The USS Kitty Hawk pulls into Pusan, South Korea, on Monday morning as the 3rd Fleet band from the Republic of Korea Navy plays. The 43-year-old carrier docked in preparation for Foal Eagle and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration exercises, annual training events for U.S. and South Korean forces. (Teri Weaver / S&S)
The USS Kitty Hawk pulls into Pusan, South Korea, on Monday morning as the 3rd Fleet band from the Republic of Korea Navy plays. The 43-year-old carrier docked in preparation for Foal Eagle and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration exercises, annual training events for U.S. and South Korean forces. (Teri Weaver / S&S)
Rear Adm. James Kelly, Carrier Group Five commander, speaks at a news conference. (Teri Weaver / S&S)
The USS Kitty Hawk pulls into Busan port in 2005. According to media reports, South Korea this week refused to allow a Japanese warship to dock at its port in Busan in advance of a four-country naval exercise. (Stars and Stripes file photo)
The annual training event the USS Kitty Hawk will participate in starting March 19 is the largest joint exercise between U.S. and South Korean forces each year. (Teri Weaver / S&S)
ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK — A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and seven of its escort warships moved into South Korean ports early this week to support one of the largest annual military exercises here.
The USS Kitty Hawk, a guided missile cruiser and six destroyers pulled into ports at Pusan, Chinhae and Pyongtaek on Monday and Tuesday to support the Foal Eagle and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration exercises, which start March 19.
“It’s an extremely important defensive exercise for the ROK and the U.S.,” Rear Adm. James D. Kelly, Carrier Group Five commander, said while aboard the Kitty Hawk Monday morning.
“We don’t necessarily represent the force that would come if something disastrous were to happen. But we are certainly an adequate representation.”
The exercise is to prepare defenses for an attack from an unnamed enemy, though the scenarios involve an opponent whose characteristics mirror those of North Korea.
The Kitty Hawk docked at Pier 8 in Pusan shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, after leaving its home at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan about a month ago to conduct at-sea training.
Its last port visit, two weeks ago, was in Hong Kong.
Its 5,200 sailors and airmen queued for hours to begin their liberty leave.
Some qualified for more than 48 hours in Pusan, where military officials say they will spend, on average, $500.
The 43-year-old carrier — the Navy’s oldest active commissioned ship — was to return to sea later this week, to support RSOI.
Monday, Kelly and his commanders showed the ship to Korean navy officials, politicians and business leaders. The Pusan port visit also included a tour by local media, where Korean journalists asked Kelly about his thoughts on plans to downsize U.S. troop strength here and concentrate troops at two major bases in central South Korea.
“Anything that USFK decides to do as far as moving forces from the peninsula,” Kelly said, “will be extremely, closely and tightly coordinated with a group that includes the combined forces commander with the Republic of Korea. Everything will be done in lock step. I have no question that we’ll move together,” he said.
The U.S. plans to cut its South Korean troop presence by 12,500 in the next few years, a plan both countries’ governments approved last year. Already, 3,600 soldiers formerly assigned near the North Korean border now are fighting in Iraq. After that tour ends late this summer, they’re to move to Fort Carson, Colo.
Kelly said part of the Kitty Hawk’s mission was to be prepared to support U.S. allies throughout the region. He also mentioned that more U.S. carriers have been in Asian waters lately, in part to support troops in the Middle East.
That increased traffic can prove beneficial, he said. The USS Lincoln was in waters near South Korea when the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami killed tens of thousands throughout southern Asia. The Lincoln responded because it was nearby and because the Kitty Hawk was undergoing maintenance, Kelly said.
“They were in the right place at the right time,” he said.
