“First I had a feeling of fear, (wondering) if there was people in difficulty 'cause we could only see about a meter of the bow sticking out of the water,” Tom Noel, one of the crewmembers, said in an email to The Virginian-Pilot on Thursday. “Then once we got closer and could see the amount of growth on it, I knew it was a long time in the water and that it was only a danger to navigation."

Upon investigating, Noel and the rest of the Doolin Express crew found the boat covered in goose barnacles — it had clearly been in the water for a while — and along with a local fishing boat, towed the boat to the beach at Inis Oirr, where many islanders helped pull it ashore.

A day later, Doolin Ferry Co., which is based near Ireland’s famed Cliffs of Moher, posted the account on Facebook. At that point they guessed the boat was a U.S. Coast Guard rescue boat but were hoping for any details on what brought it so far. The post blew up online.

“We couldn’t have predicted the interest from the public that there has been in this boat,” Liam O’Brien, the ferry company’s owner, later said in a news release. “There was a lot of growth on it, it had clearly been there for a long time. We already have a shipwreck on the island, so everyone’s saying this is the new one. This is definitely the most unusual thing we have discovered and it’s drawing in lots of tourists to the area.”

News outlets across Ireland picked up the mystery. Thousands of people shared their theories on social media. Was it a drug-running boat masqueraded as law enforcement? Was it an American military vessel used to spy on the Irish?

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Within a day the answer came. A representative for Silver Ships Inc., an Alabama-based shipbuilding company, confirmed it had manufactured the boat in 2015 for the U.S. Navy, the ferry company’s Siobhan Nolan said in an email.

It’s a High Speed Maneuverable Surface Target that can be used remotely and is used as target practice by the Navy.

“We believe the boat originated in Norfolk Virginia,” Doolin Ferry Co. wrote on its website. “It’s likely that it was lost during a training exercise and it remained in the water drifting until it ended up in the water close to Inis Oirr. … How cool is that?!”

That’s more than 3,400 miles of drifting.

Turns out, it’s true. Timothy Boulay, a spokesman for the Naval Air Warfare Center, said Thursday that the vessel was lost during a missile test and evaluation event off the coast of Norfolk last September.

After realizing the target was lost, the Atlantic Target and Maritime Operations team searched for five hours but couldn’t find it and notified the Coast Guard of the potential navigation hazard.

Is it shocking the boat made it across the Atlantic? Not very, Boulay said, because the test vessels are foam-filled so that they don’t sink.

“Our people are not surprised it made it to Ireland."

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Now those soldiers are grappling with the loss of Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Morovis, Puerto Rico, who left behind a wife, two sons and a daughter.

Barreto Ortiz, described as a “mainstay” in his unit by his leadership, died in a Taliban suicide bomb explosion Thursday and became the 16th U.S. combat fatality this year in Afghanistan as the Pentagon prepares to draw down its forces there after nearly 18 years of war.

He was assigned to the 82nd Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the Pentagon said in a statement Friday.

“This guy touched so many people’s lives,” recalled Sgt. Tylar Sieck, 24, a soldier in Barreto Ortiz's company.

Barreto Ortiz taught soldiers it was OK to say when they needed help, Sieck said. On missions, Barreto Ortiz always would say he was there to help, even if people thought they didn’t need it. Now, Sieck said, he wants to employ what Barreto Ortiz taught him about being honest about needing help.

“Everyone is trying to act like we’re fine, because that’s what we do as paratroopers, but at the end of the day, we know we’re struggling,” Sieck said. “We’re hurting, I’m hurting.”

Barreto Ortiz joined the Army in August 2010. Family friends said Barreto Ortiz followed in the footsteps of his father, who also served.

“He was a great person, honest, caring and full of hopes and dreams,” said his recruiter, Julio Torres, who signed him up in 2010. “I do carry a burden for his death, but in this line of duty, there is a risk.”

Barreto Ortiz was assigned to 82nd Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, in January 2018.

“With honor and courage, Sgt. 1st Class Barreto answered our nation’s call to deploy and serve in Afghanistan,” Col. Arthur Sellers, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, said in a statement.

Barreto Ortiz served as a wheeled vehicle mechanic with Sieck.

He had a way of making people laugh, Sieck and others said. Friends and fellow soldiers recalled him as funny and intelligent. In photos, he often cracked a wide, cheesy smile.

Everyone would call him “Papi,” Sieck said, a nod to Barreto Ortiz’s roots in Puerto Rico.

“He was always happy, a tremendous friend; he never said no,” said Miguel Otero of San Juan, Puerto Rico, a friend of Barreto Ortiz for more than 30 years, since childhood.

Sieck said sometimes he would come into work steaming mad, and then see Barreto Ortiz, who would smile, or say something funny, or give him a hug.

“I’d be like, ‘Stop it, man, I’m trying to be mad,” Sieck recalled.

In a twist of fate, Sieck said he was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan with Barreto Ortiz but instead was selected for staff sergeant school. Sieck said knowing he was supposed to be downrange with his friend, as his right-hand man, makes the grief hit hard.

But he said he knows he’s not the only one in the unit grieving.

“Everyone’s hurting; there’s paratroopers and soldiers all around Fort Bragg that are hurting,” Sieck said. “A lot of our people are hurting in Afghanistan.”

The blast that killed Barreto Ortiz also killed a Romanian soldier, Cpl. 3rd Class Ciprian-Stefan Polschi, 38, a married father of two on his third tour in Afghanistan.

At least 10 people died and another 42 were wounded in the explosion, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told The Associated Press.

Since the U.S. first launched military operations in Afghanistan in October 2001, more than 2,400 troops have been killed and more than 20,000 have been wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.

Sieck said many soldiers in Barreto Ortiz’s unit spent hours during the past few days sharing stories about him.

He added, “It’s still one of those things that’s unreal, and you don’t know how the f--- it happened.”

lawrence.jp@stripes.com
Twitter: @jplawrence3

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Pfc. Mason Webber, a 22-year-old from Marion, Iowa, died Thursday, according to the release. Fort Hood officials declined to provide more information about his death, citing the ongoing investigation.

Webber entered the Army in March 2018 as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle system maintainer and had been assigned to 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division since August 2018.

Webber’s awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.

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Twitter: @Rose_Lori

Typhoon Faxai made landfall near the Japanese capital before 5 a.m., according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency. Its strongest winds measured 129 mph at 4.30 a.m. near Chiba City. At Haneda Airport, where 138 flights were canceled, winds peaked at 97 mph at 3.30 a.m.

One person died in Tokyo from a fall related to the storm and dozens of people in the Kanto area were injured, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK. No injuries were reported on U.S. bases.

About 932,000 households in the Kanto area were without power at 8 a.m. Monday, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. That number fell to about 800,000 by the afternoon.

On military bases in Tokyo and nearby Kanagawa prefecture, most residents were asked to stay home from work and school for two or three hours while cleanup crews cleared fallen trees and branches from the streets.

At Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, personnel inbound from off-base homes were met with traffic jams and no morning trains.

“The [Yokohama-Yokosuka] Expressway is closed and Route 16 is in grid-lock traffic. The Keikyu [rail line] has just now started running, and the status of the JR line is unknown,” the base’s official Facebook page announced at 10:10 a.m.

The all-clear was given at 11:15 a.m.

Defense Department schools at Yokosuka and Ikego housing area were closed Monday, according to the same page.

The naval base was in recovery mode for nearly 5 ½ hours, with only essential personnel expected at work and assessment teams from public works surveying damage.

Yokosuka-based ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge, did not relocate during the storm, 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley said in an email.

“Our units and our personnel took every appropriate measure to weather the storm,” he wrote.

The storm left myriad fallen trees and a carpet of branches in its wake. At Yokosuka, a fallen tree blocking a street forced temporary closure of the Womble gate about 6 a.m., according to the base official Facebook page.

Facebook groups associated with Yokosuka posted photos of trees that fell on automobiles, damage to a McDonald’s restaurant window and some flooding and waves lapping over the seawall. A portion of a sidewalk along the seawall appeared to be damaged, according to Facebook posts.

Other photos appeared to show debris left overnight by surging water.

At Yokota Air Base – home of 5th Air Force and U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo – workers and residents were clearing fallen branches from yards and streets ahead of a late start to school and work Monday.

The base’s official Facebook page stated that the morning bus to Narita Airport was delayed and that trains into Tokyo were also delayed due to a fallen tree.

Nonessential personnel at Yokota were told to report for work three hours later than normal while schools were delayed two hours, official said.

In Yokota’s eastside housing area, Duke, a golden retriever belonging to Jon and Sara Rember, guarded the remains of the large pine that had, fortunately, fallen in the opposite direction of nearby homes.

Jon Rember and Duke heard the tree fall during the storm, said Sara Rember, who slept through it.

Base residents had ample warnings from officials ahead of the typhoon and the couple prepared by bringing potted plants and a swing inside on Sunday, she said.

“We know this is typhoon season. There were two storms last year. The second one took down so many cherry blossom trees,” Sara Rember said.

U.S. Army Garrison Japan’s Facebook page said crews were responding to multiple reports of downed trees at Camp Zama, some of which were blocking roadways Monday morning.

Anyone other than essential personnel were asked to report to work by 9:30 a.m. with school buses picking up students two hours later than normal.

At Naval Air Facility Atsugi, north of Yokosuka, commanders issued the all-clear Monday morning but announced the base health clinic was accepting urgent care patients only and cancelling routine appointments.

A section of Kearsarge Street off King Street was temporarily impassable, according a base Facebook post at around 9 a.m. Classes at Shirley Lanham Elementary School on base were canceled for the day, although teachers reported for work, said base spokeswoman Briana Baglini.

Damage was minimal, she said, and consisted mostly of downed trees and branches.

Typhoon Lingling

Faxai hit Japan a day after Typhoon Lingling tore through South Korea, leaving heavy damage in its wake as it skirted the peninsula’s western coast with winds of more than 80 mph before making landfall in North Korea.

At Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, toppled trees knocked out power lines, leaving a populated area known as South Post without electricity for about 24 hours. Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital and Dragon Hill Lodge operated with emergency generators, officials said.

Elsewhere in South Korea, Lingling grounded planes, knocked out electricity for more than 57,000 homes and left at least two people dead, according to The Associated Press.

Traffic to Incheon International Airport also was disrupted due to the closure of its gateway bridge and a power failure on a commuter rail network, the news agency reported.

Stars and Stripes reporters Joseph Ditzler, Kim Gamel, Hana Kusumoto, Christian Lopez, Dave Ornauer and Seth Robson contributed to this report.

news@stripes.com
 

Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 43, faces a possible life sentence after accusations of providing material support to ISIS and training terrorists in weaponry, said the statement released last week.

Asainov, a naturalized American citizen born in Kazakhstan, left his home in Brooklyn on a one-way flight to Istanbul, Turkey, about Christmas in 2013, according to the Justice Department.

Then, prosecutors claim Asainov entered Syria and joined ISIS as a sniper, eventually becoming an “emir” known as “Suleiman Al-Amriki” and “Suleiman Al-Kazakhi.”

