Above, the destroyer USS Fletcher was helped to a Pearl Harbor pier by the tugboat Patsy Mink yesterday for a short layover en route to San Diego and decommissioning in October.
Pearl destroyer returns
before its final voyage
The destroyer USS Fletcher returned home to Pearl Harbor yesterday after being at sea for two years and manned by four different crews as part of an experiment to keep warships in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
But Cmdr. John Nolan, Fletcher's skipper, said the homecoming will be only four days, and then the 563-foot destroyer will set sail for San Diego, where it will be decommissioned on Oct. 1.
Mary Beth Kover gave her husband, Ensign Travis Kover, a big hug upon his arrival yesterday.
When the Fletcher left Pearl Harbor on Aug. 2, 2002, it initiated the Navy's "Sea Swap" program designed to keep warships in places like the Persian Gulf for longer periods of time.
The idea was to deploy a single ship to a certain area for at least 16 months, but rotate its 400-member crew every six months. It takes about 45 days to sail between the West Coast and the Persian Gulf during a normal six-month western Pacific deployment.
Nolan said his crew first helped decommission the destroyer USS Elliot in San Diego in January 2003 and then flew to Australia to take over the Fletcher on Dec. 13. He described the task of assuming the operations as "pretty" seamless.
"We had to learn all the nuances of the ship," Nolan added. "We made it our home, and it's running great now."
Petty Officer Alvin Nobel, a 1997 Waipahu High School graduate, said "the swap took a lot of work," but things were made easier because the ships were the same class of destroyer.
"The only difference was there were more things broken (on the Fletcher) because it was older," said Nobel, a gas turbine electrician.
The original Sea Swap crew of the Fletcher was commanded by Cmdr. Thomas Neal when it left Pearl Harbor in 2002. It took the Fletcher to the North Persian Gulf, where it supported the United Nations sanctions against Iraq for four months.
In January 2003, the Fletcher sailed into Fremantle, Australia, and the crew of the USS Kinkaid took the Fletcher back to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment and launched nearly 20 Tomahawk missiles during the Iraqi war.
Six months later, the crew of the USS Oldendorf went aboard the Fletcher in Singapore working the Gulf of Aden and the Northern Persian Gulf until Dec. 13, when Nolan and crew of the USS Elliot relieved the Oldendorf team.
Nolan described his part in the Sea Swap experience as "the best deployment of my 19-year naval career."
