A tale of two ships
May 18th, 2012 | 3rd Fleet 7th Fleet Life at Sea Maintenance Navy Ships | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Amphibious assault ship Essex approaches its pier May 17 at San Diego Naval Base, with Peleliu berthed nearby. (Gidget Fuentes/staff) Below, sailors with Bonhomme Richard join in command exercise May 8 in Sasebo, Japan. (Navy photo by MC2 William T. Jenkins)
Let’s face it: Once you step into a new car – or even a previously-owned vehicle, as used-car dealers say – it’s just not exciting to drive older wheels. Classic rebuilt cars, the exception of course. Trading down just isn’t fun.
So we can feel for the sailors and officers of amphibious assault ship Essex, who this spring took the Wasp-class big-deck Bonhomme Richard from their home in San Diego, Calif., and swapped hulls in Japan, where they exchanged ships and even the official Facebook pages with their Sasebo-based counterparts in the Navy’s latest scheduled hull swap. The San Diego-based crew returned to California May 17 aboard Essex, while the Sasebo crew took ownership of Bonhomme Richard and prepared for upcoming patrols in 7th Fleet. Essex arrived on time, but not before colliding with the oiler Yukon as the ship prepared to take on fuel. Repairs, as well as the investigation, are underway.
The BHR, as some call it, last year completed a major overhaul, a shipyard drydock period that included upgrades to berthing areas, new advanced controls for its boilers and some reworking to accommodate the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft the Marine Corps plans to base in Japan.
Essex, meanwhile, has spent the past 12 years in Japan, where duty with 7th Fleet means shorter, but more frequent, deployments than stateside ships usually have – but without the significant shipyard maintenance periods where crews and workers can really spend time and get their hands and eyes on the ship and its innards. Recent years have seen maintenance problems cropping up even as the ship has gotten underway for patrols in the region, and Essex isn’t alone in the aging fleet in suffering from fewer maintenance dollars and high operational tempo.
The Navy decided to send one of its most updated Gators, the BHR, to replace it in Japan, and give the 21-year-old Essex its much-needed rest and repairs back in the states so the ship can continue to serve in San Diego and operate with 3rd Fleet. (The Navy also has little choice, considering the shrinking size of the overall fleet, including its amphibious Gator community that Marines rely on to get them where they need to go.)
But before that happens, Essex and its crew are slated to participate in the high-visibility “Rim of the Pacific” exercises off Hawaii this summer. Essex will be the big deck among 42 ships participating. After that, the crew will get the ship – and themselves – ready for the drydock phased maintenance availability expected to run 52 weeks. In a February interview, Capt. Chuck Litchfield, Essex’s skipper and former executive officer of BHR and, briefly, Essex, lauded the San Diego crew for the work getting Bonhomme Richard through a successful yard period and sea trials ahead of leaving for Japan, “and I expect to be successful again.” The past year was focused on preparing for the hull swap and crew taking on Essex, eyes wide open. “A new ship is something that you have to learn,” he said.
Killed by careless shipmates
May 14th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Mishaps Navy Times | Posted by Sam Fellman
Our cover story on newsstands this week focuses on the accidental death of Personnel Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Regan Young, who was killed Nov. 23, 2011, aboard the amphibious assault ship Essex. That day, Essex was anchored off Bali, Indonesia, and Young had been sitting beneath a NATO Sea Sparrow launcher all the way aft on the ship, using his cellphone to make some calls before the ship weighed anchor. Around the same time, technicians began maintenance on the aft launcher. But they didn’t post the required safety observer, didn’t sound the warning bell and didn’t follow standard start-up procedures, triggering a violent and known launcher error. Here’s an excerpt from our story:
“At the turn of the switch, the launcher’s stow locks disengaged and its servo motors energized. And then, unexpectedly, the massive launcher moved. It spun clockwise nearly a full turn as its cells rose skyward, a dynamic and random motion that can be triggered when the system is improperly initialized.
It struck Young, a 37-year-old father of two who was three weeks from transferring, its lower edge pinning him down as it dragged him across the non-skin deck.
