End of an era
December 6th, 2011 | 6th Fleet Amphibious operations Amphibious Ready Group Combat support Commanding officers Flight deck certification Homecoming leadership Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit Maritime operations Mine warfare Navy Norfolk Naval Station Odyssey Dawn Photos Ponce Ships The Middle East | Posted by Bill McMichael
On May 7, 1970, the Beatles released their last single: “The Long and Winding Road.”
Last week, the amphibious transport dock Ponce, launched 13 days after the song and commissioned in July 1971, completed its own long journey, coming home for the last time after four decades of service.
Sailors prepare to handle lines on Naval Station Norfolk's Pier 2 as the amphibious transport dock Ponce makes its final return to homeport. Ponce will now begin the long process that will result in the ship's decommissioning early next year. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stevie Tate
Those years were filled with significant events. Ponce helped evacuate nearly 300 mostly U.S. and British Westerners from Lebanon during the 1976 civil war, and supported 6th Fleet air strikes on pro-Syrian militia positions in defense of U.S. Marines ashore. It supported military disaster relief in Florida following 1992′s devastating Hurricane Andrew. It took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, serving as the flagship of a minesweeping task group that opened the key port of Umm Qasr. Most recently, Ponce, as part of the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group, supported the NATO strikes on Libya that played a key role in helping rebel forces drive Moammar Gadhafi from power.
It was during that last cruise that the ship’s commanding officer and executive officer were fired by Vice Adm. Harry Harris, then-commander of 6th Fleet — Cmdr. Etta Jones for what investigators said were abuses of power, and Lt. Cmdr. Kurt Boenisch for not standing up to Jones. Jones apologized to the crew in a statement released by her lawyer the same day Ponce returned home last week, saying that she hoped the public “will not overlook their positive story.”
Ponce spent its final operational week supporting air operations for II Marine Expeditionary Force’s air-ground task force. One sailor said he took a lot of pride in being one of the last to man the ship’s flight deck.
“This underway is the last time anyone will fly on Ponce,” Aviation Support Equipment Technician 3rd Class Morgan Butkus was quoted by Ponce’s public affairs office as saying. “How many years have people been here with stuff happening, and this is the last of it.”
Four decades on Ponce, by the numbers: It was served by more than 18,400 sailors and embarked by more than 24,500 Marines; it landed and launched aircraft more than 39,000 times; it was involved in more than 25 major operations; it was commanded by 28 different commanding officers.
The ship will be decommissioned in early 2012 and placed in long-term storage at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.
Quartermaster 2nd Class Shixi Zhang mans a telescopic alidade on the starboard bridge wing of the amphibious transport dock ship Ponce as the ship gets underway from Naval Station Norfolk for its final scheduled underway period. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Nathanael Miller
Daly: Amphibious forces are more relevant than ever
April 1st, 2011 | Admirals Amphibious operations Amphibious Ready Group Gator Navy Historical Korean War Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit Maritime operations Ships The Med The Middle East | Posted by Bill McMichael
The deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command used his keynote speech at the decommissioning of the amphibious assault ship Nassau in Norfolk March 31 to stump for continued support for the “Gator Navy” and the capability to launch U.S. Marines onto contested shore, arguing that such a capability reduces the need for U.S. bases on foreign shores.
Vice Adm. Peter Daly pointed to the Essex Amphibious Ready Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit providing humanitarian assistance and disaster response following the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan; the Boxer ARG and 13th MEU being accelerated into the Persian Gulf to provide what he called “essential capacity” for potential non-combatant evacuation operations and to provide the fleet with a theater reserve force; the Bataan ARG and 22nd MEU’s short-notice (120 days early) deployment to the Mediterranean to relieve the Kearsarge ARG and 26th MEU; and the Kearsarge ARG and 26th MEU’s central role in the NATO air strike campaign against Libyan forces — in particular, their rapid movement out of the 5th Fleet area of operations, where they were relieved by Boxer and the 13th MEU, to the Med, where they have provided combat sorties and air space control.
“We are witnessing a living clinic for why we need amphibious power for our Navy,” Daly said.
More than a few military analysts have questioned whether the U.S. should maintain an amphibious capability — made famous during World War II’s Pacific theater island-hopping campaign — noting that the last significant amphibious combat landings took place at Inchon during the Korean war and that weapons such as long-range missiles make large-scale amphibious assaults obsolete. Proponents argue that the ability to launch smaller-level assaults on unimproved beachfronts continues to be an important capability. The threat alone can also be an advantage, they say, pointing to the famous Persian Gulf War feint in which a large amphibious force poised off the coast of Kuwait diverted thousands of Iraqi forces from the main battlefields.
During a Dec. 2 “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable, Brig. Gen. Christopher Owens, deputy commanding general, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, also pointed out that assault operations are but one of a wide range of possibilities on the amphibious palette and argued for keeping such a capability, while further refining concepts to “keep it relevant.”
Daly would agree.
“People often ask, `Well, maybe we don’t have to do this anymore’,” Daly said. “Maybe we don’t have to provide the bandwidth, the training and the time, and the effort and the money to do [them]. But when they were needed, they were there.”
Daly acknowledged that the capability to conduct amphibious assaults has been somewhat diluted. “The demands of land conflicts over the last decade have forced something of a separation between our Navy amphibious forces and the Marines they are designed to carry into combat,” Daly said. “Only by training together, sailing together, fighting together, can we ensure that amphibious warfare remains a premier national capability — so the country is not dependent on overseas bases, and able to conduct forcible entry without a buildup, and without a permission slip.”