thedrifter
01-14-09, 06:13 AM
Amphibious ship Nashville off for final deployment
By Cindy Clayton
Louis Hansen
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 12, 2009
NORFOLK
The amphibious transport ship Nashville will leave on its last deployment this week before being decommissioned.
The ship leaves Norfolk at 9 a.m. Thursday to participate in the Africa Partnership Station, according to a Navy news release.
The partnership is an international security initiative designed to improve maritime safety in West and Central Africa, the release says. It isn’t designed to combat piracy, but to help African nations build professional skills and ensure the safety of their waters.
The Nashville has a crew of more than 400 sailors and can carry more than 900 Marines, the release says. Austin-class amphibious ships, such as the Nashville, are being replaced by San Antonio class ships.
Ellie
thedrifter
01-14-09, 07:05 AM
Nashville gets ready to depart on final mission
NORFOLK
Over four decades of deployments, the upper storage decks of the Nashville have been filled with tanks, trucks and guns.
But for its final mission, which begins this week, the ship's belly is filled with 240 pallets of medicine, solar panels and food rations.
The old gator, slated for decommissioning later this year, is set to leave Norfolk Naval Station on Thursday for the west coast of Africa. The crew will deliver basic military training and humanitarian relief to five countries.
"We want to prevent wars," said Capt. Tushar Tembe, commanding officer of the Nashville. "That's why we're going there."
The Nashville is the latest Norfolk-based ship to participate in the Navy's Africa Partnership Station, a program launched two years ago. The ship will visit Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Gabon.
The Navy can bring stability to a region marked by political unrest and tribal rivalries, said Carol Pretlow, director of the Consortium for Strategic and Global Studies at Norfolk State University.
A U.S. presence in the region will help check the Chinese influence there, particularly in oil-rich Nigeria, she said. It also can show that a domestic military "is not just combative, but stabilizing," she said.
Capt. Cindy Thebaud, commodore of the Africa Partnership Station, said the African nations set the training topics and schedules. Noncommissioned officers will teach leadership skills to foreign sailors. Other topics will include martial arts and fisheries management.
The deployment will include about 70 personnel from several European, African and South American nations. About 30 Marines will perform land-based security training.
Cmdr. Enoch Bello of the Nigerian navy said the United States can teach professional tactics for dealing with terrorism and oil spills.
"We have a lot to learn from the U.S. Navy," Bello said.
Bello helped develop the curriculum and will deploy with the ship.
The Norfolk-based amphibious dock landing ship Fort McHenry and the fast boat Swift established the first partnership station in October 2007. The ships brought teams of sailors and civilian aid workers to 10 countries in west and central Africa during a seven-month deployment.
The Fort McHenry completed about two dozen community-relations projects that included delivering food and medical equipment and repairing schools, hospitals and wildlife parks, according to the Navy.
The Nashville, commissioned in 1970, participated in the Persian Gulf War. It led evacuations out of Lebanon during heavy fighting in 1982 and 2006.
Tembe said the crew is prepared for its final mission. It will not take an air wing, allowing extra space for materials donated by other U.S. agencies and nongovernmental agencies.
On Thursday, sailors made last-minute preparations for the trip. Several rigid-hulled inflatable boats rested on the clean, empty flight deck, ready to hold security patrols when the ship reaches the west African coast.
When the ship returns from its five-month deployment, the crew will ready it for retirement. The Nashville is scheduled to be decommissioned in September.
In the meantime, Tembe said, "We've got a lot of life left in us."
Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com
Ellie