Asainov taught other ISIS members how to use weapons and also tried to recruit another person from the U.S. to travel to Syria to join ISIS, the court filings said.

Asainov was captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and was handed over to the FBI in July 2019.

“The defendant, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Brooklyn, turned his back on the country that took him in and joined ISIS, serving its violent ends in Syria and attempting to recruit others to its cause,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said at the time.

Prosecutors said they have a treasure trove of incriminating messages, including photos of three dead fighters, received from a confidential informant working with New York police, the New York Post reported.

The messages by Asainov attempt both to cajole and to threaten the informant to leave New York, come to Syria, and join ISIS.

“We will get you. You need to obey. You need to be punished you f–king [redacted]. We will find you and teach you how to behave,” he said in messages published by the New York Post.

In March, 2015, Asainov asked the informant for $2,800 to buy a rifle scope, and later sent photos of himself holding an assault rifle with a scope attachment, the statement said.

As many as 80 U.S. citizens or residents traveled to Syria or Iraq to join extremist groups since 2011. Six have been repatriated to face charges for joining ISIS, Voice of America reported.

lawrence.jp@stripes.com
Twitter: @jplawrence3

Twenty-two federal German police officers were in the Green Village compound in central Kabul when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance gate, news magazine Der Spiegel reported. Sixteen people were killed and 119 wounded in the blast.

Due to “substantial damages” caused to the Green Village, all German federal policemen have left the compound, Der Spiegel quoted a spokesman with the Interior Ministry as saying.

“The situation is being reviewed and we are looking at options that will allow us to continue our successful cooperation with Afghan security authorities,” the spokesman said.

During the attack, the policemen and international aid workers took shelter in secure areas at the compound, the report said. No Germans were injured in the bombing.

The German police had recently moved into offices with reinforced concrete walls in the Green Village, according to Der Spiegel. But unnamed security sources in Berlin said the compound was “not safe anymore” after last week’s attack, the report said.

German police officers have been in Afghanistan since 2002 as part of the German Police Project Team, which was set up to train and advise the Afghan police force after the Taliban regime was ousted the previous year. The team is part of a larger international police training mission under NATO auspices.

About 50 German police officers were stationed in Kabul and Masar-e-Sharif until last week’s attack, according to the German interior ministry’s website. Spiegel said most have already been withdrawn from Afghanistan.

On Thursday, an American soldier, a Romanian servicemember and 10 civilians were killed in another attack on an area near the U.S. embassy where diplomats live.

kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com

First Lt. Chelsey Hibsch, an Air Force security forces officer, graduated from the two-month course Friday in a ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., overlooking Victory Pond. Second Lt. Marshall Plumlee, a member of Duke University’s 2015 NCAA Championship basketball team and former New York Knicks player, was “baptized” later in that pond after having a Ranger tab pinned on.

“From the NBA to leading the way!” wrote Gen. David Hodne, head of the Army’s Infantry School at Benning, in a tweet accompanying a photo of himself with Plumlee at the school’s rappel tower. “Proud of today’s Ranger School graduates including 2LT Marshall Plumlee.”

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After ROTC at Duke, Plumlee commissioned in the New York National Guard in 2017, while playing for the Knicks. He signed with the Milwaukee Bucks and played for them in the 2018 season. His two older brothers play in the NBA.

Plumlee’s mother, who played college basketball at Purdue, pinned his tab on him. On Instagram, he thanked her as his biggest supporter in his transition “going from the NBA to the active duty Army and now Ranger School.”

Playing professionally was his dream as a kid, he said in an October 2017 Army video, but so was joining the Army. His biggest role models were sevicemembers, he said.

In high school, Gen. Robert Brown became a mentor to him, a 2015 ROTC profile said.

Both have played basketball under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski ⁠— Brown, at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., where “Coach K” had also played, and Plumlee, at Duke. Though the 2015 profile didn’t give Brown’s height, it said he was nearly as tall as Plumlee.

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The junior officer is seen in footage from last week’s ceremony towering over others in formation.

“I'll meet the occasional soldier who'll tell me they look up to me, either literally because I'm 7 feet tall, or figuratively because I played in the NBA,” Plumlee said in 2017. “It’s just so backwards for me, because I look up to them.”

While smaller in stature, Hibsch will likely be looked up to as well for different reasons. She’s the first woman out of about 300 airmen to complete the rigorous training since it opened to the Air Force in 1955.

More than two-dozen women have graduated from the school since it opened to them in 2015 as part of a push to get women into combat jobs.

On average, less than half of men who attempt the course complete it ⁠— many fail in the initial three days. Most aren’t able to complete all three of the school’s phases without recycling through either the initial Benning phase, another one in the mountains of northern Georgia or the final stage in the swamps of Florida, the Army has said.

To screen and select airmen for the course, the Air Force conducts a tough 19-day assessment. Hibsch, a former enlisted airman, completed it last fall in San Antonio, Texas, one of 10 to finish out of a starting group of 29.

The training helped her understand how she functions when “hungry, tired, wet, cold and worse, then you have to lead a team of individuals feeling the exact same way,” she said.

She also went to a two-week program with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii to further prepare, an Air Force statement said.

“Ranger School is truly not for the faint of heart,” said Lt. Col. Walter Sorensen, a Ranger-qualified instructor at the Texas course and the training chief at the Air Force Security Forces Center, where it was hosted. “It speaks well of all those who persevere to find that inner grit and motivation to push through.”

garland.chad@stripes.com
Twitter: @chadgarland

He has trained with U.S. Army Rangers and Green Berets and has supported both on missions he's not allowed to talk about.

He's a staff sergeant who has spent most of his 13 years in the Army working in special operations.

He's also the oldest player on a major college football team in the country this year, approaching his 33rd birthday and beginning his second season at Colorado State.

The Army, he said, taught him how to take care of his body and remain fit. And by admitting him into a special program to complete his final two years of college while remaining on active duty in an ROTC program, it provided Griffin an opportunity to pursue a dream he thought had died when he tore a hamstring during his senior year of high school.

"It was always a dream for me to play ball, and then when I got the opportunity to come back to school to finish a degree, I was like, OK, let me go to a school where I can see if I can walk on," Griffin said.

He looked at several programs. Temple, near his grandmother's home in Philadelphia. Houston, where he grew up. Southern California, for its rich football tradition.

CSU, he said, didn't enter the picture until after he missed his flight to Los Angeles to meet with the USC coaching staff.

Traffic at 3 a.m. on Interstate 25 from Fort Carson, where Griffin was stationed, to Denver International Airport was unusually heavy that morning last summer, causing him to miss his flight.

Figuring he was already halfway to Fort Collins at that point, he Googled the CSU football program, found contact information for longtime director of operations Tom Ehlers and accepted an invitation to drive up and visit.

"I tell people all the time it was God that brought me here, because there's no way in this world I even thought about it," Griffin said. "But I came here, met Coach Ehlers, Coach (Mike) Bobo, who, by the way, is one of the most honorable people I've ever met — truly, I can't speak enough about him, honestly — him and Tom Ehlers.

"I said, 'I'll fully support you being an athlete, doing what you need to do,'" Thomas said. "It was the perfect storm in a positive way."

Griffin, 5-foot-10 and 194 pounds, spent the 2018 season as a safety on the Rams' scout team, running the opposing team's defense in practice each week while awaiting word from the NCAA on his eligibility. He was finally cleared to play this season just before the start of spring practices.

Bobo, though, noticed the way teammates looked up to "Pops," as they called him, and sought his advice. The coach selected Griffin as one of 10 leaders for the accountability teams he established in January. Bobo has had nothing but praise for how Griffin has handled that role.

Griffin, who was moved to running back two weeks into fall camp, sat out of the season opener against Colorado with a hand injury but was hoping to be available for Saturday's home opener against Western Illinois.

"Josh is a walk-on trying to find a role on this team, find a role on special teams for us," Bobo said. "But he has influence. He's older. He's done a great job of taking these guys under his wing. If something happens, the first person they call a lot of times is Josh, and I think that's great.

"I'm just ecstatic to have him on our football team. He's a great influence on these guys."

Because he's receiving his regular salary as an active duty officer in the Army while completing a bachelor's degree (his military benefits cover the cost of his tuition and fees), Griffin can afford to rent a house off campus. Teammates often come over and hang out with him. They play video games, watch movies and talk about life, Griffin said.

"I literally have a picture of waking up in my living room; we blew up an air mattress, we had two sleeping on the couch, another one sleeping on my other couch, you've got trash and popcorn and everything in the living room. There are three others on this blowup mattress, all playing video games.

"And I'm just like ..." — he lets out a big sigh.

"They're my kids. That's just how it feels most of the time, but I love 'em."

Griffin has taught teammates how to tie a tie, change a tire and swap out spark plugs on their cars, he said. Simple lessons he learned from his own father, a career officer in the Army.

He also tells them if they have to think twice about doing something to give him a call first so he can talk them out of whatever it was they knew deep down they shouldn't do.

Griffin tells them stories about his service, too. Those he's allowed to share, at least.

"He has prepared for war; it's real," sophomore safety Tywan Francis said. "We never go into depth, because he says some of the stuff is confidential.

"It's pretty cool to know what he did at our age and what he is 10 years past the age we're at. He's still out there. Just the dedication he has at 30, 33 years old. He's competing with 19-year-old men, 20-year-old men, 23-year-old men.

"It's incredible. I commend him for it," Francis said.

Griffin didn't get started in football until his junior year of high school, at Ross Shaw Sterling in Houston. His mother, whom he lived with prior to that, wouldn't let the oldest of her five children play.

His father, whom he moved in with that year, had no such qualms.

Griffin, already one of the nation's top high school sprinters in track, was an instant hit. The hard-hitting, speedy cornerback was drawing plenty of attention from college recruiters.

Until he tore his hamstring.

Griffin went to college anyway but ran out of money after one year.

So he joined the Army.

He was recruited to train with the Army Rangers at Fort Benning, Georgia, and then sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to work with the 160th Special Airborne Regiment. After eight years there, Griffin was transferred to Fort Carson, just south of Colorado Springs, to work with the 10th Special Forces Group, a Green Beret unit.

Besides the intense physical training he went through as part of the Army's special operations units, Griffin played intramural football on each of the bases where he was stationed. And as an instructor in the Army's combatives program, which Thomas developed while both were at Fort Benning, he remained as fit as ever.

"He's a great example of what soldiers are like out there," Thomas said. ". When you support people through their goals, it's amazing what they can accomplish. We've been able to support Josh while he gets an education and plays athletics.

"I suspect great things for him in the future."

Griffin's ultimate goal is to take advantage of a waiver put in place over the summer by President Donald Trump that allows athletes at federal service academies and in ROTC programs to defer their military obligation if they are selected in the draft of a major professional sports league. He knows that's not likely but isn't giving up hope.

After all, he didn't start playing college football until 13 years after he graduated from high school.

