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Pearl ship has role The destroyer USS Fletcher, the oldest destroyer in Pearl Harbor's flotilla of 13 surface warships, will become part of a Navy experiment that might change the way sailors are sent to sea.
in Navy experiment
The destroyer Fletcher will swap
crews near the Indian Ocean
to stay on station longerBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comBeginning this summer, the 563-foot destroyer will be away from Pearl Harbor for 18 months -- almost three times the normal deployment time -- until it is decommissioned in 2004. During that period it will have not one, but three separate crews of nearly 370 officers and sailors and aviators.
It's part of a Navy experiment called "Sea Swap," which will involve one Pearl Harbor and five West Coast destroyers. Half of "Sea Swap" will be built around three Spruance-class destroyers -- USS Fletcher, USS Kinkaid and USS Oldendorf -- that will be taken out of service. Only the Fletcher is based in Hawaii; the others are home-ported in San Diego.
Also part of the experiment next year will be three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers -- USS Higgins, USS John Paul Jones and USS Benfold -- all home-ported in San Diego. However, none of the Arleigh Burke destroyers will be decommissioned. If the experiment works, crew swaps may be tried on frigates.
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The Navy wants to extend the "on station" time for Pacific Fleet warships to patrol the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea without extending deployments for crew members or using more ships.Lt. Cmdr. Steve Williams, executive officer of the Fletcher, said part of the reasoning behind the experiment is to keep ships on station longer without having to spend precious time commuting between their home ports.
"I know why the Navy is doing it: because of the drawdown on the number of ships and pressure to keep other ships at sea," Williams said.
Other Navy leaders note that during a time when its force structure is stretched increasingly thin by operational requirements around the globe, it is expected to increase its presence in faraway places and remain there for long periods of time. It now takes 45 days for a warship to steam from the West Coast to the Persian Gulf and another 45 days to get home, leaving less than 100 days to be on station during a normal six-month deployment.
Because of the distance, Pacific Fleet ships spend less time on duty in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea than their Atlantic Fleet counterparts.
Vice Adm. Tim LaFleur, commander of the Pacific Naval Surface Forces, headquartered in San Diego, said: "Everyone agrees we need more ships than the 300-plus we have right now. But the reality is that it's going to take a while for our force structure to grow where we need to be. Until then we need to explore other options."
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The Fletcher is scheduled to leave Pearl Harbor this summer to join the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group. At the end of six months, Fletcher's crew will leave the ship in Perth, Darwin or Singapore and fly back to Pearl Harbor. The Fletcher's crew will be replaced by sailors from the Kinkaid who will fly out to Fletcher's foreign port after preparing the 26-year-old Kinkaid to be decommissioned.
After six months the Kinkaid crew will be replaced by sailors from the Oldendorf, which by then also will have been taken out of service. The Oldendorf crew will then sail the Fletcher to San Diego, where it will be decommissioned in 2004.
Williams said the crew of the Fletcher began meeting Navy detailers last week to work out their assignments and duty stations once their six-month deployment ends at the end of this year. Williams said crew changes are done continuously during the life of a ship.
"There are people leaving us even when we are at sea," said Williams, who has served on four destroyers during his 13 years in the Navy. "The only difference here is that we aren't going to bring the ship home, and crew swap takes place all at once."
He said that some Fletcher crew members may want to stay on after the "sea swap."
Chief Petty Officer Shay Johnson, a Pupukea resident, is one of those sailors contemplating remaining at sea for 12 months with the Fletcher.
"It's a good ship," said Johnson, who has been on the Fletcher since 1999. Johnson, a 1975 Waialua High School graduate, is the destroyer's chief mess specialist who oversees the operations of the Fletcher's galley and the officer's wardroom with a staff of nine. "It's a sacrifice you have to make, but it's worth it."
Serving as the Navy's test platform, Johnson, a 20-year Navy and Gulf War veteran, said it is "going to be hard." He pointed to problems with logistics and record-keeping and something as simple as the ship's daily menu.
"If the new crew likes a certain menu and it's not the same as ours, they have to order those items ahead of time," Johnson said.
"It'll be up to us to work the bugs out for future ships."
But Navy leaders do not believe the crew transition will produce problems. The Navy chose to swap crews between three Spruance-class destroyers and three Arleigh Burke destroyers because of their similarities.
"There may be a few systems that are different (between the Fletcher and the Kinkaid)," Williams said, "but Kinkaid sailors will be sent to school to learn the differences."
Shay also notes that other Navy ships, namely Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, have been rotating crews for a long time.
These "boomers," which are based on the West Coast, have two crews of 150 each. One crew pulls a 72-day deployment while the other trains at home, and then the two crews swap