DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Aboard the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster yesterday, Lt. Cmdr. Steve Hull, left, and Cmdr. John Chuck Nygaard discussed operations for the sinking of the decommissioned frigate USS Harold Holt in waters off Kauai. The Foster is among the multinational military force participating in RIMPAC.

Destroyer’s crew
motivated by memory
of U.S. heroes

The destroyer keeps up its admirable
performance as it nears retirement

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> The captain of the USS Paul F. Foster keeps a constant reminder of his mission as the ship embarks on its final deployment: a small glass-encased memento from New York City firefighters.

"Just before we came here," said Cmdr. John "Chuck" Nygaard, "we made a stop at the Portland Rose Festival. There was a reception on the flight deck, and we invited the firefighters from New York City and Miss America.

"It was there that they presented the ship with these three pieces of the rubble from the North Tower of the World Trade Center."

The skipper of this 26-year-old Spruance-class destroyer is not alone in his focus as the warship embarks on its final mission.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The frigate USS Ingraham fired a missile yesterday to sink a decommissioned vessel during maritime war games.

Fireman Jeffrey Falkenstein, who just turned 18, said he enlisted on Nov. 6, less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I wanted to serve my country, to protect it. I want to do good for my country," said Falkenstein of Tomah, Wis.

The helicopters on the Foster also are embossed with decals from the New York Fire and Police departments.

The Foster is among the 36 vessels, 24 aircraft and 11,000 military personnel from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States in Hawaii waters for the 18th biannual maritime war games called Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC. The exercise, considered the largest naval maritime war game, began June 26 and will run through July 22.

Yesterday, the Foster was one of three U.S. warships that participated in a gunnery and missile exercise 55 miles northwest of Kauai at the Pacific Missile Firing Range Facility. Firing 30 rounds from its two 5-inch guns and one defensive missile, the Foster helped sink the decommissioned frigate USS Harold Holt.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM USS Paul F. Foster crew watched a missile yesterday that was just shot from the ship toward the frigate target.

Nygaard, who assumed command of the 563-foot destroyer in February, said after RIMPAC his vessel will spend a few days undergoing maintenance at Pearl Harbor before steaming out to the western Pacific to join other Pacific Fleet warships in the war on terrorism.

Plans call for the 9,500-ton warship with its crew of 333 to return to its home port in Everett Naval Station in Washington on Dec. 17 to begin the decommissioning process. By mid-March the Foster will become a test platform in South California.

"The ship is going to stay alive even after she is decommissioned," said Nygaard, an 18-year Navy veteran.

"It's tough when a ship is placed on a decom list," said Nygaard, who acknowledged that there were attempts to restrict spending needed to maintain the aging warship. "It's been a tough fight ... but this ship will not be degraded in any way. I won't let the Navy cut corners."

When the aging destroyer pulls away from a Pearl Harbor pier for the last time later this month, it will be, Nygaard said, "loaded with Tomahawks and headed west ... a sleek, fast gray ship carrying an American flag, and there is no greater deterrent in the world."