Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan rings in Y2K OK

Computer systems for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet in Yokosuka, Japan, clicked over to the Year 2000 with no problems ashore or afloat.

Lt. Brian Gaines, the 7th Fleet's Year 2000 coordinator, said, "We have not identified any [Year 2000] anomalies 58 minutes into the new year." Midnight occurred at 10 a.m. EST.

Gaines, calling from the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet command ship, said the command operates about 5,000 PCs and dozens of servers aboard ships operating in the western Pacific and on shore installations in Singapore, Japan and Okinawa. About 60 percent of the PCs run on local time and the other 40 percent on Zulu time, which is Greenwich Mean Time.

Gaines said the routine computer clock rollover throughout the 7th Fleet reflects "the large part played by ordinary sailors to identify and fix any [system] vulnerabilities."

Based on observation and anecdotal information, Gaines added that critical infrastructure systems in Japan seem to have entered the new millennium without much of a problem either. "The lights are on, and the phones are working," Gaines said.