September 8th Weekly Update

SHIP LOGS & EXERCISES:

Ship & Group Locations Checked & Updated (September 2 to 8)

HMS Dauntless (DDG)

• (Sept 7) visited Barbados (Royal Navy )

PLAAN Zheng He (TRN)

• (Sept 4) arrives in Surabaya, Indonesia (CEN )

RFS Adm. Kulakov (DDG)

• (Sept 5) assists British yacht in Celtic Sea (ITAR-TASS )

USNS Mercy (T-AH-19)

• (Sept 2) arrives at Pearl Harbor, HA (US NAVY )

USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)

• (Aug 30) arrives at Chinhae, SK, completes Ulchi Freedom Guardian Exercise 2012 (US Navy )
• (Sept 4) returns to Yokosuka, Japan (US Navy )

USS Eisenhower CSG (CVN-69)

• (Sept 3) USS J. Dunham (DDG-109) departs Haifa, Israel, Exercise Reliant Mermaid ends (US Navy )

USS Enterprise CSG (CVN-65)

• (Aug 24) USS Vicksburg (CG-69) departs Bahrain (US Navy )

USS Ft. McHenry (LSD-43)

• (Sept 3) departs Dublin, Ireland; heads to APS (US Navy )

USS Hawaii (SSN-776)

• (Sept 7) visits Subic Bay, Philippines (US Navy )

USS Nimitz (CVN-68)

• (Aug 20) returned to home-port, CQ underway

USS Swift (HSV-2)

• (Sept 4) visiting Pointe Noire, Congo (US Navy )

USS Topeka (SSN-754)

• (Sept 5) returns to US, WESTPAC deployment ends ...removed from log (US Navy )

GROUND UNITS LOGS & EXERCISES:

US Ground units logs updated per DOD reports, up to (September 2 to 8) (DOD News Releases )

France, UK, Russia, China Army logs updated per various news releases and open sources

• FALCON VIRGO: (September 6-7), NORAD air interception exercise over DC area (DOD )
• KAVKAZ-2012: (September 17-23), upcoming Russian Army Ex in Caucasus

USA

• 1^st Marine Division, 1^st Combat Engineer Battalion – KIA @ Helmand Province, Afghanistan (Sept 3)
• 4^th Infantry Division, 4^th Brigade – KIA @ Jalalabad, Afghanistan (Sept 2)
• 173^rd Airborne Brigade – KIA @ Charkh, Afghanistan (Aug 28)
• 218^th Brigade (NG-SC) deployed to KFOR for 6-months, and will command the Battlegroup-East, based near Urosevac, Kosovo (Stars and Stripes)

NEWS that makes me go Hmmmm......

MALI

• (Aug 21) Since the military coup in Mali, the north has been falling into islamists hands and establishing Sharia law, refugees form a militia based in Mopti, Mali and threaten to recapture the north (Free Internet Press )
• (Sept 2) Islamists rebels retake Douentza from ragtag militia (Reuters )
• (Sept 8) Mali Interim government requests assistance from neighbors to retake north (Yahoo News )

SOMALIA

• (Aug 28) Somali and African Union troops have captured the coastal city of Marko from Al Shabbab militants (Yahoo News)
• (Sept 4) A former South African Mercenary, now living in Australia, is running a private army for the north Somalia breakaway region of Puntland (UPI)
• (Sept 6) Battle looming for last Al-Shabbab stronghold (Yahoo News ), Kenya bombards Kismayo (Yahoo News )

SYRIA

• (Sept 8) Sources say the US/UK/EU/Turkish/Arab alliance against Assad is sending aid to the rebels, may be directly commanding two rebel brigades (which might explain why they've suddenly started attacking strategic military targets instead of the usual civil power centers), the potential use of chemical weapons is getting closer, and Israel and Hezballah are seconds away from fighting (Debka )