GENERAL SANTOS CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 2, 2012) – Two US ships arrived in the southern Philippines to participate Monday for a nine-day joint naval war games with local military forces.
The USS Vandegrift and the US Coast Guard ship Waesche arrived in the port of General Santos City over the weekend.
Vandegrift’s Commanding Officer CDR Brandon Bryan and Commodore Dave Welch together with other US Navy officers met with their Filipino counterparts for the annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2012.
The exercise would be held in the Mindanao Sea, off the coasts of General Santos City and nearby Sarangani province.
Last May, the US Navy and US Marine Corps also held a similar exercise with the Royal Thai Navy, Indonesia and Malaysia navies.
CARAT consists of a series of bilateral military exercises between the US Navy and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Timor Leste also joined the exercise for the first time. (Mindanao Examiner)
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