Recently, we reported that the two repossessed Hawaii Superferry ships will be deployed to Okinawa as part of the Navy sea lift fleet. But now it gets wierder. The Navy just announced that the ships will be renamed the USNS Guam and USNS Puerto Rico! So after two fast ferry naval ships are pushed out of one occupied island (Hawai’i) by protesters and renamed after two other U.S. colonies (Guam and Puerto Rico), they are reassigned to another military colony (Okinawa). Is it some cruel joke on four colonies? Or just an ignorant gesture of inclusion? The Pacific Business News reported “Navy renames former Hawaii Superferry vessels” (May 8, 2012):
The two high-speed ferries built for the shuttered Hawaii Superferry were renamed Tuesday by the vessels’ new owner — the U.S. Navy.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Tuesday that the Alakai, which sailed between Oahu and Maui from August 2007 until it was shut down in March 2009, and its sister ship, the Huakai, were renamed the USNS Guam and the USNS Puerto Rico.
“High-speed ferries will be used for peacetime operations such as troop transport training, exercise missions and humanitarian and disaster relief,” Mabus said in a statement.
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