(16 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yokosuka, Japan – 16 May 2024
1. Tilt up of USS Ronald Reagan at the U.S. Navy’s Yokosuka base
2. People waving as USS Ronal Reagan leaves Yokosuka
3. Person waving
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“For the past nine years, the USS Ronald Reagan and her crew have ensured that millions of people across the Indo-Pacific have been able to live their lives free of coercion, aggression and suppression.”
5. Various of crew members on deck
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++ ++INCLUDES INTERPRETER++
“All those that are trying to change the accepted international rules-based system, they should know that there is going to be a seamless transition between the USS Ronald Reagan and USS George Washington.”
7. Various of crew on deck of USS Ronal Reagan
STORYLINE:
A U.S. Navy strike group’s flagship aircraft carrier left its home port in Japan on Thursday, after nearly nine years of deployment in the Indo-Pacific.
The ship served a key role in the U.S. effort to bolster defense ties with Japan and other partners in the region.
Family and friends of the crew waved the carrier off from Yokosuka Naval Base after its final patrolling mission earlier in the day.
Hundreds of sailors stood along the rails while others on the flight deck stood forming the Japanese saying “dewa mata,” or “see you." The carrier was accompanied by two guided-missile destroyers, USS Robert Smalls and USS Howard.
The departure USS Ronald Reagan comes at a time of growing tension in the face of increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.
It is one of America’s largest warships and a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
It will be replaced later this year by USS George Washington, another Nimitz-class carrier. Japan has been accelerating its military capability and significantly increased joint naval operations with the U.S.
Speaking at the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel ensured a “seamless transition.”
USS Ronald Reagan first arrived in Yokosuka in 2015. ,Earlier, during its deployment near the Korean Peninsula, the carrier contributed in Operation Tomodachi, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.
USS Ronald Reagan was the only American aircraft carrier deployed as a flagship of the Carrier Strike Group 5 under the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, to a home port outside the U.S.
During its tenure, it participated in dozens of multilateral exercises and visited more than a dozen foreign ports, including its historic port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, last year.
AP video shot by Eugene Hoshiko
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