"I tell people all the time, I can go to Fort Carson right now, and I can grab 20 more guys that can play on this team today, at my age," Griffin said. "It's amazing, not just the things we go through but how we take care of our bodies, how they teach us to take care of our bodies. At 32 years old, I can still hang with people that are 18."
 

The origins of the military coins, also called “challenge coins,” is hazy, but military leaders have bestowed them to informally recognize a job well done or as a sign of appreciation for decades, if not a century or more.

In more recent years, chiefs’ messes and chiefs themselves have produced coins in an expanding variety of shapes, sizes and complex features, leading collectors, even self-described “addicts,” to hunt down the more elusive and rare ones in online forums and in-person meets.

It’s “devolved into a sort of trading card culture,” the Navy’s top enlisted sailor said in an email, saying he hoped to get back to the kind of exchange “that coins are really about,” such as giving sailors a sense of belonging with a unit, recognizing hard work or saying, “Thank you, shipmate.”

“I don’t fault them, but I do want to bring them around to the more traditional mindset of these exchanges being special,” said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith.

It’s unclear when Navy leaders began bestowing coins, though the practice appears to have Army battlefield roots. The Naval History and Heritage Command could not “shed light on how this tradition started,” an official said by email.

Historians and librarians with the National Defense University, Pentagon, Army and Navy could find no written records of the tradition, the Defense Department said in a blog post last month that found three popular theories tracing the origins to either World War I, Army infantry-run bars in Vietnam or the Green Berets of the 1960s.

Retired Adm. Scott Swift, former Pacific Fleet commander, believes they originated in the Civil War to promptly reward soldiers on the battlefield as awards processes lagged. He noticed it catching on in the Navy in the early 1990s around the time of Desert Storm.

For collectors, though, a commander’s kudos isn’t the currency, as posts online offer coins up for trade or for sale — “UFT” and “UFS,” respectively, in the insiders’ lingo. Coins celebrating chief ranks generally, not a specific unit’s mess, are dubbed “pride coins” and the hard-to-find issues are dubbed “unicorns.”

Some collectors focus on themes, such as coins shaped like Marvel comic book characters, football team logos or beer bottles, but hang on to doubles and other extras as “trade bait.”

With a collection of about 400 coins, San Diego-based Chief Petty Officer Jorge Banuelos is “either an addict or a novice” depending on who’s talking, he said. Some chiefs have well over 1,000 coins.

Still, the hobby is about more than expanding a collection of metal trinkets, Banuelos said. It’s about being part of a community and meeting fellow chiefs, like two coin-trading buddies who helped him find a place to live when he moved from Europe to California.

“The whole point is to unite people, to talk, hear stories,” said Chief Petty Officer Orlando Atencia. “Trading coins in itself creates a memory.”

Some critics, however, argue that the hobby has gotten out of hand and that coins are growing more expensive as chiefs and messes try to outdo each other with larger and more complicated designs.

Collectors and producers acknowledge that the coins have gotten more elaborate. Martin Kidder, a retired master chief who now operates a family-run coin business, remembers seeing his first chiefs’ mess and command master chief coins in the late 1990s.

“All we did was take the command coin and we put a chief’s cover on it,” he said of the first coin he designed while stationed in Iceland in 1997.

Now coins come shaped as Iron Man or Spider Man, but with goat heads — goat locker is a term for the chiefs’ mess — or the logo of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins with an anchor on it, for example.

Kidder’s business bloomed out of the growing demand almost exclusively from the chiefs’ mess in the early 2000s. He got into the business after difficulty finding a coin maker willing to take orders of less than 100 coins and his customer base grew by word of mouth.

“I like where it has gone, if you want to call it a coin culture,” said Kidder, whose business produced some 800,000 coins last year.

Even collectors seem to value the ones with personal meaning most. For Banuelos, his favorite is still the first coin he received from his first chief.

Atencia, who began collecting coins after receiving them from flag officers, has pushed most of his commanders’ coins to the back of his case.

“People always ask why you have the admirals in the back?” Atencia said. “I tell them, ‘Because the chiefs are the ones that count.’”

karsten.joshua@stripes.com
Twitter: @joshua_karsten
 
 

Yokota Air Base set all clear at 6:47 a.m. and Camp Zama followed at 7:15 a.m. Naval Air Facility Atsugi entered all clear at 8:41 a.m. Yokosuka Naval Base, the base closest to Faxai and dreadfully exposed along the shoreline of Tokyo Bay went all clear at 11:15 a.m., remained in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1-R as of 9 a.m.

Typhoon buffs are going to the record books to check. But count ‘em: Two typhoons to hit two northwest Pacific country capitals on back-to-back days. Faxai is believed to be the strongest to hit Tokyo in 80 years; it’s at least the worst in 26 years to hit Japan's main island of Honshu since Typhoon Yancy in summer 1993.

And Lingling, which battered the Korean peninsula on Saturday and left debris and shut off power at Camp Humphreys and Yongsan Garrison, is believed to be the first storm of Category 1-equivalent strength or greater to strike North Korea since records began being kept, in 1958.

What a weekend this has been. This will conclude Storm Tracker’s coverage of Faxai.
 

6:15 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9, Japan time: U.S. bases on the Kanto Plain have entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1-R (recovery). Recovery teams are in process of assessing damage to the base. All personnel are asked to stay inside until the all clear is sounded. Please refer to chains of command, base access TV channels and official Facebook pages for possible delays.

6 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9, Japan time: Folks in the Kanto Plain awoke Monday morning to the sound of howling wind and the sight of driving, sideways rain as Typhoon Faxai pushed through the Tokyo area, putting all U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain into Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1-E.

Faxai made landfall just before 5 a.m. in Chiba, just east of Tokyo, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, pacing 104 mph sustained winds and 127 mph gusts at center. It is moving rapidly northeast and is expected to be out of the Kanto Plain area by this afternoon.

Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater began occurring on U.S. bases between 2 and 4 a.m. and they might last awhile. The closest point of approach to U.S. bases has come and gone, but the back side of Faxai continues to lash the area. Gates remain closed and all services are suspended until after the all clear is sounded.

When might the all clear be sounded? That all depends on how quickly Faxai moves out of the area and how quickly things can be made safe after TCCOR 1-R is issued. There is no set period for how long TCCOR 1-R will last. Safety officials, staff civil and first responders must get a chance to survey damage. Stay indoors until all that is done.

As for when duty hours resume and schools reopen, check with your base’s command access TV channel and official Facebook pages for information.

Midnight Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: It’s starting, folks. Typhoon Faxai continues to bear down on the Tokyo area and the U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain.

Hours ago, they all entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1; pay close attention to when/if your base upgrades to TCCOR 1-C (sustained winds of 40 mph or greater) and/or TCCOR 1-E (sustained winds of 58 mph or greater).

Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to be packing 104 mph sustained winds and 127 mph gusts as it passes:
• 60 miles east of Camp Fuji at 1 a.m.
• 41 miles east-southeast of Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Camp Zama at 3 a.m.
• 49 miles east-southeast of Yokota Air Base at 3 a.m.
• 22 miles east-southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base at 3 a.m.

Faxai, naturally, has had its effects off base as well. More than 200 flights into and out of Tokyo-area airports and more than 120 high-speed bullet trains serving the Kanto Plain were canceled, according to Japan’s semi-official news agency NHK World.

A tip for newcomers to Japan: Once winds die down and TCCOR 1-R (recovery) is issued, please don’t take that as a sign that everything’s cool and the all clear is imminent. Stay indoors and out of the way of first responders, staff civil and recovery teams who are busy setting up safe zones around fallen trees, power lines and flooding. Wait until the all clear is directed.

5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: Yokosuka Naval Base appears to be in the crosshairs for a direct hit just past midnight Sunday from Typhoon Faxai, forecast to arc through the Tokyo area overnight in to early Monday.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1; expect upgrades to TCCOR 1-C as sustained winds reach 40 mph and TCCOR 1-E as they reach 58 mph or greater.

At 3 p.m., Faxai was bearing down on Tokyo packing 127-mph sustained winds and 155-mph gusts.

Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to pass directly over Yokosuka at 1 a.m., and 23 miles southeast of Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Camp Zama and 28 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base about an hour later, packing 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts at center. Gonna be a wild night, folks.


4:15 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: Here is a rundown on what to expect in the way of sheltering in place, closures and delays in reporting for duty and school on Monday, via Yokota Air Base’s, Yokosuka Naval Base’s, Naval Air Facility Atsugi’s and Camp Zama’s  official Facebook pages. All U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain are in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1.

Schools – Expect two-hour delays to the start of school in the Yokota, Yokosuka and Zama/Atsugi communities. Buses will pick up students/pupils two hours after normal scheduled times. This also applies to child development centers.

Delays in reporting for duty – At Zama, non-essential personnel are authorized a delay until 9:30 a.m. Monday. At Yokota, non-essential personnel have a three-hour reporting delay. Other bases, check with your commanders’ access TV channel and official Facebook pages.

Shelter in place – Yokota has ordered non-essential personnel into quarters by 8 p.m., with the gates expected to close between 10 p.m. and midnight. All must be indoors when/if TCCOR 1-E is issued, at which time destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are occurring and all outdoor activity is prohibited, per USFJ Instruction. Yokosuka’s Womble Gate will close at 8 p.m.

Services – Yokota: commissary, exchange and force support facilities will close at 5 p.m., when the last shuttle leaving the Yokota Community Center is scheduled to depart. All airport shuttle buses will go to the airport as scheduled. Haneda and the first Narita bus will return. The second and third buses from Narita to Yokota are canceled. On Monday, the exchange, commissary and food court will open at normal time, Rickenbacker’s will open at 9 a.m. and the post office, Par 3 and gym will open at 10 a.m. All shoppettes will open two hours after the all clear is given. Monday’s membership breakfast is canceled.
Atsugi: All MWR facilities will close at 8 p.m. and open Monday at 9. Commissary will close at 6 p.m., mini-mart closes at 8 p.m. and opens at 9 a.m., food court closes at 8 p.m. and opens at 10:30 a.m., McDonald’s closes at 9 p.m. and opens at 8 a.m. The galley plans to operate on a normal schedule. The Pass and ID office closed at 4 p.m.
Zama: Shoppettes will open at 10 a.m. Monday, food courts at noon and the main and home stores will open at 10 a.m.
Yokosuka: Non-essential services ceased operations at 2 p.m. Exchange and commissary closed at 2 p.m. and its mini mart and gasoline stand at 4 p.m. The galley is open for evening meals. The base shuttles will halt after the 7 p.m. rotation. MWR facilities operating under normal hours Sunday and will open at 10 a.m. Monday. USO closed when TCCOR 1 was issued; it will reopen at 10 a.m. Monday.

All of the above linked pages will update every so often with important information; check back from time to time.

If at any point you're not sure what to do or where to go, always ... opt and err on the side of caution. You only get one chance. Stay indoors when the heavy stuff hits, and telephone base security if you have questions. Get your safe on, Kanto!


2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: U.S. bases on the Kanto Plain have entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1 in advance of Typhoon Faxai. Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are anticipated within 12 hours. Check your base’s official Facebook page or command access TV channel for information on sheltering in place, closures and delays in reporting for duty and school on Monday.

