Page 6 - Commander Marks News Today

Wonderful job and i appreciate youre coming on this evening. thank you, commander marks. >> thank you. all of our sailors appreciate it. >> live from the blue ridge, the command vessel of the seventh fleet of the united states. let me take a break. there are all kinds of things breaking tonight. we asked people a question, how much money do you think youll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a littl...

Wonderful job and i appreciate youre coming on this evening. thank you, commander marks. >> thank you. all of our sailors appreciate it. >> live from the blue ridge, the command vessel of the seventh fleet of the united states. let me take a break. there are all kinds of things breaking tonight. lots of opinions. well sum them up after this. ♪ ♪

You get a sense of why here. its not smooth sailing at times. the ocean is smoother right now thankfully. its not likely to stay that way. commander william marks spokesman for the u.s. navys seventh fleet joins me by phone. >> commander marks, the u.s. p 8 poseidon its not searching tomorrow or today due to routine maintenance. based on what you know, when is it expected to return to the search? >> usually we take a day or two for the planned maintenance. its a regular thing. we watch the fatig...

Weve been talk about how favorable the conditions have been today for the search for flight 370. thats the exception not the rule. take a look at what its looked like in the past. this is video from a leg of the volvo ocean race last year passing through that area. this is from last year. but this search area last spring gives you -- its a part of the southern indian ocean around 40 degrees south latitude known as the roaring 40s. you get a sense of why here. its not smooth sailing at times. the...

Degrees south latitude known as the roaring 40s. you get a sense of why here. its not smooth sailing at times. the ocean is smoother right now thankfully. its not likely to stay that way. commander william marks spokesman for the u.s. navys seventh fleet joins me by phone. >> commander marks, the u.s. p 8 poseidon its not searching tomorrow or today due to routine maintenance. based on what you know, when is it expected to return to the search? >> usually we take a day or two for the planned mai...

The edge. keir simmons in kuala lumpur, thaush. the u.s. navys 7th fleet has been in the thick of things since early on. commander marks joins me from manila where hes on the "uss blue ridge." what can you tell us about search conditions? i know its dark, so basically the search is called off for the night. >> yes, our p-8 poseidon, which is flying out of perth, australia, wrapped up its flight just a couple of hours ago. the p-8 is our fixed-wing patrol aircraft, the newest and latest technol...

Even our maintainers on the ground, our mission is to fly these planes and to search. and the way i think of it personally is, each of those people on that aircraft, they have families associated with them and friends. and i know they want closure no matter what happens. and i know if it were me and my family id want the u.s. navy out here looking and thats what were doing. >> commander marks, im glad youre out there. thank you. >> youre welcome. thank you. >> incredibly difficult task right now...

Commander marks joins us now. commander marks, i know you cant comment on reports about indonesia not allowing u.s. aircraft to fly over air space today. but i want to ask you on this southern route, to you is that the most hopeful? is that the most important area to search now? >> i think you just have to look at the areas that have been least searched. so we first covered the gulf of thailand. we completely saturated that. we moved to the andeman sea. we completely saturated that. flying from ...

And really no one can say if a piece of debris started in one area where it is ten days later. >> this may be a dumb question, but are you still hopeful? are you losing hope? with each day that passes by this gets more and more difficult. >> you know, this what is we train for. and our pilots, our air crews, even our maintainers on the ground, our mission is to fly these planes and to search. and the way i think of it personally is, each of those people on that aircraft, they have families assoc...

Command the actual movement of the aircraft that the u.s. has. the most important one is the p-8 being operated out of perth. im on hold now with the lieutenant who is checking to see what the status is. my last note from commander marks would suggest that it is over the target area right now getting some imagery. the commander is not available right now. the lieutenant is checking. he is in a meeting which we can well understand why he would be in a meeting. if it is over the area, theyre getti...