A NAVAL OFFICER POINTS AT A MAP OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, 1999-07-22 (photo)

United States Navy lieutenant commander Kirk Benson, points at a map of the South China sea at the Tactical Flag Command Center (TFCC) of the 19,200-ton USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy which arrived at a Port in Manila July 22. The vessel is the first American battleship to visit the former U.S. colony in three years and comes less than two months after the Philippines ratified an agreement on the resumption of joint military exercises between the two countries. The United States ended nearly a century of U.S. military presence in the Philippines when it closed down its last military base in 1992 after Manila's Senate rejected a new bases treaty with Washington. RR/TAN