United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka
United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka | |
---|---|
Oliver O. Kessing | |
Garrison | United States Seventh Fleet |
United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka (横須賀海軍施設, Yokosuka kaigunshisetsu) or Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka (司令官艦隊活動横須賀, Shirei-kan kantai katsudō Yokosuka) is a United States Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan. Its mission is to maintain and operate base facilities for the logistic, recreational, administrative support and service of the U.S. Naval Forces Japan, Seventh Fleet and other operating forces assigned in the Western Pacific. CFAY is the largest strategically important U.S. naval installation in the western Pacific.[1]
Fleet Activities Yokosuka comprises 2.3 km2 (568 acres) and is located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, 65 km (40 mi) south of Tokyo and approximately 30 km (20 mi) south of Yokohama on the Miura Peninsula in the Kantō region of the Pacific Coast in Central Honshu, Japan.
The 55 tenant commands which make up this installation support U.S. Navy Pacific operating forces, including principal afloat elements of the United States Seventh Fleet, including the only permanently forward-deployed
History
When Commodore
After the inspection of several sites, it was discovered that Yokosuka topographically, if on a smaller scale, resembled the port of Toulon, France. It was decided to establish the shipyard here. It would be called the "Yokosuka Iron Works". In 1871, the name was changed to the "Yokosuka Navy Yard". It was French engineer Louis-Émile Bertin who reorganized "Yokosuka Navy Yard" completely from 1886.
Yokosuka was to become one of the main arsenals of the
During World War II, activities at the Yokosuka Navy Yard reached their peak. By 1944, it covered 280 acres (1.1 km2) and employed over 40,000 workers. In addition to the shipbuilding plant, the yard also had a gun factory, ordnance and supply depots, a fuel storage facility, a seaplane base and a naval air station.
On 30 August 1945, Vice Admiral
As the Base became organized, the shipyard was deactivated and much of the equipment was sent to other countries as part of reparations. The repair ship Piedmont took charge of ship repair and maintenance, the hospital became a Naval Dispensary, later Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan, and the Supply Department was organized to provide support to the fleet and shore-based activities. The Public Works Department was established. Yokosuka Submarine Base was founded in September 1945.[3]
In May 1946, the Marines at Yokosuka were redesignated Marine Barracks, U.S. Fleet Activities, Yokosuka. In April 1947, the Ship Repair Department was organized, and the shops and dry docks were reactivated to maintain the ships of the U.S. Fleet in the Pacific. With the onset of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, Yokosuka Navy Base suddenly became very important and extremely busy.
The U.S., still an occupying power in Japan, turned its full efforts to the support of South Korea. The Navy Dispensary was enlarged and expanded and was commissioned a U.S. Naval Hospital in 1950. The Naval Communications Facility, Yokosuka, was commissioned in January 1951. In April 1951, the Ship Repair Department became a component command. It was redesignated the Ship Repair Facility. As the major naval ship repair facility in the Far East, the Yokosuka Facility assumed a vital role in maintenance and repair of the U.S. Seventh Fleet during both the Korean War and Vietnam War.
In March 1952, the geographical boundaries of
. In December 1952, the headquarters were shifted from Tokyo to Yokosuka. The expanded Supply Department of Fleet Activities became Naval Supply Depot, Yokosuka in August 1952. In 1960, the Naval Communications Facility was redesignated U.S. Naval Communications Station, Japan.In 1952, US occupation of Japan formally ended and Japanese rearmament commenced, with its naval forces formally organized as
On 5 October 1973, USS Midway, with Carrier Air Wing Five and her accompanying task group, put into Yokosuka, marking the first forward deployment of a complete carrier task group in a Japanese port. This was the result of an accord reached on 31 August 1972 between the U.S. and Japan. In addition to the morale factor of dependents housed along with the crew in a foreign port, the move had strategic significance because it facilitated the continuous positioning of three carriers in the Far East at a time when the economic situation demanded the reduction of carriers in the fleet.
In August 1991, Midway departed Yokosuka and was replaced by Independence as the forward-deployed carrier in Yokosuka. In August 1998, Kitty Hawk relieved Independence as the 7th Fleet forward-based carrier.
