The massive maritime wargame known as Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, took place in the waters off Hawaii last month, involving 29 nations, over 40 ships, 25,000 personnel and at least one dude slayin’ it on his axe during underway ops.
The Navy has been releasing photos of the exercise for weeks, but our friends at TWZ — formerly The War Zone — alerted us to this photo taken from a U.S. resupply ship of a Chilean sailor’s impromptu jam session atop the Chilean Navy frigate Almirante Condell takes on fuel.
The photo was taken from the Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Washington Chambers, according to the Navy, “during an underway replenishment operation.”
The Chilean ship has a history of encounters with the U.S. Navy. The Almirante Condell is a former UK Royal Navy ship, where it was the HMS Marlborough. It was sold to the Chilean Navy in 2008. As the Marlborough, the ship was the first naval vessel to render aid to the USS Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in October, 2000. The Marlborough brought a full medical team to treat soldiers injured on the Cole.
Large navies selling old warships to nations with smaller fleets is fairly common. Perhaps the best-known example in U.S. Navy lore was the USS Phoenix, a light cruiser that was docked at Pearl Harbor during the 1941 Japanese bombing raid on the base. The cruiser was unscathed in the attack, put to sea that afternoon and fought in nearly every major Pacific engagement of the war.
In 1951, Phoenix was sold to Argentina, where it became the ARA General Belgrano. It was sunk by the British submarine HMS Conquerer during the 1982 Falklands War, killing 300 of the 1000-man crew.
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