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Coalition Sailors, Marines Combine Efforts in Offload Operation

Story Number: NNS030219-04
Release Date: 2/19/2003 7:55:00 AM

By Journalist 1st Class Joseph Krypel, Commander, Maritime Prepositioning Force Public Affairs

KUWAIT (NNS) -- U.S. and British Sailors and Marines combined efforts in the offload of more than 900 pallets of ammunition and supplies from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Service Ship Fort Austin (A386).

According to Capt. David Pitt, Master of Fort Austin, the supplies are forward moving to supply British forces assembled in the Southwest Asian Theater of Operations.

"We are basically a floating warehouse for dry stores," Pitt said. "The boys in the field and on the water need what we have, so we deliver."

Pitt described his vessel as similar to those of the U.S. Military Sealift Command ships in that the RFA is a civilian-manned fleet that is owned by the British Ministry of Defense. Multinational servicemen and woman work together as part of a coalition of the willing buildup of forces in the North Arabian Gulf region.

Key American components helping in the offload and delivery were the Marine Corps' Atlantic Ordnance Command Expeditionary Force, the U.S. Army's 146th Movement Control Team, the Joint Lighterage Control Center - a multinational multiservice port authority here, and members of Naval Beach Master Unit 1.

"There is nothing like working with our partner nations," Hospital Corpsman First Class James Wallace, a 27-year-old Phoenix, Ariz., resident, said. "They need some assistance to expedite things, so we helped them out." Wallace is a beach master with Beach Master Unit 1, homeported in Coronado, Calif.

Capt. Donald Cook, Commander, Task Group 51.8 (CTG 51.8) and his staff and tenant commands aided the offload in a continued show of coalition forces working together to achieve safe and expedient mission success.

Camp Patriot is the location for CTG 51.8. The joint command is comprised of multiple units from the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard.

CTG 51.8 is deployed to Kuwait to support the global war on terrorism and to prepare for possible future contingencies.