11:15 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: Typhoon Faxai has peaked at 132-mph sustained winds and 161-mph gusts at 9 a.m. Sunday while still nearly 300 miles south of Yokosuka Naval Base, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Faxai is forecast to weaken slightly, as it curves north and makes its way through the Tokyo-Chiba area overnight Sunday into Monday.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2 for the moment. Expect upgrade to TCCOR 1 in the afternoon, with possible higher upgrades to TCCOR 1-C if sustained winds of 40 mph or higher occur and 1-E if sustained winds meet or exceed 58 mph.

JTWC projects closest points of approach to be 13 miles southeast of Yokosuka at 2 a.m. Monday and 33 miles southeast of Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Camp Zama and 39 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base an hour later.

With Yokosuka the U.S. base forecast to be closest to Faxai, here’s the weather breakdown for Fleet Activities Yokosuka through Tuesday morning:

• Gale warning in effect from midnight Monday to 3 a.m. Wednesday.
• Thunderstorm watch from 7 p.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday.
• Small-craft advisory in effect from 7 p.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday.
• Northeasterly winds picking up 18- to 23-mph sustained and 35-mph gusts mid-evening Sunday.
• 29- to 35-mph sustained winds and 45-mph gusts late evening.
• 40- to 52-mph sustained winds and 75-mph gusts overnight and early Monday morning.
• 29- to 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts pre-dawn Monday.
• 18- to 23-mph sustained winds and 35-mph gusts early Monday morning.
Diminishing from there.

Expect non-essential services at bases to secure in the afternoon or early evening. Yokota’s commissary, exchange and force support facilities will close at 5 p.m., the enlisted club will close after brunch and the base plans to close gates for TCCOR 1-E, which its official Facebook page says is expected between 10 p.m. and midnight. Expect a three-hour delay in reporting for duty. Most services should open at normal hours. Other bases may follow suit.

According to its official Facebook page, Yokosuka’s exchange and commissary are to close at 2 p.m. and its mini mart and gasoline stand at 4 p.m. The galley is open for evening meals. The base shuttles will halt after the 7 p.m. rotation.

A two-hour delay to the start of school Monday in Yokosuka’s and Yokota’s school complex is anticipated at this point. School complexes at other bases may follow.

Stay tuned to Storm Tracker, your base command’s access TV channels and official Facebook pages for updates.

6 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Japan time: Typhoon Faxai remains on course to curve just southeast of U.S. bases in the Tokyo area overnight Sunday into Monday, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Given forecast points of approach, expect peak winds just past midnight into the wee hours Monday.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2. JTWC projects Faxai to pass 21 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base at 2 a.m. Monday and 49 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base an hour later.

Forecast for Yokosuka, the base forecast to be closest to Faxai, calls for:
— East to northeasterly winds between 18 to 23 mph sustained and gusts up to 35 at mid-evening.
— Northeasterly 29- to 35-mph sustained winds gusting to 52 late evening.
— Peak 45- to 52-mph sustained winds and 69-mph gusts overnight into Monday.
— 29- to 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts pre-dawn Monday.
Diminishing from there as Faxai moves out of the area.

Other bases further inland could see similar winds and heavy showers, although not quite as intense. But that all could change depending on Faxai’s forecast track and wind speed. Expect an upgrade to TCCOR 1 for all U.S. bases in Kanto at any point Sunday morning, and if winds exceed 40-mph sustained, a possible upgrade to TCCOR 1-C or higher could follow Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Faxai is now forecast peak at 138-mph sustained winds and 167-mph gusts at mid-afternoon Sunday, then weaken markedly, down to 110-mph sustained and 132-mph gusts as it makes landfall over the Chiba Peninsula around midnight. It should continue to weaken as it briefly passes over land, then back out over cooler waters off northeastern Honshu.

The only silver lining, and not much of one, to this is, Faxai’s western quadrants, typically the weaker of the four, would be facing the Tokyo area should Faxai remain on its current heading.

11:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Japan time: Stronger, ever stronger, becomes Typhoon Faxai, now forecast to peak as a Category 4-equivalent typhoon at midmorning Sunday, then to subside gradually as it makes its approach to Tokyo, forecast for Sunday evening.

At 9 p.m., Faxai was 459 miles south-southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, was tracking northwest at 18 mph, and had strengthened to 121 mph sustained winds and 150 mph gusts.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2; expect that to be upgraded to TCCOR 1 about daybreak Sunday or soon afterward.

If Faxai stays on its present heading, Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to peak at 132 mph sustained winds and 161 mph gusts as it curves north toward Tokyo. As it approaches and passes closer to land and over cooler waters, Faxai is forecast to diminish slightly, to 115 mph sustained winds and 144 mph gusts at midevening Sunday, and just south of the Kanto Plain.

Faxai is forecast to make a near-direct hit on Narita International Airport and to pass 20 miles southeast of Yokosuka and 47 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base between midnight Sunday and 3 a.m. Monday before curving back out over the Pacific Ocean and churning rapidly northeast.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Japan time: All U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2 at 6 p.m. Saturday. Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are anticipated within 24 hours. Expect upgrade to TCCOR 1 early Sunday morning, pending Typhoon Faxai’s intensity and forecast track.

6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Japan time: Fleet Activities Yokosuka has set Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2. Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are anticipated within 24 hours. Expect other bases in the Kanto Plain to follow suit, and depending on Typhoon Faxai’s forecast wind speeds and track locations, TCCOR 1 could be set sometime Sunday morning.

Faxai is moving faster as it approaches the Kanto Plain. At 3 p.m., Faxai was 551 miles south-southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, moving northwest at 22 mph and had strengthened to 98-mph sustained winds and 121-mph gusts.

If Faxai stays on its present heading, Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to peak at 121-mph sustained winds and 150-mph gusts at mid-afternoon Sunday as it curves north, then northeast.

Faxai is forecast to make a direct hit on Narita International Airport, pass 21 miles southeast of Yokosuka and 48 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base between 11 p.m. and midnight Sunday, weakening slightly to 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts as it moves back out over water early Monday morning.

The only school impact thus far is a two-hour delay for the Yokosuka school complex Monday morning, according to DODEA Pacific East. A call on the schools at other bases should be made later.

1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Japan time: Stronger, ever stronger, Typhoon Faxai is growing, and is now forecast to reach and then curve northeast of Tokyo overnight Sunday into Monday as a Category 3-equivalent typhoon, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

At 9 a.m., Faxai was 668 miles south-southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, tracking northwest at 20 mph and had strengthened to 86-mph sustained winds and 104-mph gusts. It’s forecast to peak at 121-mph sustained winds and 150-mph gusts at mid-evening Sunday – just as it’s approaching the Chiba Peninsula, where JTWC projects it to make landfall.

If Faxai remains on its present heading, it’s forecast to pass almost directly over Narita International Airport, and 25 miles southeast of Yokosuka and 51 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base between midnight Sunday and 3 a.m. Monday.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3. Gauging the current closest points of approach to those bases, expect an upgrade to TCCOR 2 sometime Saturday evening and TCCOR 1 at mid-morning Sunday. All of that could change pending Faxai’s forecast strength and track speed and direction.

The time to prepare is now, before TCCOR changes could force facilities to secure. Fill the automobile and outdoor grill gasoline tanks, fill containers with water in case the base services go out, visit the ATM to get about a three-day supply of cash, make that last visit to the commissary to get non-perishable food, bottled water, diapers and wipes for the young’uns and food for the furry friends.

6:10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Japan time: Faxai has been upgraded to a Category 1-equivalent typhoon by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, and remains forecast to move northwest at a slightly quicker pace, then curve just east of Tokyo Sunday evening as a Category 2-equivalent storm.

At 3 a.m., Faxai was 760 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, tracking northwest at 20 mph with 75-mph sustained winds and 92-mph gusts. U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3; expect that to be upgraded by mid-morning Saturday.

JTWC projects Faxai to peak at 110-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts as it arcs north, then northeast, skimming the east coast of the Chiba Peninsula and passing 26 miles southeast of Yokosuka and 53 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base between 1 and 2 a.m. Monday.

11:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Japan time: Forecast intensity for Tropical Storm Faxai has increased slightly. Joint Typhoon Warning Center now projects Faxai to be packing gusts as high as 121 mph as it curves north toward the Tokyo area at mid-evening Sunday.

At 9 p.m., Faxai was 898 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, tracking west-northwest at 23 mph and had strengthened to 63-mph sustained winds and 81-mph gusts. U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3; that should likely be upgraded to TCCOR 2 after daybreak Saturday morning.

JTWC projects Faxai to keep tracking northwest for the next 30 hours, curving north and peaking at 98-mph sustained winds and 121-mph gusts as it slams ashore at about 9 p.m. over the Chiba Peninsula, passing just 16 miles southeast of Yokosuka about two hours later.

Yokosuka’s extended weather forecast calls for winds to pick up Sunday, east-northeast between 20 and 25 mph sustained and 38-mph gusts in the early evening; shifting northeast between 35 and 40 mph sustained and 52-mph gusts late Sunday evening; shifting again, north-northeast  between 46 and 58 mph sustained and 75-mph gusts overnight; finally turning northwest and down to 35 to 40-mph sustained and 52-mph gusts after dawn Monday.

Faxai is then forecast to turn northeast and head back into the Pacific Ocean, missing Misawa Air Base by about 200 miles at mid-afternoon Monday.

6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Japan time: Tropical Storm Faxai continues to struggle to intensify, but that might not be a problem in the next day or so; Faxai is forecast to strengthen, packing gusts up to 115 mph, as it places Tokyo and U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain firmly in the crosshairs.

At 3 p.m. Faxai was 1,024 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, headed northwest at 24 mph, holding steady at 52-mph sustained winds and 63-mph gusts. U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3; expect an upgrade to TCCOR 2 early Saturday morning.

If Faxai stays on its present course, it’s forecast to peak at 92-mph sustained winds and 115-mph gusts after continuing to track northwest as it approaches the Tokyo area. It’s forecast to make landfall over the Chiba Peninsula Sunday evening, passing just 13 miles southeast of Yokosuka and 39 miles southeast of Yokota Air Base between 11 p.m. and midnight Sunday.

Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to remain a typhoon even after passing 170 miles southeast of Misawa Air Base, which appears as if it might be spared Faxai’s full fury.

12:40 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Japan time: Tropical Storm Faxai has strengthened slightly and its new forecast track takes it a tad further east of U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain than previously reported. Still, Monday could be a gusty, showery one, depending on where precisely Faxai heads.

At 9 a.m., Faxai was 1,150 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, had intensified to 52-mph sustained winds and 63-mph gusts at center and had picked up forward speed, chugging northwest at almost 20 mph.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3; expect an upgrade to TCCOR 2 at some point Saturday morning or mid-day.

If Faxai continues on its present course, it’s forecast to reach Category 1-equivalent typhoon strength, 75-mph sustained winds and 92-mph gusts, at about mid-morning Saturday, then peak just below Category 2-equivalent intensity, 98-mph sustained winds and 121-mph gusts, as it begins a broad curve northeast toward the Tokyo area.

