US guided missile destroyer to visit Subic Bay Tuesday

MANILA, Philippines - One of the US Navy's most advanced warship, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG-106), will make a routine port visit to Subic Bay, Zambales on Tuesday.

The stop in Subic Bay will allow the American warship to replenish supplies as well as offer its crew an opportunity for rest and relaxation.

“Visiting Subic Bay provides us with a great opportunity to continue the long-term relationship between the Philippines and the United States and that is very important to us,” USS Stockdale commanding officer, Cmdr. Lex Walker, said.

Walker also spoke about the diversity of his crew.

“We have quite a few Filipino–American sailors among our crew, and I hope that the citizens of the Philippines can look at our ship and see that their people and their culture are well represented and respected in the U.S. Navy,” Walker said.

Fifteen Filipino-Americans are serving aboard the USS Stockdale, among them sailors with family ties to Baguio City, Manila, Marikina City; Orion, Bataan; Olongapo City, Quezon City, and Santa Monica, Pampanga.

Among them are Geno C. Uy (GSM2) and Ryan Angeles (AM2), both born in the Philippines but have emigrated to the U.S.

Others are Joel Marsigian (AM2) and Dean Rivera-Villanueva (ADAN), who were born in the United States but have relatives in the Philippines.

Many of the USS Stockdale’s Filipino-American sailors plan to visit relatives while in port.

This will be the USS Stockdale’s first visit to the Philippines.

The visit is part of the ship’s nine-month deployment to the Western Pacific that began in January 2013.

During the visit, American sailors will be participating in a number of community relations projects including visits to local orphanages.

The USS Stockdale was commissioned on April 18, 2009, and is homeported in San Diego, California.

The ship is named after Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, who was the highest ranking US naval officer held prisoner during the Vietnam war.

The Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers (DDGs) is the United States Navy's first class destroyers built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar.

They were designed as multi-role destroyers to fit the AAW (anti-aircraft warfare) with their powerful Aegis radar and anti-aircraft missiles, ASW (anti-submarine warfare), with their towed sonar array, anti-submarine rockets, and ASW helicopter, ASUW (anti-surface warfare) with their Harpoon missile launcher, and strategic land strike using their Tomahawk missiles.

The first ship of the class was commissioned on July 4, 1991.

With the decommissioning of the Spruance-class destroyer, USS Cushing, on Sept. 21 2005, the Arleigh Burke-class ships became the US Navy's only active destroyers; the class has the longest production run for any postwar US Navy surface combatant.

The Arleigh Burke class is planned to be the third most numerous class of destroyer to serve in the US Navy, after the Fletcher and Gearing classes.

With an overall length of 510 feet (160 meter), displacement of 9,200 tons, and weaponry including over 90 missiles, the Arleigh Burke-class ships are larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers. (PNA)