BYRD-PHILIP

USNS SACAGAWEA was my first ship. I was an Ordinary Seaman and was mostly on watch for the year I spent aboard her, the last couple months I switched to being a dayworker so I could actually learn some maintenance before going to me next ship. My first deployment was also SACAGAWEA's first deployment. We were mostly anti-pirating off the coast of Somalia with a lot of in ports to either Fujaira or Djibouti. Back then Al-Shabob wasn't trying to capture Americans so we could go out an explore the city. I bought some trinkets that may or may not have been made in Djibouti and also had a camel steak (it wasn't bad) and my friend had turtle, they were small and served in their own shells. We after about 4 months of high tempo UNREPS with the anti-pirated fleet we did 2 months in the Persian Gulf with the carrier strike group with multiple in ports in Dubai and Bahrain. I didn't leave the navy base much in Bahrain but Dubai I had a blast exploring the city. My favorite thing to do in Dubai is to take the water taxi up the creek into the old town. The malls were quite a sight to see, they were all very different and are well designed. My favorite part of work was being on the flight deck during VERTREPS, vertical replenishments. Hooking up cargo to the helicopter hovering overhead was such a fun thrill. On our way back the US we stopped in Crete, Greece and I promised myself I'd go back to the Greek islands, which I did after I stopped sailing. I love Crete and Greece, the food is amazing the people are wonderful the history is everywhere. 

USNS GRAPPLE, my second ship, was very interesting. She's a salvage and tug so we stayed in Norfolk Virginia and did several jobs as needed. We worked with US Navy Divers who were the coolest people in the Navy I've ever met. If someone tells me they're enlisting in the Navy I tell them to be a diver. We did a salvage training job, a debeaching training job (that turned into a mission once we couldn't get it off the beach). The Army Corps of Engineers beached this old ship used for training, SALVIA, on the highest spring tide of the year so after a few days the high tide wasn't even floating SALVIA so we had to get our sister ship GRASP and a fleet tug APACHE to help pull SALVIA literally off the beach and into the water. We also went to Philadelphia to pick up an ex destroyer, towed her down off the coast of Florida then cast her adrift for a joint live fire exercise. The Navy sent us some awesome photos of the ship being fire upon and thanked us for the speedy tow. On our way back to Norfolk a Marine Corps Amphibious Assault Vehicle Sank during training off the North Carolina Coast. Once we got back to Norfolk we loaded up Mobile Dive and Salvage Unit 2 to go save the government a few million dollars. We used our 40 ton boom to pull the AAV out of 40 feet of water an onto our back deck, that was a tense half hour!

While aboard USNS ARCTIC we didn't really do much, her reduction gears were messed up on one of the steam turbines. For the uninitiated reduction gears reduce the RPMs of the steam turbine (spins very very fast) to an appropriate amount for the shaft so that it can propel the ship efficiently. Reduction gears are custom to every turbine and extremely fine tuned, the finest of dirt and grime can destroy reduction gears irreparably. We did one underway, however, we were used for training for US Army pilots in the 160th SOAR learning to fastrope personnel onto moving ships. While I was on watch I was walking through the bridge from starboard to port as lookout. About halfway through I heard a large boom and we all looked at each other; I ran to the port bridgewing to look aft and make sure everything is OK but I saw a large fireball. I called for fire three times in the bridge and the 2nd mate sounded the general alarm. The blackhawk's rotor hit the aft smokestack and crashed into the vessel on top of the aft house. The fire was put out within a couple minutes and the flight deck was cleared of debris so that the other Blackhawk and a USCG helicopter could MEDEVAC the casualties. The aircrewman of the crashed blackhawk died on impact, the pilot, copilot and passengers were safely medevaced within an hour. Reflash watch was set. The crew acted quickly and professionally minimizing loss of life and ship, the officers were given awards. 

USS MOUNT WHITNEY was a very fun ship. Being the 6th fleet command ship, her primary mission was to show the flag annually at almost every country within the European Command. On this vessel I visited England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, and Belgium. That was a very fun 6 month deployment. I fell in love with Poland and Portugal, some day I will return. I also met a Dutch Scientist in Portugal then once in The Netherlands my friend and I went to her college and attended the equivalent of a fraternity party, very fun. For the other 6 months we were in our home port of Gaeta, Italy. I took many trips to Rome and a few to Naples, not a huge fan of Naples. During this time though I participated in Operation Odyssey Dawn which ousted Libya's president Moammar Qadaffi. We were the command ship because it was initially an operation with France, US, and the UK. Because it wasn't a NATO mission all combat operations could not be planned/coordinated in Italy so it was done aboard USS MOUNT WHITNEY hovering just off of Italy in International Waters. We dropped our trash in Sicily a couple times, the second time I saw a DDG load up on Tomahawks then rooster tail to the breakwater, stop, fire off a salvo of missiles, rooster tail again for a few minutes, stop, fire off another salvo, then rooster tail past the horizon. It was awesome. During Odyssey Dawn we were glued to Al Jazeera since US news is a dumpster fire of windbags blasting rumor, speculation and nonsense. 

USNS GRUMMAN was pretty awful. I only did 4 months on this ship. I caught her in Djibouti and flew back from Greece so I only has the distinct displeasure of 4 straight months of "10 and in." 10 days underway of 2 to 3 UNREPS a day for the anti-pirating fleet then one day in Djibouti to get more fuel. We usually couldn't leave the ship since liberty was secured, thanks Al Shabob, and at this point most of the city was off limits and Camp Lemmonier isn't super fun so I just caught up on sleep. The internet didn't work well either and I had to use mobile websites to keep up with banking and the news. I read voraciously on this ship so luckily the library was really good and mostly untouched. UNREP station 4's standard tension wench was broken so we had to stay in Dubai for 2 weeks which was really nice. I hadn't been in a while and took advantage of the time there getting more rugs and relaxing after the high tempo deployment. I was very glad to leave GRUMMAN.

USS PONCE, my last and most satisfying ship. She was an old LPD that was slated to decommission but instead given to Military Sealift Command as an interim Afloat Forward Staging Base while the permanent AFSBs were being built. I was the first Able Seaman aboard while we were in the shipyard being converted from LPD to AFSB. I also volunteered as Fire Marshal and had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I did get an office so that was nice. It was a lot of work but very rewarding and the pay was great. I made sure our SOLAS gear was ordered and ready to go for civilian crew. Since she was slated to be decommissioned for a few years the crew gave away just about everything that wasn't bolted down so I had to restock the repair lockers and repair the neglected AFFF stations. Once we were out of the yard she was predeployed and ported in Al Manama, Bahrain. I didn't really leave the base in Bahrain before I was aboard Ponce but I took a liking to the city this time. I had a tailor in the Souk make some cloths and became a local at the Moroccan Restaurant on Exhibition Ave. We also did really fun jobs. I like refueling minesweepers out of the stern because my station was to tend a line while standing on well deck door all of a few inches from the water while we were underway. Since I was the fire marshal I had to be in DC Central during flight quarters, which was kind of a bummer, but the stern refueling was fun enough to scratch that itch. While aboard we had a few fires, nothing too major, but for one of them I had to take control of repair locker 3 and had a team of SCBAmen at the scene before the other lockers could get a muster. Luckily the fire was out with a few extinguishers by the time my team got there.