Faxai is forecast to make landfall over the Chiba peninsula east of Tokyo just before daybreak on Monday, still packing 86-mph sustained winds and 104-mph gusts as it barrels ashore, about 20 miles east-southeast of Yokosuka at around 1 a.m. Monday.

It appears as if Misawa Air Base could be spared Faxai’s full fury. Faxai is forecast to turn back out to sea over the northwest Pacific Ocean, passing about 160 miles southeast of Misawa at around 5 p.m. Monday.

8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Japan time: U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain have entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3 in advance of Tropical Storm Faxai. Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are possible within 48 hours.

3:40 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Japan time: Chances remain good that U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain might get direct or near-direct hits from Tropical Storm Faxai overnight Sunday into Monday.

Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects Faxai to peak at 92-mph sustained winds and 115-mph gusts as it approaches the Izu Peninsula about 9 p.m. Sunday just before making landfall.

Faxai is forecast to pass 15 miles southeast of Camp Fuji and almost directly over Yokota Air Base, Camp Zama and Naval Air Facility Atsugi between 2 and 4 a.m. Monday.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4. Expect that to be upgraded sometime Friday morning, and again Saturday as Faxai continues approaching.


6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Japan time: Finally, Tropical Storm 14W acquired a name: Faxai, contributed by Laos which stands for a Laotian woman's name.

Faxai remains on course to track northwest toward the Tokyo area, and is now forecast to make near-direct hits on U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4; expect an upgrade to TCCOR 3 sometime Friday morning.

At 3 p.m., Faxai was 1,438 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, tracking northwest at 12 mph and continuing to  hold steady at 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts.

JTWC projects Faxai to keep intensifying as it moves northwest, peaking at 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts, Category 2-equivalent intensity, as it approaches and turns northeast toward the Izu Peninsula.

Faxai is forecast to weaken rapidly, but maintain strong tropical-storm strength as it passes almost directly over Yokota Air Base at about 3 a.m. Monday, then push quickly northeast, passing 138 miles southeast of Misawa Air Base at 4 p.m. Monday and into the northwest Pacific Ocean.


12:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Japan time: Tropical Storm 14W continues to hold steady at 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts for a second straight day.

But according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, that trend is about to end as TS 14W is forecast to intensify as it moves northwest and peak at Category 3-equivalent intensity as it approaches Japan’s main island of Honshu on Sunday.

At 9 a.m., TS 14W was 1,512 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, headed northwest at 7 mph. It’s forecast to peak at 115-mph sustained winds and 144-mph gusts after tracking northwest for the next couple of days and as it comes closer to Honshu.

U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4; expect that to be upgraded early to mid-morning on Friday as TS 14W intensifies.

If it remains on its present course, TS 14W is forecast to pass 20 miles west of Camp Fuji and 34 miles west of Yokota Air Base between 3 and 5 a.m. Monday, still packing 81-mph sustained winds and 98-mph gusts at center.


8 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Japan time: U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain have entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4. Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are possible within 72 hours.

6:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Japan time: Naval Air Facility Atsugi has set Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 5 in advance of Tropical Storm 14W’s forecast arrival overnight Sunday into Monday. Expect other U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain to follow, as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center’s forecast track takes TS 14W closer to them than previously reported.

At 3 a.m., 14W was 1,541 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base and 644 miles west of Wake Island, heading west-northwest at 8 mph and still holding steady with 40 mph sustained winds and 52 mph gusts.

If 14W stays on its present course, it’s due to start intensifying, to pick up track speed and to head northwest toward Japan’s main island of Honshu, peaking with 110 mph sustained winds and 132 mph gusts early Sunday morning as it approaches land.

JTWC projects 14W to pass just 16 miles west of Camp Fuji and 37 miles west of Yokota Air Base between 2 and 4 a.m. Monday, still packing 81 mph sustained winds and 98 mph gusts at its center. JTWC also projects 14W’s 50 knot (58 mph) wind band to extend 58 miles northeast and 69 miles southeast of center, possibly putting U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain well within reach. Stay tuned and follow updated TCCORs closely.

11:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, Japan time: Tropical Storm 14W’s forecast track has lurched directly west again, but the Joint Typhoon Warning Center still projects it to reach Category 2-equivalent intensity and to track inland over central Honshu overnight Sunday into Monday, and closer to U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain.

At 9 p.m., TS 14W was 1,601 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, tracking west at 10 mph and still holding steady at 40 mph sustained winds and 52 mph gusts. No tropical cyclone conditions of readiness have been directed at any Kanto bases to this point.

If TS 14W continues on its present heading, it’s forecast to resume a northwesterly track, peaking at 98 mph sustained winds and 121 mph gusts at 9 p.m. Sunday as it curves north toward Honshu.

It’s due to make landfall near Shizuoka overnight Sunday into Monday, to pass 34 miles west of Camp Fuji and 49 miles west of Yokota Air Base between 6 and 8 a.m. Monday, then to curve northeast and to get within 76 miles south of Misawa Air Base at 9 p.m. Tuesday, still packing 63 mph sustained winds and 81 mph gusts at center.

6:40 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, Japan time: Little change at this point regarding Tropical Storm 14W. Joint Typhoon Warning Center keeps it on course to head northwest toward Japan’s main island of Honshu. But questions remain over its forward speed and where and when it curves over Honshu, and how close to U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain.

At 3 p.m., TS 14W was 1,643 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, headed west-northwest at 12 mph and has held steady for the last day at 40 mph sustained winds and 52 mph gusts.

JTWC projects TS 14W’s intensity to spike after the next day or so, peaking at Category 2-equivalent intensity, 104 mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts as it approaches central Honshu.

At this point, TS 14W is forecast to pass 33 miles west of Camp Fuji and 51 miles west of Yokota Air Base between midnight Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday. JTWC then projects TS 14W to weaken as it traverses northeast Honshu in Misawa Air Base’s general direction coming with 123 miles of the base at the end of the current JTWC five-day forecast.

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, Japan time: There remains little doubt, Tropical Storm 14W is forecast to slice through central Honshu come Sunday evening into Monday. The question remains, how close might it come to U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain.

At 9 a.m., TS 14W was 1,725 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, moving west-northwest at 7 mph and continued holding steady at 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts. No accelerated tropical cyclone conditions of readiness have been issued at this point.

If TS 14W stays on present course, it’s forecast to keep moving northwest in the general direction of Honshu, Japan’s main island, peaking at 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts, Category 2-equivalent strength, as it approaches.

Model track guidance and forecast ensembles each agree on a curve scenario with some outliers. Joint Typhoon Warning Center currently projects TS 14W to pass 41 miles west-northwest of Camp Fuji and 63 miles west-northwest of Naval Air Facility Atsugi between 10 and 11 p.m. Sunday at peak forecast intensity.

Will Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan feel some effect? TS 14 W is forecast to be 160 miles southwest of Misawa at mid-morning Monday at the end of the JTWC’s current forecast period. Stay tuned. Misawa has been in a typhoon emergency condition before, three years ago.

6:15 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, Japan time: It looks more and more like Tropical Storm 14W is forecast to peak at Category 2-equivalent intensity and to curve on Sunday toward central Japan, possibly threatening U.S. bases in the Kanto Plain.

At 3 a.m., 14W was 1,783 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, headed west-northwest at 6 mph, still packing 40 mph sustained winds and 52 mph gusts.

If 14W stays on its current heading, it is forecast to keep heading northwest, then, as the weekend comes, to curve north toward central Honshu, peaking at 104 mph sustained winds and 127 mph gusts, then to make landfall Sunday evening and to pass 48 miles west of Camp Fuji and 75 miles west of Naval Air Facility Atsugi. Its Joint Typhoon Warning Center-forecast 50-knot wind bands could be close enough to cause damaging winds.

Stay tuned to Storm Tracker, your official base access TV channel and official Facebook pages for more on accelerated Tropical Cyclone Conditions of Readiness and local forecasts.

11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, Japan time: Tropical Storm 14W has weakened slightly, but remains forecast to track west-northwest in the coming days, then curve north toward central Honshu by late Sunday evening.

At 9 p.m., TS 14W was 1,801 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, headed west at 10 mph and had weakened to 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts.

If TS 14W remains on its current heading, it’s due to track west-northwest, peaking at 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts as it turns north in the general direction of Hamamatsu in central Honshu at 9 p.m. Sunday. At that point, 14W is forecast to be 181 miles southwest of Camp Fuji.

It’ll take another day or so for models to come into better agreement on where and when TS 14W might curve. Stay tuned.

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, Japan time: No question, Tropical Storm 14W is headed in the general direction of Japan. The question remains, where specifically might it strike?

At 3 p.m., TS 14W was 1,841 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, moving west at 14 mph and holding steady at 46-mph sustained winds and 58-mph gusts.

If 14W stays on its present heading, it’s due to keep tracking west-northwest, passing 171 miles northeast of Iwo Jima at 7 a.m. Saturday, steadily strengthening, peaking at 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts at mid-afternoon Sunday, the end of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center’s current forecast period.

At that juncture, 14W is forecast to be 237 miles southwest of Yokosuka Naval Base and 214 miles southwest of Camp Fuji.

But which direction will it head? JTWC reports a model solution spread of 173 miles five days out. That’s nearly as far as it is from Nagoya to Tokyo.

Model track guidance remains greatly divided, though it and the GFS and CMC ensemble best tracks agree on a curve northeast. The question being the timing of the curve and how strong 14W remains. Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

6:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, Japan time: 14W was upgraded overnight to a tropical storm by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Where 14W will ultimately end up heading remains a guessing game at this point.

At 3 a.m., 14W was 238 miles southwest of Wake Island and 1,955 miles southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, headed west-northwest at 10 mph with 40-mph sustained winds and 52-mph gusts.

If 14W remains on its present heading, it's due to keep tracking west-northwest for the next several days, peaking at Category 2-equivalent intensity, 104-mph sustained winds and 127-mph gusts, at 3 a.m. Sunday when it's forecast to be 292 miles south of Yokosuka.

Model track guidance and the GFS and CMC ensemble best tracks each agree on a sharp curve northeast as it approaches the Kanto Plain. The question being, how soon will the curve be?

JTWC reports there's a spread among solutions of 130 miles three days out and 477 miles five days out, so 14W's final destination remains something of a mystery. Stay tuned. Next update Tuesday evening.

5:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2, Japan time: Forecast peak strength for Tropical Depression 14W has increased markedly according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center; it's projected to peak at Category 2-equivalent intensity at the end of the current five-day forecast.

At 3 p.m., TD 14W was 2,576 miles east of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and 207 miles south of Wake Island, moving west-northwest at 16 mph and holding steady at 35-mph sustained winds and 46-mph gusts.

