One Ship, Three Crews, Enhanced Sea Power

[thedrifter]

04-02-2004

From the Editor:

One Ship, Three Crews, Enhanced Sea Power





By Ed Offley



While the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps in recent years have unveiled a number of highly-publicized reforms and reorganizations to enhance their combat power, the Navy has launched a truly revolutionary initiative with scant exposure.



Known as ?Sea Swap,? the concept involves stationing a destroyer in the Persian Gulf for an extended period, while swapping out an entire crew ? from captain to lowest seaman recruit ? after a six-month deployment with the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.



For decades, each naval warship went through a roughly 18-month deployment cycle that included six months of overseas duty followed by a year or so of planned maintenance, stateside training and pre-deployment exercises prior to the next cruise. The overall objective was to weld ship and crew into a cohesive whole over the pre-deployment phase with equipment in fighting trim and all hands fully trained to go to sea.



But two recent events have made that tradition obsolete: the post-Cold War decline of the fleet from 600 ships to 295, and post-9/11 wartime requirements that have put a serious strain on the fleet.



Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark ordered the experiment in 2002, initially involving the Spruance-class destroyer USS Fletcher (DD-992), which deployed from its home port in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At roughly the six-month milestone, the crew of the destroyer USS Kinkaid (DD-965) flew out to meet the Fletcher in Freemantle, Australia, and the Fletcher?s crew flew home. Six months after that, the crew of a third Spruance-class destroyer, the USS Oldendorf (DD-972), took over the helm of the Fletcher.



The Navy subsequently expanded the initiative to involve the USS Higgins (DDG-76), a more advanced Burke-class guided missile destroyer. The ship deployed from San Diego in late 2002, but stayed behind in the Persian Gulf under another crew after its original complement of 26 officers and 333 enlisted personnel flew home. The crew of its sister ship USS Benfold (DDG-65) operated the Higgins for six months, and then were replaced by a third crew from the USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53).



By doing so, Navy officials said this week, both ships have been able to remain on station longer periods of time, and have (in the case of the second and third crew shifts) avoided the months of steaming time required for replacement destroyers to travel from the United States to the Persian Gulf. Measured one way, the Higgins and its three crews were on station three months longer than a succession of three separate ships would have been.



Like all good ideas, there is a precedent for ?Sea Swap.? Veteran missile submarine crewmen recall the days of the Polaris and Poseidon submarines, which were stationed overseas at bases in Scotland, Spain and Guam. Those ?boomers? ? like the modern Trident missile submarines ? were also manned by two separate ?Blue? and ?Gold? crews who took turns taking the boats out on strategic patrol.



By adopting a similar deployment concept to the surface fleet, Clark and his fellow admirals have tacitly confirmed that the Navy will remain in a wartime footing for the foreseeable future, even as defense budget realities preclude a major expansion of the force.



The ?Sea Swap? initiative reached another milestone this week when the Higgins arrived in Pearl Harbor on its way back to San Diego after 18 months in the Gulf. Both officers and enlisted crew alike said the program had worked well, even though some minor problems were inevitable.



?We're bringing back a ship that's in really good shape, with a great sense of pride in the crew for making it that way,? said Cmdr. Roy Kitchener, who assumed command of the Higgens six months ago along with his crew from the John Paul Jones. In a conference call with Pentagon-based reporters, Kitchener admitted that he worried his crew would suffer a decline in morale when they departed their ship to take over the Higgins, but the fear was ungrounded. ?I think it works ... in the sense that you gain presence on station,? he added.



Navy spokeswoman Lt. Amy Gilliland said experts will conduct an extensive after-action review of both the Fletcher and Higgins deployments to review all issues relating to operational effectiveness, maintenance, safety and personnel. CNO Clark has already indicated he intends to expand ?Sea Swap? to involve other warship classes such as cruisers and amphibious assault ships.



If there is any downside to ?Sea Swap,? it was voiced by Command Master Chief Petty Officer Tim Corlew: ?The only difference was that we only got one port to visit. ... Normally we get to visit two to three ports.?



The fact that sailors and Marines will no longer enjoy multiple liberty port visits going to and from the Gulf is a small sacrifice for making a wartime Navy as strong as it can be.



Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. ? 2004 Ed Offley.


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Ellie