On 1 December 2005, the U.S. Navy announced that in 2008 Kitty Hawk would be replaced by the
In recent years, a number of high-profile international incidents involving U.S. sailors occurred around the base. The most notable were two murders which occurred in 2006 and 2008. The first was committed by Airman
Personnel and ships from the base assisted with
Forward-deployed ships
Command ship
- USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) – flagship, United States Seventh Fleet. [1979 - Present]
Aircraft carrier
- Carrier Strike Group Five.
Cruisers
Destroyers
Destroyer Squadron 15 (COMDESRON 15)
- USS Benfold (DDG-65)
- USS Milius (DDG-69)
- USS Higgins (DDG-76)
- USS Howard (DDG-83)
- USS McCampbell (DDG-85)
- USS Shoup (DDG-86)
- USS Dewey (DDG-105)
- USS John Finn (DDG-113)
- USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114)
- USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115)
Ships formerly forward-deployed
- USS Pollux (AKS-4) 1958 – December 1968
- USS Vandegrift (FFG-48) 1998 - 2006
- USS Gary (FFG-51) 1999 -2007
- USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) 1990 - 2003
- USS Cowpens (CG-63) 2000 - 2013
- USS George Washington (CVN-73) 2008 – 2015
- USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) 1998 - 2008
- USS Independence (CV-62) 1991 - 1998
- USS Vincennes (CG-49) 1997 – 2005
- USS Hewitt (DD-966)
- USS McClusky (FFG-41) 1990 – 1996
- USS O'Brien (DD-975) August 1992 – 2004
- USS Cushing (DD-985) March 1998 – 2005
- USS Fife (DD-991) 1988 - 1998
- USS Knox (FF-1052) August 1977 – July 1988
- USS Lockwood (FF-1064) May 1975 – July 1988
- USS Midway (CV-41) 1973 – 1991
- USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) March 1988–? 1995
- USS Reeves (DLG-24) 1980 - 1991
- USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) August 1988 – July 1998
- USS Towers (DDG-9) October 1980 – October 1990
- USS Cochrane (DDG-21) 1983 – October 1990
- USS White Plains (AFS-4)
- USS Parsons (DDG-33)
- USS Henry W. Tucker (DD-875) 1968 – August 1970
- USS Rupertus (DD-851) 1968 – August 1970
- USS Mahopac (ATA-196)
- USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067)
- USS Oklahoma City (CG-5)
- USS Worden (CG-18)
- USS Waddell (DDG-24)
- USS Oldendorf (DD-972) 1984 - 1995
- USS Rowan (DD-782)
- USS Thach (FFG-43)
- USS Bausell (DD-845)
- USS Richard B. Anderson (DD-786)
- USS Castor (AKS-1) 1954–1968[8]
- USS Curts (FFG-38) 1988 - 1997
- USS Kirk (FF-1087)
- USS Lassen (DDG-82) 2005 - 2016
- USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) 2004 - 2019
- USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) 1996 - 2021
- USS McCampbell (DDG-85) 2007 - 2020
- USS Gurke (DD-783)
- USS Stethem (DDG-63) 2005 - 2019
- USS Carronade (IFS-1)
- USS White River (LSM(R)-536)
- USS Clarion River (LSM(R)-409)
- USS St. Francis River (LSM(R)-525)
- USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) 1997 – 2021
- USS Mustin (DDG-89) 2006 - 2021
- USS Barry (DDG-52) 2016 - 2023
Landmarks
During the late 1960s and 1970s, the Yokosuka Microwave Communications Site was part of the telephone communications network in the Tokyo area.[9] The building and 106.7 meter tall microwave tower was on the highest hill on the U.S. Navy base.
Komatsu, a historic restaurant near the naval base, became famous for serving Japanese navy personnel before 1945 and the U.S. Navy after. It was destroyed by fire in 2016.
See also
References
- ^ "Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka". US Navy Website. 18 December 2018. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- ^ U.S. Submarine Base, Yokosuka, JapanUS Navy
- ^ U.S. Submarine Base, Yokosuka, JapanUS Navy
- ^ USS George Washington makes historic arrival in Japan. Stars and Stripes
- ^ Sailor gets life sentence in Japanese taxi driver's death. Stars and Stripes.
- ^ Communities react to restrictions that followed taxi driver's death. Stars and Stripes
- ^ Reed, Charlie, "Military wraps up first round of departures from Japan", Stars and Stripes, 25 March 2011, retrieved 28 March 2011.
- ^ wikipedia
- ^ Yokosuka-microwave-site-1969-1970.stevemcarthur.com