If TD 14W stays on its current heading, it's due to keep heading west-northwest and peak at 98-mph sustained winds and 121-mph gusts as it passes 202 miles north-northeast of Iwo Jima at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Model track guidance spreads out from there, as do the GFS and CMC ensembles. Each of the ensembles' best tracks agrees on a sharp curve northeast as TD 14W approaches the Tokyo area, but how strong it might be and when the turn happens remain open to question.

It's a few days away. A lot can change. Stay tuned.

11:50 a.m. Monday, Sept. 2, Japan time: Little more to report than before. Tropical Depression 14W remains on a west-northwest course in Japan's general direction.

It's forecast gradually strengthening until reaching Category 1-equivalent intensity at the end of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center's forecast period, coming within 196 miles northeast of Iwo Jima at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Model track guidance and the GFS and CMC ensemble best tracks still indicate 14W curving sharply right and heading northeast; the question is the timing of the curve. Does it happen before it reaches the Tokyo area or after? And how strong might it be either way? More to come.
 

5:45 a.m. Monday, Sept. 2, Japan time: The 14th numbered storm of the northwest Pacific’s tropical cyclone season formed overnight Sunday southeast of Wake Island. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center’s initial forecast track shows it moving in Japan’s general direction at a fairly rapid pace over the next five days.

At 5:30 a.m., Tropical Depression 14W was 2,800 miles east of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and 358 miles southeast of Wake Island. Model track guidance indicates 14W moving west, then curving sharply right before reaching Japan and tracking northeast into the northern Pacific Ocean.

Six construction projects planned for Yokota – home of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force – are included in a Defense Department list of projects being defunded to pay for $3.6 billion worth of a wall and improvements on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Defunded Yokota projects listed by the Pentagon include munitions structures, a C-130J Super Hercules corrosion control hangar and other hangars, operations, warehouse and maintenance facilities.

“The [hangar] and warehouse facility are parts of a planned Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 Campus,” Anthony Mayne, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Japan District, said in a Sept. 6 email.

Defunded Yokota projects associated with the Ospreys were worth just under $87 million, he said in a follow-up email Tuesday.

However, Master Sgt. William Coleman, a spokesman for the 374th Airlift Wing, in a Sept. 5, email said defunding the Yokota projects “will not change any plans previously made by the [21st Special Operations Squadron] and the [753rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron].”

The squadrons, which stood up in July, are charged with flying and maintaining five CV-22 Ospreys out of Yokota.

Their mission is to deliver “reliable, professional Tilt-Rotor capability in support of [Special Operations Command Pacific] and [Special Operations Command Korea] Missions,” according to the Air Force.

Lt. Col. Jason Hock, commander of the 21st, told reporters July 1 that a plan was on track to eventually station 10 Ospreys, supported by 450 personnel, at the base. The units are working out of temporary facilities at Yokota and will stay in them until purpose-built ones have been constructed, he said.

Contracts for the construction of parts of the special operations campus have already been awarded and work will begin within the next year, Mayne said.

“This future construction includes a transmitter facility, roads, apron and utilities,” he said.

Other defunded projects at Yokota, unrelated to the Ospreys, include the corrosion control hangar and a combat arms training maintenance facility. These are older projects that have been delayed for nine months and 12 months respectively, Mayne said.

When or if the defunded projects might proceed is “still to be determined at the DOD level,” he said.

robson.seth@stripes.com
Twitter: @SethRobson1
 

The troops — some of whom arrived in the Bahamas over the weekend — have begun a variety of missions, including search and rescue operations and assessing air fields to ensure they could safely receive aircraft loaded with troops, equipment and relief supplies, Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said Monday. The U.S. military might also help with air traffic control for the Bahamas, he said.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has authorized the use of 30 Army and Navy helicopters in the Bahamas, and the Navy’s USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship carrying four Marine MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and some 2,000 troops, has been moved south toward the Bahamas to aid in recovery efforts.

Hoffman said Pentagon-led troops had rescued eight people during 30 search and rescue flights in the Bahamas, as of Monday. U.S. Coast Guard members — who are assigned to the Homeland Security Department — had been credited with rescuing some 300 during operations in the Bahamas in the last week, the service said. Some 700 Coast Guard members and six MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters are supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas, according to a Coast Guard statement on Sunday.

The Bataan’s Ospreys ferried an Air Force airfield assessment team into the Bahamas to examine the airfields at Grand Bahama International Airport and Marsh Harbour airport on Great Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas. Hoffman said the Grand Bahama airport, just west of Marsh Harbour, had been cleared for traffic including C-130 and C-17 cargo planes. Marsh Harbour’s airfield had yet to be cleared for use as of Monday, Hoffman said.

The Pentagon could provide additional support for the Bahamas, if the island nation requests it, he added.

Hoffman said the Defense Department had not yet determined the amount of damage Hurricane Dorian had caused on U.S. military bases along the East Coast. He said the services have begun assessing damage in areas impacted by the storm, including in the Carolinas and Virginia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

dickstein.corey@stripes.com
Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in command of the troops fighting under United Nations auspices, knew what needed to be done. But first, the five-star general had to convince the rest of the top brass.

The Incheon landing, which began 69 years ago Sunday, went against the better judgment of Navy, Marine and other Army commanders who argued the narrow port channel, swift currents and extreme tides were too dangerous and could leave ships stranded and vulnerable to attack.

The 70-year-old war hero prevailed, insisting that the riskiness of the plan to land Marines behind enemy lines only boosted the element of surprise.

The high-stakes gamble marked a turning point early in a war which, absent a formal peace treaty, is technically still underway. The landing severed North Korean supply lines, allowed the allied forces to recapture Seoul and push the North Koreans back toward the 38th parallel that at the time divided the Communist North from the Western-backed South.

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Element of surprise

Not taking any chances, U.S., British and South Korean forces staged diversionary bombardments in other areas in the days before aiming at the port of Incheon, about 25 miles west of Seoul.

Naval destroyers and war planes then converged near Wolmi-do, a heavily fortified North Korean-held island with a hill that overlooked the Incheon harbor and was the first target of the landing.

Marine aircraft squadrons “began the softening-up of Wolmi-do” on Sept. 10 by dropping napalm tanks that “burned out most of the buildings on the island,” retired Marine Brig. Gen. Edwin Simmons wrote in “Over the Seawall, U.S. Marines at Inchon.”

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Finally, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines rode the tide in at dawn at a landing point known as Green Beach.

They met little resistance and quickly secured the area, attaching an American flag to the top of a tree and guarding dozens of dazed North Korean prisoners while waiting for the evening tide to allow the mission to continue.

About 12 hours later, the main assault group crossed a point called Red Beach across a narrow causeway that linked the island with Incheon proper while other Marines landed over Blue Beach in the inner harbor to the south.

The use of the term beaches to describe the landing points was a misnomer since they were surrounded by a granite seawall.

“I was in the fifth wave that hit ‘Red Beach,’ which in reality was a rough, vertical pile of stones over which the first assault troops had to scramble with the aid of improvised landing ladders topped with steel hooks,” wrote Marguerite Higgins, a reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize for her front-line accounts of the war.

“Despite a deadly and steady pounding from naval guns and airplanes, enough North Koreans remained alive close to the beach to harass us with small-arms and mortar fire,” she added.

In one iconic photo, 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez is shown climbing over the seawall under enemy fire. The 25-year-old Marine, who died after he fell on a live grenade, was posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor.

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Strategic success

In all, the amphibious landing, known as Operation Chromite, involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels. Meanwhile, the Eighth Army broke out of the Pusan Perimeter and pressed north by land, squeezing the North Koreans in a “hammer and anvil” maneuver.

Allied forces took Seoul and the strategically important Kimpo airport within about two weeks in what is widely considered one of the most successful wartime operations of the 20th century.

The U.N. death toll for the entire operation was 566 while tens of thousands of North Koreans were killed or captured.

“As American forces were on the brink of being driven from South Korea by the invasion of the North Korean army, General MacArthur ordered an amphibious landing deep behind enemy lines,” ex-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote in his new memoir.

“This reversed the Korean War virtually overnight,” the retired Marine general said in “Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.”

“MacArthur’s brilliance in Korea lay in moving the Marines hundreds of miles by sea to land in the rear of the unsuspecting North Korean army, and resulted in far fewer friendly casualties,” Mattis said.

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The victory also was a turning point in restoring the Marine Corps, which had been devastated by post-World War II cuts.

But, historians say, the success emboldened MacArthur and lowered resistance to his plan to push farther north than originally planned, ignoring warnings that the Chinese were prepared to join the war to keep the Americans from reaching their doorstep, historians say.

The Chinese intervention in mid-October reinvigorated the communist forces as the two sides fought in a bloody stalemate until an armistice was reached in 1953.

Overshadowed by progress

While Incheon is often mentioned in the same breath as Normandy on lists of the most successful amphibious landings, there are few reminders of the operation on the island where it began.

For one thing, Wolmi-do is no longer an island, having been linked to Incheon proper, as the city is now spelled in English, by reclaimed land.

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In 2008, a South Korean truth and reconciliation commission found that villagers on the island had not been warned of the impending attack and at least 10 civilians were killed.

Memorials marking the sites of the three targeted beachheads have been overshadowed by South Korea’s subsequent rush toward capitalism, including a popular amusement park with a Viking ship ride at the foot of the hill that was the original Marine objective.

That’s a sharp contrast to the solemn and well-preserved D-Day memorials in France, although there is a museum and a larger-than-life statue of MacArthur elsewhere in the city.

“Some of that land has been reclaimed and everything has shifted. Suddenly some of the markers are several blocks from the water,” said Cord Scott, a history professor who has retraced the invasion route.

“In a roundabout way they’re showing how much South Korea has progressed and developed,” he said. “The Blue Beach marker is literally next to a gas station on the side of the road. I drove past it twice.”

gamel.kim@stripes.com
Twitter: @kimgamel

After a federal prosecutor gave a 20-minute opening statement laying out Yujing Zhang's alleged lies that gained her access to the president's Palm Beach resort on March 30 and her suspicious activities during her brief presence on the grounds, Zhang stood at the defense table for 20 seconds and addressed the 10 women and two men.

"I don't believe I did anything wrong and that's what I want to say. USA, thank you," Zhang said in another unusual turn in an unusual case. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutor Michael Sherwin, on the other hand, said evidence and testimony will show that Zhang's story to club employees and agents contained one lie after another as it evolved. First, the 33-year-old Shanghai consultant told a Secret Service agent outside the resort that she was there to visit the pool and didn't answer when an employee asked if she was the daughter of a member, he said.

The confusion over who she might be got her past two lines of security and into a reception area, where she surreptitiously took photos and video and told an employee first that she was there for a United Nations friendship meeting that didn't exist, and then that she was there for a dinner, Sherwin said. When confronted by Secret Service, she dashed into a restroom where an employee saw her frantically texting, he said. He said she then told agents she was there to meet with the president and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, about China-U.S. trade. The president and his family were staying at Mar-a-Lago that weekend, but he was at his nearby golf club when Zhang arrived.

Sherwin said Zhang spoke English well during her interaction with employees and agents, and was "calm, cool and collected."

