YOKOSUKA, Japan - Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus visited sailors on board USS Mustin (DDG 89) at Fleet Activities, Yokosuka as past of a tour to the region, June 21.
Mabus talked to the command and took questions from the sailors while on board. During an all hands call on Mustin’s mess deck, Mabus talked about the “pivot to Asia” a strategic initiative stared by President Barack Obama to focus on diplomatic and military goals in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The pivot to Asia, the rebalancing to this part of the world is real, concrete and tangible. We are going to move 60 percent of our fleet to the Pacific,” said Mabus. “You will see our newest ships, our newest aircraft, our newest assets out here. We’ll focus on exercises, on operations, and partnership building with our friends and allies in the region.”
Mabus thanked the sailors for their hard work and emphasized the importance of ships like the Mustin. He said that forward-deployed naval forces ships can bring a level of capability and a short response time that would be impossible without them. Mabus outlined what local sailors can expect about the length and frequency of deployments.
“I think that individual sailors will see the importance of this region and the critical nature of the work they do,” said Mabus. “There is no more import work that is being done for America than the work that is being done right here by these sailors.”
After his remarks Mabus took questions from the group.
“It was a great honor to have the secretary of the Navy visit our ship. He’s a decision maker who reports to the president and to congress so when he asks for questions, he wants to know what sailors are thinking,” said Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Fidel Hart.
“His speech and the questions he answered shed a lot of light on what our job is here. Sometimes you can get lost in all the deployments so it’s really great to have him here and tell us how important our mission is.”
After his time on USS Mustin, Mabus traveled to other locations in Japan.