Liaoning and USS Cowpens

choi

Howard W French, West Pacific Showdown. Spurred by three decades of economic growth, Beijing is beefing up its navy in the South China Sea. Should the US be more concerned?  Wall Street Journal, Dec 13, 2017
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rev ... showdown-1513125397
(book review on Michael Fabey, Crashback. The power crash between the US and China in the Pacific. Scribner, 2017)

The first four paragraphs:

"In December 2013, just as China began testing its newly launched aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in the hotly contested seas to the south of the country, the US Navy decided to conduct a test of its own. The skipper of a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, one of the most powerful ships in America's fleet, ordered his crew to shut down its radar and go into EmCon Delta, the stealthiest of its operational states, hoping to approach the Chinese carrier undetected for a sly bit of reconnoiter.

"To say that things didn't go as expected would be an understatement. The American ship, the Cowpens, was itself being shadowed by a Chinese submarine, and with the carrier coming into view, the Liaoning's crew contacted the cruiser by radio, angrily demanding that the American ship leave the area immediately.

"The American captain, Greg Gombert, insisted initially -- and correctly -- that the cowpens was operating in international waters and was therefore well within its rights. But the Chinese escalated the incident by sending smaller vessels across the bow 船首 of the Cowpens at unusually close distances. Capt Gombert was forced to undertake a rare emeergency maneuver -- a jarring reversal of his engines known as a 'crashback' -- and then to abandon his observation mission. 'I am very sorry for what's happened,' he told his Chinese counterpart, Capt Zhang Zheng, who must have been delighted. 'I didn't mean to disturb your operations.'

" 'For the first time,' notes journalist Michael Fabey, 'the Chinese navy [had] openly confronted a US Navy combatant ship on the high seas -- a cruiser, no less -- and forced it to back down.' In 'Crashback. The power crash between the US and China in the Pacific,' the Cowpens incident serves as the backbone of a narrative tracing the recent history of China's swift rise as a maritime force and of what the author sees as its increasingly overt ambition to replace the US as the predominant naval power of Western Pacific.

My comment:
(a) The quotations, which were not reported in American news media at the time, constitutes 40% of the book review. There is no need to read the rest, which is not about USS Cowpens, but about the bigger picture of competition between the two navies and between two nations..

(b) "The skipper of [USS Cowpens] ordered his crew to shut down its radar and go into EmCon Delta, the stealthiest of its operational states, hoping to approach the Chinese carrier undetected for a sly bit of reconnoiter."
(i) "EmCon Delta, the stealthiest of its operational states" is simply wrong.  It is the opposite.
(A) Fletcher Gibson, Enterprise's EW Module Stays Below the Radar. US Navy, Jan 9, 2004 (story number: NNS040109-15)
www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=11306
(aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) [aircraft carrier of Nimitz class, 1961–2012]; electronic warfare (EW); explaining EMCON Delta, Charlie, Bravo, Alpha and Alpha 1)
(B) Operations!  Quizlet, undated
https://quizlet.com/44198354/operations-flash-cards/
(EMCON Alpha: Absolutely no emissions; Bravo: critical EHF/SHF/UHF coms [communications]; EMCON Alpha 1: radiated critical command and control links only; EMCON Charlie: HVU specific emitters silence; EMCON Delta: No restrictions)
(ii) reconnoiter
(A) Most dictionaries have it as a verb only (not a noun). But Oxforddictioanries.com and Google online -- searing (reconnoiter dictionary) -- show noun definitions also.
(B) Richard Bowyer (ed), Dictionary of Military Terms. Fitzroy Dearborn Publisher, 1999, at page 160
https://books.google.com/books?i ... tionary&f=false
("reconnoitre  US reconnoiter verb to carry out reconnaissance; a patrol was sent out to reconnoitre the enemy position; see also RECCE, SCOUT")

(c)
(i) USS Cowpens (CG-63)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cowpens_(CG-63)
(1991- ; a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser; is named after the Battle of Cowpens, a major American victory near Cowpens [now a town; was named on account of pens for cattle near the original town site: en.wikipedia.org] , South Carolina, in the American Revolution)
(ii) The lead ship of the class is USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), in commemoration of  
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Fort_Ticonderoga
(May 10, 1775; Location  Ticonderoga, Essex County, New York)
(iii)
(A) Battle of Cowpens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cowpens
(Jan 17, 1781; Colonel William Washington was second cousin to Gen. George Washington; table: most British soldiers were captured)
(B) William Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Washington
(toward the end of Battle of Cowpens: "With the main British infantry surrender and during [British Colonel Banastre] Tarleton's retreat, Washington was in close pursuit and found himself somewhat isolated. He was attacked by the British commander and two of his men. Washington survived this assault and in the process wounded Tarleton's right hand with a sabre blow, while Tarleton creased Washington's knee with a pistol shot that also wounded his horse. Washington pursued Tarleton for sixteen miles, but gave up the chase when he came to the plantation of Adam Goudylock near Thicketty Creek. To escape capture by Washington, Tarleton had forced Goudylock to serve as an escape guide")

* There is no need to read the rest of this Wiki page.
(C) Unsung Patriots: African-Americans at the Battle of Cowpens. National Park Service, undated
https://www.nps.gov/cowp/learn/e ... ttle-of-cowpens.htm
("The William Ranney painting (above) shows the famous William Washington-Banastre Tarleton sword fight in which Washington’s servant rode up, fired his pistol at a British officer, and saved Washington’s life. Since most waiters were African-American, Ranney painted him as such. Apparently the servant did not file a pension, and Washington did not leave behind written papers of his own role or of anyone else’s role in the American Revolution. Therefore, the National Park Service cannot document his complete role in the battle and even his name (most likely either Ball/Collins/Collin)")

Caption of the painting: "Battle of Cowpens by William Ranney  Courtesy of the State of South Carolina"  The painting is in the hand of South Carolina State Senate.