Almost seven months at sea and counting
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 6, 2003
Last updated: 5:51 PM
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| Lance Cpl. Daniel Bert heaves on a line during a replenishment at sea onboard the Mount Whitney, which normally serves as the 2nd Fleet's command ship in Norfolk. Photo by Robert Benson / U.S. Navy
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And as of Monday, the crew still did not have a homecoming date.
``We think there is a light at the end of the tunnel,'' Capt. David Prothero, the ship's commanding officer, said by satellite telephone. ``The light does not have a date on it yet, but we see it glowing.''
Prothero said the crew is still motivated but that the long time away from home is starting to wear on the more than 1,000 folks aboard the command ship, including 640 Norfolk-based sailors. The Mount Whitney currently is off the Horn of Africa.
``I suspect, like any of the other ships, we're looking for a time to get back,'' Prothero said, ``especially when we see other ships and other Air Force and Army units starting to turn in the right direction.''
The Mount Whitney normally serves as the 2nd Fleet's command ship in Norfolk, and it is unusual for it to be sent overseas. But because of its vast communications capabilities, on Nov. 12 it left to be the mobile command center in a region of the world where no significant land-based command was established.
``The last time we were at pierside was Dec. 4, and we had one four-day period at anchor in the Seychelles,'' Prothero said. ``That was 160 days ago.''
The Republic of Seychelles consists of nearly 100 islands off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. The short period of rest and relaxation there is the main break the crew has had on deployment.
So far, the crew has had five swim calls, three volleyball tournaments and six ``steel beach'' picnics, in which the ship's steel deck is used for a cookout, Prothero said.
The shipboard volleyball matches resulted in ``the loss of a few balls here and there,'' Prothero said, adding that there is a rule that sailors aren't allowed to dive for the ball on the Whitney's hard deck.
Sailors once referred to the Mount Whitney as ``Building No. 20'' because it rarely deployed _ 20 is its hull number _ but the ship has lost that reputation now.
``She is gathering no moss,'' Prothero said. ``We've burned 3« million gallons of gas since we left.''
The Mount Whitney has become a floating anti-terrorism command center off the Horn of Africa, steaming back and forth in front of 2,000 miles of east African coast in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
The crew is supporting a 400-member staff of intelligence specialists, operations officers and others from all the nation's military branches. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Sattler commands the staff, whose mission is to track, frustrate and eliminate al-Qaida terrorists seeking to use strife-torn expanses of Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan as safe havens and bases of operations.
The need for such a headquarters was realized last fall, Prothero said, but there was no facility ashore.
When the war with Iraq began, the command provided a natural staff presence on the southern flank for coalition operations that helped keep a lid on terrorism in that region, he said.
``There was a lot of concern that transnational terrorists were going to use our involvement in Iraq as their reason for retaliatory terrorist attacks against the U.S. and coalition forces, not only in this region but in the U.S.
``The goal was no terrorist attacks in the Horn of Africa and, just as important, no terrorist attacks in the U.S. that were born in the Horn of Africa and exported to it.''
While generally by itself, the Mount Whitney's crew does occasionally see ships from Task Force 150, a multinational group headed by an Italian rear admiral. Task Force 150 includes ships from the United States, Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
Prothero's message to anxious families back home is to remind them that the crew members are doing well.
``Their can-do spirit is what has allowed the ship to stay underway almost the entire time it has been gone,'' he said. ``The e-mail and the mail and care packages and the news from home, showing the families are handling it and sucking up their side of the sacrifice, which is no small issue _ all that helps keep the crew focused here, although they are most certainly ready to come home.
``The mission is not old, but the separation is.''
Reach Jack Dorsey at 446-2284 or jdorsey@pilotonline.com
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