"She wasn't nervous or rattled at all," Sherwin said an employee would testify. "She was extremely stoic."

Zhang's insistence on being her own attorney has frustrated District Judge Roy Altman. On Monday, jury selection had to be delayed as she came into court dressed in her brown jail clothes. Most defendants wear civilian clothes so the jury won't be prejudiced against them. Zhang said she had not put on the clothes she had been provided because the jail had not given her any underwear. After some discussion of over which agency was responsible, she retired to a holding cell and donned a copper blouse and khaki pants.

Altman tried repeatedly Monday to change Zhang's mind about representing herself as he has done during every hearing since she fired her public defenders in June. When he demanded that she answer yes or no if she wanted to use her attorneys, who are in court on standby, she went into a long monologue in Mandarin. Altman cut her off before it could be translated, and she said she didn't want them.

He spoke to Zhang sternly after she told him "I don't know why I am here" and said she wasn't prepared because she said she thought the trial had been canceled.

"You know precisely why you are here," Altman told her. He has repeatedly accused her at previous hearings of "playing games."

Zhang primarily used a translator Monday, but at one point told Altman she hadn't spoken Mandarin in months and was having a hard time following along.

"You speak Chinese — you are from China," Altman replied.

But her refusal to use an attorney might have harmed her case Monday. Prosecutors called Willy Isidore, a Palm Beach limo driver, who spent 20 minutes describing how he drove an Asian woman who was acting suspiciously to Mar-a-Lago's security checkpoint the night before Zhang's arrest.

When asked by prosecutor Rolando Garcia if he could identify the woman, however, he said he wasn't sure. An experienced defense attorney would have challenged Isidore and asked Altman to strike his testimony as unreliable, but Zhang said she had no questions.

Prosecutors have filed under seal secret evidence that they say has national security implications, even though Zhang is not charged with espionage. The Secret Service said when agents detained Zhang at Mar-a-Lago she was carrying a computer, a hard drive, four cellphones and a thumb drive containing malware, although agents later recanted the accusation about the malware.

Agents said Zhang told them she brought the electronics to Mar-a-Lago because she feared they would be stolen if left at her nearby hotel, but in her room they allegedly found a device to detect hidden cameras, computers, $8,000 in cash, and credit and debit cards.

All four were described as alert and in relatively good condition and were taken to a hospital for further evaluation.

"Best day of my 16-year career," Lt. Lloyd Heflin, who was coordinating the effort, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.

A video posted online by the Coast Guard showed responders clapping and cheering as the final man, wearing only shorts, climbed out of a hole in the hull and stood up.

Three of the South Korean crew members came out in the midafternoon. The fourth man, who was trapped in a separate compartment, emerged three hours later.

The rescues followed nearly 36 hours of work after the Golden Ray, a giant ship that carries automobiles, rolled onto its side early Sunday as it was leaving Brunswick, bound for Baltimore.

"All crew members are accounted for," Coast Guard Southeast wrote on Twitter. "Operations will now shift fully to environmental protection, removing the vessel and resuming commerce."

In the hours immediately after the accident, the Coast Guard lifted 20 crew members into helicopters before determining that smoke and flames and unstable cargo made it too risky to venture further inside the vessel. Officials were concerned that some of the 4,000 vehicles aboard may have broken loose.

That left responders looking for the remaining four crew members. At first, rescuers thought the noises they were hearing inside could be some of the vehicles crashing around. But by dawn Monday, they were confident that the taps were responses to their own taps, indicating someone was alive inside.

"It was outstanding when I heard the news this morning that we had taps back throughout the night," Capt. John Reed said. Those sounds helped lead rescuers to the right place on the 656-foot (200 meter) vessel and provided motivation.

"They were charged up knowing the people were alive," Reed said.

On Monday morning, rescuers landed on the side of the Golden Ray and rappelled down the hull. Heflin, who was coordinating the search, said they found three men in a room close to the propeller shaft, near the bottom of the stern. Responders began drilling, starting with a 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) hole. Coast Guard officials brought the ship's chief engineer, who was rescued Sunday, out to the ship to translate, and found the three men were "on board and OK," as Heflin put it.

Reed said rescuers passed food and water through the hole to the men. They also provided fresh air to the propeller room, which Reed said was even hotter than outside, where the high was 93 degrees (34 Celsius).

Responders set up a tent on the hull and began drilling additional holes, eventually making an opening large enough to insert a ladder and help the men climb out.

"It was like connect the dots," Reed said of the hole, which grew to 2 feet by 3 feet (0.6 meters by 1 meter).

The fourth rescue was a greater challenge. That crewman was behind glass in a separate engineering compartment on another deck, Reed said.

The Golden Ray is now stuck in the shipping channel, closing one of the busiest U.S. seaports for shipping automobiles. One ship is unable to leave port and four more are lined up outside waiting to come in, according to ship-tracking website Marine Traffic.

A statement issued Monday by the South Korea foreign ministry said the crew members were isolated in an engine room. It said 10 South Koreans and 13 Filipinos had been on board, along with a U.S. harbor pilot, when the ship began tilting.

Position records for the Golden Ray show the ship arrived in port in Brunswick Saturday evening after making the short sail from a prior stop in Jacksonville, Florida. The ship then departed the dock in Brunswick shortly after midnight and was underway only 23 minutes before its movement stopped in the mouth of the harbor where it capsized, according to satellite data recorded by Marine Traffic.

Port officials were "working closely with the Coast Guard to reopen the channel," Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said in a statement after the final man was rescued.

The cause of the capsizing remains under investigation. Marine Traffic shows the Golden Ray overturned as it was passed by another car carrier entering St. Simons Sound.

At the time, the skies were clear and the weather calm, with a southerly breeze of only 5 miles per hour, according to National Weather Service records.

Many of those rescued were taken to the International Seafarers' Center in Brunswick. Sailors arrived with only what they were wearing when rescued. A restaurant donated a meal, and the volunteer-run center provided the seamen with clothes, toiletries and Bibles.

The vessel is owned by Hyundai Glovis, which carries cars for automakers Hyundai and Kia as well as others.

In a statement, the company thanked the Coast Guard for saving the crew and sought to assure the public that it would now focus on "mitigating damage to property and the environment."

___

Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writer Michael Biesecker contributed from Washington.

Projects affected include replacement of an elementary school in Germany housed in a former U.S. military hospital and renovations to a school on Okinawa lacking adequate fire suppression, according to Department of Defense Education Activity reports.

Europe had funding pulled for four DODEA schools — three in Germany and one in the United Kingdom, according to the Pentagon’s list of projects affected by the diverted funds.

DODEA officials in Europe, however, said Thursday they are still proceeding with the planning and design phase of the school replacement projects on the Pentagon’s deferral list.

“We expect to get back the funds in the next budget cycle,” said John Rovero, DODEA Europe chief of facilities. “It doesn’t cancel anything. It could potentially delay (the projects), if Congress doesn’t restore the funds, which is not expected.”

The earliest project on the list, a replacement for Spangdahlem Elementary School, was still a year away from starting construction, he said.

In Germany, $46.6 million is earmarked to replace Robinson Barracks Elementary School in Stuttgart. A DODEA report to Congress rated the condition of the school, which opened in 1953 in a building previously used as a military hospital, as poor.

Aukamm Elementary School at Clay Kaserne in Wiesbaden, which was slated for about $56 million, was built in 1961 with a two-classroom kindergarten annex building added in 2004, according to DODEA military construction data.

“The facilities are in poor condition,” a DODEA report said, noting the existing facility is located in an area that does not have a controlled perimeter fence, which represents a security risk.

On Okinawa, plans to renovate three buildings for Bechtel Elementary School, at Camp McTureous, have been put on hold. A DODEA report said the building currently housing the school was in poor condition, and that facilities were undersized and lacked adequate fire suppression.

Other DODEA school construction projects on the list include the first phase of construction of Kinnick High School at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. A plan to replace Croughton Elementary/Middle/High School in England was already canceled.

svan.jennifer@stripes.com
Twitter: @stripesktown
 

Fixed to metal shanks, and with screws in the knuckles, they come off easily. Ervick, the production director, lays them on cushioned packing paper. Then he and a colleague lift the squinting doughboy and carry him feet first to the western front.

It is the fall of 1918 in the new National Museum of the U.S. Army. And experts are re-creating a scene from the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France, which helped end World War I in defeat for Germany and victory for the U.S. and allied forces.

The handless American — Soldier No. 14 — is gently placed in the shell hole, near blasted tree trunks and an abandoned German howitzer.

He'll get his helmet, his machine gun and his hands back later.

Inside this gleaming new museum, scheduled to open next spring at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, time is growing short.

Technicians in hard hats crawl over battlefields littered with boxes, ladders and wiring. And the cast figures of soldiers such as No. 14 wait to go into action.

About 20 miles south of Washington, the $400 million steel-and-glass facility will be the Army's flagship museum when it opens on June 4, on Liberty Drive off the Fairfax County Parkway.

It has already selected 1,300 "micro" artifacts and 19 "macro" artifacts — including a famous World War II Sherman tank from the Battle of the Bulge and a Bradley Fighting Vehicle from the wars in Iraq — for inclusion. The latter two are already in place.

Among the most moving artifacts is the wreckage of an engine from "Super 6-1," the first helicopter shot down in the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" disaster in Somalia in which 18 Americans were killed.

And among the most striking exhibits will be several "immersion" tableaux, which seek to place the visitor with the soldiers, amid the sights and sounds of combat.

Over several days last month, curators moved many of the specially cast soldier figures from the base at Fort Belvoir to the museum to be installed.

"Wow," Paul Morando, chief of exhibits, says as the work takes place. "We are actually starting to look like a museum."

"You see the walls going up . . . and the construction of it, but then when you start seeing the artifacts go in and the cast figures, reality is setting in that it is going to be . . . a world-class museum," he says.

A few days later, wearing a white hard hat and yellow safety vest, he paces like a Hollywood director as artists from StudioEIS, which created the cast figures, position the World War I soldiers on the battlefield.

"They have bolts that come out of the bottom of their shoes," Morando says. Holes have to be drilled into the concrete that makes up the simulated ground, and, "based on our art direction," the figures have to be fixed in place.

The figures, which are not fully finished, were molded mostly with the help of actual U.S. soldiers.

"Everybody here has been life cast," says Ervick, of StudioEIS. "We take a mold off their body and their faces and their hands. And then we have to assemble it and build it."

Most of the life casting was done in the firm's studio in Brooklyn. The casts are composites of plastic, urethane, foam and other materials, Ervick says.

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The figures were authentically clothed and outfitted by Artistry in Motion, a company that specializes in historical consultation for the arts, the museum said.

(In a scene of fighting in Iraq in 2001, the creators placed a tin of smokeless tobacco in one soldier's back pocket and a dog tag in another's boot. Morando says real soldiers were asked, "Hey, what are we missing?")

The World War I tableau depicts a group of American soldiers, or doughboys, as they were called, in pursuit of fleeing but unseen German soldiers.

