(USNS Richard E. Byrd, (TAKE-4) en route Cam Ranh Bay, SRV. Admiral Byrd was an early Naval Aviator and famed Antarctic explorer. Official USN Photo)

I am not supposed to be here, pondering the future from the living room at Big Pink. I am supposed to be in the Mid-Pacific, on the lovely isle of O’ahu, and celebrating the accomplishments of heroes seventy years ago on this very day.

Of course, there are a lot of us looking West this morning. SECDEF Leon Panetta was in WESTPAC yesterday, visiting the former US Naval Station at Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Vietnam. The white sandy beaches there were the playground of the Rest and Recreation crowd, and there were all sorts of interesting things that went on around what many consider to be SE Asia’s best deep-water port.

The strange marine mammal program? Ask someone who knows why no Viet Cong Combat Swimmer ever made it to shore there alive. Flipper was always our friend. There are a lot of memories abroad in the vast Pacific today.

The Secretary stood on the deck of the USNS Richard E. Byrd (T-AKE 4) to ruminate on the historic significance of her presence there in the harbor, which I knew through my career as the largest Soviet naval base outside the Soviet Union, and a significant signals intelligence complex.

It was always irritating to look at images like this during my active duty days:

(High altitude imagery of the Soviet Facility at CRB. Photo DoD).

But things have changed. I was a small cog in the gears that normalized relations with the Vietnamese almost twenty years ago, and I am pleased that American emissaries are spreading out across the Pacific, reinvigorating old and new relationships. There could be one of the Navy’s new littoral combat ships assigned to Singapore, on the strategic Strait of Malacca, and perhaps even a return to Cam Rahn Bay.

The Chinese will have to chew on this one, hard, as they rattle the region with their “string of pearls” sea-control strategy and the astonishing claims to the entirety of the South China Sea.

It is worth talking about this morning, since my pals are halfway to China, in Hawaii, to celebrate the victory that turned the pacific war toward victory, and cemented a dominant presence in those waters for a half century.

The Administration has announced plans to change the center of gravity of the Fleet to reflect a 60% presence in the Pacific. This is the famous “pivot” in strategy to recognize that the only emerging and resurgent peer fleets- China, Russia and India- are Pacific and Indian Ocean powers.

‘Bout time, though I don’t know that objective reality will permit the plans to come to fruition. There is the matter of the pesky Iranians, after all, and the loose stack of dominoes in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. I mean, Saudi, Iran, Syria, Palestine and Israel all have their assorted interests and imperatives, and all get a vote on what will happen there, regardless of our grand strategy.

But at the moment, I would be delighted to see the faces of the Mandarins of the People’s Liberation Army- Navy (PLA-N) and the prospect of a bustling US Navy presence once more in Cam Ranh Bay.

It is a matter of national interest and tradition, and that is just one of the reasons I am really missing the commemoration in Hawaii this weekend and the opportunity to see it first hand.

(Left to right, Mac, Kimo, Matt and Patrick Driscoll, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, addresses an audience of Naval Intelligence Professionals for whom this anniversary is so special. USN Photo Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Kolmel.)

Mac was there at Pearl, seventy years later. There was a press release about his historic return with the family, and that is why I could kick myself for not being able to travel and share the moment with him.

The actual anniversaries of the victory are strewn across the last month or more, when the men of Station HYPO teased out the secret of the Japanese Battle Plan, and schemed to come up with the definitive clues that would convince Admiral Nimitz to roll the dice with everything he had.

Joe Rochefort’s band of codebreakers managed to do it, and maximum force applied with maximum intensity at the point of attack enabled the victory.

That and the incredible courage of the aviators of the torpedo squadrons, who lined up one by one to be shot down as they lined up at low altitude to attempt to bring their steel fish to bear. As the Japanese combat air patrol swooped down to help shoot them, the SBD Dauntless dive bombers of Wade McClusky appeared overhead to provide the most memorable five minutes of combat action of the war.

The battle raged between 4-7 June, 1942, and God Bless the memories of the aviators from USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-8), and USS Yorktown (CV-5) and the marine and Air Corps pilots stationed on Midway who made it possible for Secretary Panetta to stand on a US Navy Ship in Cam Ranh Bay, and confront an uncertain future.

Mac told the audience about the challenging process of his team’s intelligence work leading up to the battle. “It took time, and it took talent, and it took research, and it took a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people,” he said in his prepared remarks. He has unbelievable stamina, and this was only one of four major addresses they expect him to make on the Island.

I can’t wait to hear about it at Willow when he gets back. Then, maybe we can talk about what the struggle in the South China Sea was like the last time.

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com