As a result of the huge improvement carried out by the Commonwealth Ports Authority in Saipan Harbor, more U.S. Navy ships will be visiting the island to allow the servicemen spend a few days of R&R here, according to Rear Admiral Tom Fellin , commander of the Naval Forces in the Marianas.<\/p>\n
However, Adm. Fellin said Saipan Harbor still has to make some more improvements to accommodate the arrival of state-of-the-art U.S. military submarine.<\/p>\n
CPA needs to provide a power generator and a compressed holding tank or sewage system for the submarine’s use before the scheduled arrival on May 20 of a submarine patrolling the Pacific.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Adm. Fellin has told CPA officials that the seaport should have an oil waste disposal facility in case a fuel leak occurs. There are also plans to put up underground telephone lines and cable television facilities that could be delivered to the ships.<\/p>\n
The availability of water sports on the island, different hotels and various activities for the U.S. Navy personnel has made Saipan a very attractive place for regular R&R. visits, he added.<\/p>\n
With each military personnel spending an average of $200 during their three to four-day visits, the CNMI is expected to reap some economic benefits.<\/p>\n
The naval commander emphasized the strategic importance of the Northern Marianas in carrying out military training for the U.S. military, specifically the Farallon de Mendenilla live military exercises.<\/p>\n
U.S. military officials visited Saipan several times and met with various officials before they made a decision to regularly visit the island. CPA and U.S. military officials also held a series of discussions where assurances had been given that the submarine will not harm the dock nor will the dock harm the vessel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a result of the huge improvement carried out by the Commonwealth Ports Authority in Saipan Harbor, more U.S. Navy ships will be visiting the island to allow the servicemen spend a few days of R&R here, according to Rear Admiral Tom Fellin , commander of the Naval Forces in the Marianas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}