The yanks, men from the 140th Infantry Regiment, are clad in olive drab uniforms, with packs, canteens and entrenching shovels. They wear leg wrappings and hobnail boots.

They are placed in a circular room where battle images will be projected on the walls. As the projection system is tested, it casts a weird grid pattern of light on the scene.

The figures first had to be unscrewed from their wooden cases, then carried to the battlefield by Ervick and sculptors from the company.

Morando then had to decide where he wanted them.

The team realized that one soldier, where he was first placed, would block a small part of the wall projection.

Museum specialist Sara Bowen asks: "Can we dig anything" to get the figure lower?

"Hang tight, guys," Ervick says. "Everybody hang tight."

He disappears for moment and returns with a hammer and chisel. He gouges a small indentation in the concrete surface. The figure is maneuvered there and is out of the field of projection.

"Looks good," Morando says. "Looks real good."

But another figure who is running looks as if he should be moved closer to the shell hole. "Because his next step is going to be inside the hole," Morando says.

He studies the scene, and the soldier is moved.

Occasionally the figures are laid down on blankets, looking as if they had been killed in the fight.

They are adjusted and moved around the scene until Morando is fairly satisfied.

"Do you feel that we can mark [the places for] these figures?" Ervick asks.

Morando says places for three of the five could be marked.

"We have to worry about where their lighting is, where electric is, how all the scenic is and . . . the story they're trying to tell," Ervick says during a break in the work.

"They're trying tell this [story of a] no-man's-land battle World War I scene," he says. "This is an immersion scene, which means that the whole gallery is going to be like you feel like you just walked into it. They're going to have video and sounds and lights and all kinds of rumbles and things like that."

Once Morando is happy with the figures' placement in the scene, "we bolt them down to the ground," Ervick says.

While all the work is aimed at authenticity, the men depicted and the scene itself are make-believe.

But another element of the tableau, just across the visitor walkway, is truly authentic.

The Renault FT 17 tank, shrouded in an opaque protective cover, is one that actually fought in the bloody battle, the museum says.

Small by modern standards, the "Five of Hearts" still bears the scars from the Meuse-Argonne, which claimed 26,000 American lives and was the deadliest battle in U.S. history.

Manned by Americans, the tank has 1,300 bullet holes in its armor, the museum says, and one bullet that is still lodged in the tread from the titanic fight more than a century ago.

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Draped in an American flag, the casket carrying the remains of 20-year-old Pfc. Austin Stump, an Army Ranger, was rolled off the plane and into the waiting hands of an Army Honor Guard detail.

The casket was loaded onto a specialized church cart where Pam and John Stump, along with friends and family, gathered to welcome home their son before he was loaded onto a hearse and take away to the Covell Funeral Home in Bradenton.

“Rangers lead the way.”

It’s not just the motto for the U.S. Army’s elite Ranger battalions, it’s a way of life and though Stump’s journey was short, he led a life that best symbolized his Ranger motto.

His life — but not his memory — has ended.

SFC Denis Harris, casualty assistance officer in Tampa, said the Army could not discuss the circumstances surrounding Stump’s death “at this time.”

Stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., Stump was scheduled for his first overseas deployment in December with the Third Ranger Battalion, 75th Infantry Regiment.

“He was doing what he was meant to do,” said his mother Pam Stump. “He was right where he was supposed to be. Austin was larger than life and he wanted to be in the military since he was 3 years old to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle. He was living his dream.”

Stump graduated from Manatee High School in 2017 and was a member of the school’s Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps for all four years of school. He was a member of the school’s JROTC Raider team, bringing home back-to-back state championships for the Hurricane Battalion.

“He was one of our super cadets,” said JROTC instructor, Command Sgt. Major Thomas Zoch. “He was the epitome of what cadets represent and stand for. He was a patriot. He had a heck of a future ahead of him.”

The Raider program is no easy task during high school where cadets undergo grueling physical training. It gets even harder for anyone looking to expand on those skills while serving in a combat-ready unit, especially elite units like the Rangers.

Stump completed basic, advanced individual training and airborne training and then went off to do what most men cannot, become an Army Ranger. He was attached to a mortar crew, and he had plans to complete another very difficult task by going to sniper school.

“He could shoot and he loved to blow stuff up,” said Pam Stump said as she took in the memory of her son with a much-needed laugh before struggling again through the tears.

“Oh God, he loved everything about the Rangers,” she told the Bradenton Herald on Thursday. “He had so much knowledge, like he was an old soul, but had so much respect like an older person. He wasn’t like a lot of this generation. He was always polite and respectful. He was a hysterical kid and made friends everywhere he went.”

Few Rangers are willing to brag about it. It’s just not the way the Ranger brotherhood operates for those who put duty, country and honor above all else.

“I was never allowed to tell anyone he was a Ranger,” his mother said. “I had a ‘Ranger Mom’ shirt and he used to joke, ‘What, a park ranger?’ He wasn’t doing it for the accolades. He did it because he was supposed to. He was 100 percent patriot. He was fiercely devoted and always saw the upside.

“He never backed down from a challenge and he loved his Rangers so much,” she said.

Part of the Ranger creed sums it up best:

“I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier ... Never shall I fail my comrades.”

Other Rangers reached out to the Bradenton Herald on Thursday. Former first Battalion Ranger Steve Schwab said Rangers “are men I still look up to today. They were some of the strongest, bravest and most ethical people I have ever known to this day. It was an honor to be a part of an elite group and the guys truly recognized what commitment and loyalty is.”

And so did Stump.

American flags donned the motorcycles of about a dozen Patriot Guard Riders who helped welcome home Stump on Thursday. Bill Franklin, ride captain, has participated in a number of funerals for soldiers and first responders, along with others who volunteer their time to honor the service of others.

Most of whom they have never met.

“It’s all about honoring our veterans, first responders and their families,” Franklin said. “That’s it in a nutshell, to show them honor and respect for their service and to let them know we are there for them. It’s an honor to be able to honor them and thank them and their families for their service.”

Stump is survived by his mother Pam and his father Lt. John Stump with West Manatee Fire and Rescue and several brothers and sisters.

Visitation is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Sunday at Covell Funeral Home. Celebration of Life is planned for Sept. 21 at The Bridge Church.

The family ask in lieu of flowers, people should donate to the Army Ranger Lead the Way Fund, which provides financial assistance to the families of Army Rangers who have died, become disabled or who are currently serving in harm’s way around the world.

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©2019 The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)
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Afghans were bracing for more violence following Trump’s surprise weekend announcement, in which he blamed the breakdown of the peace process on continued Taliban attacks, including a suicide car bombing that killed an American soldier Thursday near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. 

It was unclear when or if the peace process could be revived, but Trump told White House reporters Monday that the talks were "dead."

"They're dead. They're dead. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead," he said.

In a speech in Kabul reported by Tolo News, President Ashraf Ghani said Afghanistan has “chosen sustainable and dignified peace and we will not go back."

"Negotiations are impossible without a ceasefire,” he added. “We created the environment for peace, but the Taliban took it wrong.”

Ghani, whose government was not included in the now stalled negotiations, has invited Taliban chief Maulvi Hibatullah Akhunzada to a video conference and urged him to “at least talk with people” instead of hiding, The Associated Press reported. The insurgents dismiss Ghani’s government as a U.S. puppet.

Even as Afghans prepared for the violence to drag on, many said the breakdown of the talks was inevitable, calling the insurgents untrustworthy liars who only wanted to return to power.

The Taliban have been lying throughout the peace talks, hoping to secure a deal that would see coalition troops pull out of the country, said Najibullah Fakhri from northeastern Badakhshan province. Badakhshan never fell under Taliban control when the militants ruled the country in the 1990s, but several districts in the province have been overrun by the insurgents in recent years.

“The Taliban do not speak honestly,” said Fakhri, who fled his home in the district of Jurm, southeast of the Badakhshan’s provincial capital, Fayzabad, five years ago when the militant group began fighting there. “They are just trying to come into power again.”

Afghanistan was “in chaos,” said Malik Abdul Hadi, a tribal elder in Afghanistan’s eastern Laghman province, after Trump announced Saturday that he had called off peace negotiations and canceled secretly planned talks that would have been held separately with the Taliban and the Afghan government over the weekend in Camp David, Md.

“After nine months of talks, there is no result,” Hadi lamented.

“The Taliban cannot be trusted,” he added, echoing what Trump said on Twitter — that he’d called off the talks because “the Taliban’s persistent, grisly violence made them untrustworthy partners.”

What the Taliban said during the talks with the U.S. in Doha “is very different from what they are doing here,” said Fakhri, who represents some 3,000 families who fled to the Badakhshan city of Baharak after militants took control of their towns.

Despite a Taliban statement this February that said the group is “committed to all rights of women,” locals in Badakhshan have said that, in the parts of the province controlled by the group, girls aren’t allowed to go to school after sixth grade.

Watching television, listening to the radio, playing music, or using mobile phones are all banned in those regions, Fakhri and other locals said.

Men are flogged for committing acts of “vice,” which have included things such as flying a kite or having too short a beard. At the same time, “the Taliban are beating our wives,” said Fakhri.

While many Afghans appear to lack faith in the goodwill of the insurgents, they also mourned the loss of a chance for peace after the cancelation of the U.S.-Taliban talks.

“Every day, Afghan people are killed,” said Basher Walizada, a businessman from Logar province. “Every day (there is) explosion.”

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More than 300 people at the grand opening of the USO’s newest center in Europe enjoyed a free Hawaiian buffet and toured the center’s many rooms, including a large kitchen, a sitting area with four flat-screen televisions, a computer room, a play area for kids, and a small movie theater equipped with a popcorn machine.

“It’s an investment in this community ... a place for everyone to go,” said Col. Jason T. Edwards, U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz commander.

“I’m just so ecstatic that it’s here.”

The previous USO at Baumholder shut in 2005, amid a post-Cold War drawdown of forces on the base and across Europe.

That trend has been reversed during the past several years, and about 4,000 soldiers are currently assigned to the post, Edwards said.

Although he couldn’t comment on whether the base population would continue to grow, U.S. Army Europe has announced plans to move more units to Baumholder. There are also plans to renovate base housing and replace the two schools on post.

Building 8106 on Smith Barracks, a former bathhouse for the French who occupied Baumholder after World War II, underwent extensive upgrades to meet current building codes and house the USO. The garrison contributed $200,000 to renovations, and the USO added $100,000, said Konrad Braun, USO Kaiserslautern area director.

It’s the newest USO in Europe, which operates about 20 centers across the Continent, Braun said.

Overseas, the USO is open to all U.S. military ID card holders and their families, he said.

“Our mission is to strengthen our servicemembers by connecting them to family, home and country,” Braun said,

First Lt. Alexandra Pogany, 25, an ordnance officer at Baumholder and a USO volunteer, said she was excited to see the center open.

“The soldiers have been asking for one for the longest time,” she said. The center “provides another common space” for soldiers and their families to hang out, on a post where there aren’t many such places.

“No matter when, they’re going to have a place to go,” she said, noting the center is open every day, year-round. “It’s definitely better than staying in the barracks.”

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