, according to the release.

Kadena baseball team to play in tournament

KADENA, Okinawa — The Kadena Eagles Men’s Joint Military baseball team will play in the second round of the Pepsi Victory Gym Tournament at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Kadena Municipal Sports Stadium.

More than 120 Japanese men’s teams will be competing, a release said. The Kadena Eagles is the only men’s military team on the island.

The winning team will go on to compete in the finals in mainland Japan in the fall, the release said.

Admission is free. The stadium is located outside Kadena Air Base Gate 3.

For more information, contact Capt. Dongcq at 634-5030 or visit www.victorygym.net.

Deployment to reduce Kadena air traffic

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — More than a dozen F-15s were scheduled to leave Kadena Air Base on Friday for 60 days of training in Alaska, according to a Kadena release Thursday.

The jets and supporting refueling aircraft will participate in exercises Northern Edge and Red Flag Alaska “to practice aerial combat skills and enhance operational capabilities,” according to the release.

About 200 airmen from the 67th Fighter Squadron will participate in Northern Edge, according to Maj. John Hutcheson, a Kadena spokesman. The unit will then switch with airmen from the 44th Fighter Squadron, which is slated to participate in Red Flag Alaska, Hutcheson said.

The aircraft will remain in Alaska for both exercises to eliminate the need for an additional early morning departure from Kadena, Hutcheson said.

While the aircraft are deployed to Alaska, air activity at Kadena will be reduced by about 15 sorties daily, according to the release.