Alarmed to hear the mount spin, the fire controlman rushed topside. He saw Young stagger into the ship, blood running down his face. Young collapsed. At 8:22 a.m., a medical emergency was called away. One of the missile cell covers had shattered and Young’s cell phone, multitool, watch and sunglasses were strewn inside the red painted circle around the launcher, which warned in white block letters: “DANGER AREA.”
Young was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. of “severe blunt force trauma to his body” from the launcher’s impact, concluded a subsequent command investigation, which was obtained by Navy Times via Freedom of Information Act request. It found complacency and lax oversight among the factors that led to Young’s death, the fleet’s first maintenance-related death in 1.5 years and a preventable tragedy that has raised renewed questions about whether the Navy is getting safety right.
Indeed, the busted alarm bell — a $1,352.56 part — and the unusual, violent motion of the launcher seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary to the fire controlmen entrusted to safely operate the system.
“Sometimes when you turn on the launcher, it will move on its own, the 28-year-old FC, who had flipped the launcher into remote, told a master-at-arms in a statement signed four minutes after Young was pronounced dead. “This is not something that happens all the time, but there is a danger circle around the launcher for a reason.” He added that he was going to act as the safety observer after he had powered up the launcher.
The final report, which provided the timeline of events that led up to the tragedy, made clear that Essex’s maintenance problems went all the way to the top.“
For the rest of the story, pick up Navy Times at a newsstand this week or click here to subscribe.
Swapping out in Sasebo
April 13th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Amphibious operations Navy The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard stopped in Okinawa, Japan, en route to Sasebo, where the San Diego-based crew will swap hulls with Essex. (Navy photo by MC2 Adam M. Bennett)
Amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard arrived in Sasebo, Japan, on April 8 for the Navy’s planned “hull swap” this spring with its older sibling, Essex. The BHR, as many call it, left San Diego in February for the cross-Pacific trek, carrying utility craft and about 800 Marines headed to South Korea for bilateral training exercises. The ship stopped in Okinawa, Japan, before heading on course for Sasebo Naval Base, the forward-deployed homeport for 7th Fleet’s amphibious force. While in Sasebo, the San Diego sailors will train with their Essex counterparts before both ships’ skippers exchange command for the official swap and both crews settle into their new bunks aboard their “new” (or in the case of Essex, older) ship.
The San Diego crew will then bring Essex to California, where the 20-year-old ship is scheduled to enter a San Diego shipyard later this year for some needed repairs and in-depth maintenance expected to take a year. Meanwhile, the Sasebo crew will operate the BHR, which itself got spiffed up in a shipyard period that included some upgraded systems and equipment, in 7th Fleet’s busy area of operations. Navy officials expect the ship will serve 10 years in the region.
For Essex, the swap marks a return to its old homeport of San Diego. The big-deck ship had replaced the now-retired (and sunken) Belleau Wood in a swap in 2000, and for the past 11 years has operated in the Far East, deploying with Marines, training with allied navies and assisting with humanitarian aid and natural disaster missions. Last year, Essex and members of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit responded to the disaster in Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Amphibious assault ship Essex pulls into Sasebo, Japan, in December following fall patrols in the western Pacific. (Navy photo by MCSA Mackenzie P. Adams)
Back to the Philippines?
April 13th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Joint operations Liberty Navy The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
It’s getting more jittery in the Pacific.
Amphibious transport dock Denver pulls into Subic Bay, Philippines, on April 10 for liberty. (Navy photo by MCSN Raul Moreo Jr.)
North Korea’s failed launch of a missile April 12 gives them more drive to conduct their next nuclear underground test, if nothing but to show the world that its new leader, Kim Jong Un, is just as tough and threatening as his paternal predecessors, defense analysts say. All that missile rattling, along with China’s growing military might, has heightened insecurities in an already-tense Asia-Pacific. With the U.S. strategy now taking a keener eye on the Pacific, and the brass talking more about ramping up training and deployments around the region, some of the Navy’s old haunts might be open to seeing more sailors, and their warships, in their seaports. Like the Philippines.
