Local speech, global overview: What Navy Region NW commander Rear Adm. Jeff Ruth told West Seattle Rotary

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The U.S. Navy‘s presence in the Northwest – and much of the rest of the world – is vital, on a planet where 80 percent of all people live close to oceans or other waterways, and 90 percent of the world’s trade goes by water.

That’s what Rear Admiral Jeff Ruth, commander of Navy Region Northwest, told the Rotary Club of West Seattle this afternoon, as guest speaker at their weekly lunch. This region, in particular, he noted, is reliant on those trade routes, and in turn on the security provided by the Navy.

The turnout filled the lower meeting room at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor). The admiral’s resume – detailed here – includes two years commanding the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. And his speech was far more global than local.

He showed the maritime routes around the world to underscore their importance – not just in relation to war and peace, he explained, telling an anecdote about Starbucks, and how it transports a particular bean from Africa to New York City. Imagine how that route could be disrupted if the Navy wasn’t in the region, RDML Ruth said: “I think you’d see how our livelihoods, our trade, relies on the ability to keep our routes, our crossroads open.”

He outlined how “the Navy has recently fine-tuned its maritime strategy”:

*Emphasizing warfighting first
*Being where it matters, when it matters
*Continuing to strengthen alliances and partnerships
*Assuring global access
*Continuing the President’s “Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific”
*Building the Navy of the future

He elaborated on each point. On the first, “We believe that if we are ready for the high-end war, we will possess the capability to do disaster relief … and all the other pieces [of the Navy’s potential roles] as well.”

97 ships are deployed overseas right now, and that will increase to 120 by 2020. “By that time, about 60 percent will be based in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.” In the same time frame, the number of ships in the Middle East will increase from 30 to 40. But “The Navy’s not going to ignore our partners in Europe,” he said. 4 destroyers, for example, will move to Rota, Spain, by the end of this year.

But the Pacific balance is vital because of the ascendancy of China’s forces, among other reasons, he said. They have “aspirations” in the South and East China Seas and are anticipating U.S. “intervention,” he said. China sextupled its surface-vessel number alone, he said, showing just how much the Chinese have beefed up their force. In the late ’90s, the U.S. was ahead of China, according to a slide he showed, and now, they are well ahead. Some of what they’re doing “is a good thing,” he added – anti-piracy efforts in the Africa area and fisheries work, among them, as well as disaster relief. He also talked about other efforts – reclaiming some land in the China Sea – more than 3,000 acres of property recently.

This was his run-up to declaring that continuing to fund the military (here’s the Navy’s current budget outlook) is vital to maintaining security – the “sequestration” a few years back had spending at an unsustainable level, he contended, and if the U.S. returned to that level, the Navy believes it could not respond effectively to threats or to disasters.

He acknowledged that he was making this speech because the Navy is trying to build community relationships – to foster an understanding “not only of our needs … but of your concerns as we work together to meet our national objectives.”

With that, he invited questions.

The first questioner wanted to know about drones and aircraft carriers. Ruth mentioned the XP-47 that was tested about a year ago, using the military term, “unmanned aerial vehicles.” He also mentioned a remotely operated small helicopter that’s been used, but right now, he said, nothing’s been officially deployed from carriers.

What happens if you see a submarine while out on a pleasure craft in local waters? “You can’t really communicate with them,” said the person asking the question. “Yes, you can, they’re out there monitoring,” replied Ruth. (“On 16,” he later added.) He talked about “driving in and out of” here and San Diego as an aircraft-carrier commander, and how the visibility for anything closer than a quarter-mile is negligible. “When a ship comes and decides it’s going to pass beneath my bow … it’s out of my vision and I just hope we don’t run it over.” Warships are not easy to stop, he explained. And he reminded them of 500-yard safety zones. “Don’t cause (Navy ship commanders) to wonder, what the hell is this guy doing?” he concluded.

The next question was a three-part one about China and Russia. Bottom line: Both are at the top of the risk-to-U.S. list, as they continue to have nuclear weapons with the U.S. in range, he said. North Korea also is there because “they’re developing the ability to reach out and touch us,” and because of the unpredictability of its leader. Also, “cyber” warfare is a major perceived threat overall.

He also shared stories including one he characterized as “old-style Cold War stuff” while in the Middle East with a Russian carrier out following his ship around, to which, he said, they responded by deploying some aircraft on flybys. One day they got a call that “the captain of the Russian ship wants your e-mail address.” E-mail actually ensued – requesting a helicopter landing for a “gift exchange.” They actually did that exchange, with helicopters (not landing) – “patches, stickers, we gave them to the Russians, they gave us a bunch of stuff.” The next day, he said, the Russian carrier was gone – possibly out of oil.

“One last question,” he was then asked – “are you a Seahawks fan?”

He said yes, while also noting he’s been a lifelong Chargers fan – having spent some time living in San Diego – saying he watched the Seattle-SD game last week with interest.

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The West Seattle Rotarians meet every Tuesday at Salty’s. Upcoming guests include: September 8th, Peter Royce speaks about the Rotary Well Project in Cambodia; September 15th, Amy Lee Derenthal talks about Food Lifeline (which is about to break ground for its new center, just south of South Park); September 22nd, Michael Luis will talk about the Center for Wooden Boats at Lake Union. In addition to its meetings, the club tackles an intensive schedule of charitable work; tomorrow, for example, is its annual sorting party for school supplies donated via Pencil Me In For Kids.

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Photo credit: Patrick Sand, WSB

2 Replies to "Local speech, global overview: What Navy Region NW commander Rear Adm. Jeff Ruth told West Seattle Rotary"

  • Cainipoo September 1, 2015 (6:04 pm)

    Oh man, I wish I could have been there to voice my concerns about the Navy’s plans to use the Olympic National Forest for electromagnetic warfare testing and training. Their stated goal is to turn the western portion of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and surrounding waters into an Electromagnetic Warfare Range!

    • WSB September 1, 2015 (6:17 pm)

      I don’t know where his schedule is online but he seems to be making some community appearances like this – so if you root around the NW Region website, you might turn up another one coming up – TR

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