It’s been nearly a generation since sailors and Marines lived, trained and played in the Southeast Asia island-nation. The planned U.S. pullout of forces, and the 1991 volcanic blast of Mount Pinatubo, hastened the exit and made more permanent the closure of Subic Bay Naval Base and other installations that housed American troops. Over the years, occasional natural-disaster contingency missions driven by Mother Nature sent U.S. forces to help, a routine bilateral joint training exercises like the annual “Balikatan” have allowed some U.S. troops to visit the country. Recent years have seen more Navy ships have pulled into its ports as sailors have helped in community relations projects. On April 10, sailors arrived in Manila aboard dock transport ship Denver, which is on spring patrol from its Sasebo, Japan, homeport with the Essex Amphibious Ready Group, as the U.S. Pacific Command prepared to kick off this year’s “Balikatan” exercises, which run through April 27.
U.S. and military officials have dismissed the idea of basing troops in the Philippines again, but they say they plan to expand military training and port visits to the country, a key U.S. ally and treaty partner. While some in the region grumble at the prospects of more American intervention, some locals in the Philippines are more welcoming. One Manila columnist observed: “Aside from the bar girls of Olongapo who pine for the return of American sailors, there are many anxious souls who also wish the U.S. Seventh Fleet were back in Subic in light of the Chinese bullying in the West Philippine Sea.”
Brrrrrrrr…..it’s cold out there
February 6th, 2012 | 7th Fleet Entertainment Navy | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Members of the brass section of the 7th Fleet Band perform in front of a massive ice sculpture during the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan. // Navy MC2 Kenneth R. Hendrix photos
When temperatures go below freezing, perhaps the last place you’d want to place your lips is anything made of metal. Anyone who’s ever played in a marching or military band for an outdoor performance knows that the show must go on, regardless of Mother Nature’s moods. That’s just what some members of the U.S. 7th Fleet Band did this past weekend, enduring snow and icy conditions to entertain the crowd in Sapporo, Japan. The northern Japan city on Hokkaido island, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, is famous for its annual Sapporo Snow Festival attended by some 2 million visitors who don wool caps and thick layers of clothing to enjoy the region’s wintry landscape and an impressive array of sculptures and statues. The festival runs through Feb. 12.
The 7th Fleet band played tunes on stage Feb. 6 as part of the kickoff for the 63rd annual festival, performing for the crowd in front of a massive sculpture featuring some of the ocean’s most popular residents, including a walrus, gray whale, bottlenose dolphin and sea turtle. Meanwhile, sailors aboard fleet command ship Blue Ridge visited the nearby port city of Tomokodai and joined in that city’s annual ice festival.
A massive sculpture of sea life serves as the backdrop for the 7th Fleet Band's performance in Sapporo, Japan.
And not to be outdone, this year a team of sailors from Misawa Naval Air Facility in Japan battled the cold over three days to shape their own homage to sea service. The result is a sharp looking sculpture (below) that honors the Navy’s “Lone Sailor” statue. And after several days making something out of a chunky block of icy snow, the end result is, according to the Misawa folks, ”finally is within U.S. Navy body fat standards.” You can see more pictures of other sculptures here.
The "Lone Sailor" sculpture at this year's Sapporo Snow Festival. // NAF Misawa Facebook photo
I wonder what this button does?!
October 6th, 2011 | 7th Fleet Diplomacy Photos Ships The Pacific | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
A Russian boy watches as another plays with the controls in the combat information center aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald during a recent visit to Vladivostok, Russia.//Navy photos by Ens. Carissa Guthrie
We couldn’t help but smile at the faces of these Russian boys, who got the chance to play sailor aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald during an outing from Parus Nadezhdy Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Vladivostok. If we only knew what they were saying…
The Yokosuka, Japan-based Fitzgerald wrapped up a four-day visit to Russia’s Pacific Fleet port city, where they joined in community projects, sporting matches with Russian sailors and visited sick children at a local hospital before returning to sea for a planned U.S.-Russian joint exercise. The Parus Nedezhdy center for orphan children is something of a regular guest when U.S. ships visit the city. It’s Russia, of course, so chess remains a popular hobby and the obvious outlet for the American sailors to match wits and brains with the local children. Looks like fun. But it’s not about winning and losing, right?
Fire Controlman 3rd Class Alexander Poehner and Sonar Technician 1st Class Joseph Whalen face off Russian boys in a chess tournament Oct. 3 on the Fitzgerald's mess decks.