• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

USS McCampbell Returns from Counter Drug Deployment

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS030716-04

Release Date: 7/15/2003 11:23:00 PM

By Ensign Joël Jackson, USS McCampbell Public Affairs

ABOARD USS McCAMPBELL, At Sea (NNS) -- USS McCampbell (DDG 85) returned from its first deployment June 24. McCampbell has been conducting counter-narcotics operations under the operational command of Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) West and South in the Eastern Pacific Transit Zone since it left San Diego April 19. This is the ship's first operational deployment since she was commissioned in August 2002.

The highlight of the deployment was the seizure of 1.36 metric tons of cocaine from a sailing vessel off the coast of Central America. The sailing vessel "Sin Rumbo" was discovered by McCampbell May 12 and successfully apprehended through the teamwork of the McCampbell crew, a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, and the embarked helicopter, the Battlecats of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 43 Detachment 5.

McCampbell maintained an extremely high operational tempo throughout the deployment. It completed eight boardings, 34 Right Of Approaches, and 108 sightings and identifications of various vessels. McCampbell also used this underway to increase its tactical and technical readiness by completing training exercises in every major mission area, including multiple gun firing exercises, torpedo handling and firing exercises, engineering and combat systems drills, almost 300 hours of flight operations and joint operations with the Coast Guard detachment. The ship also put a great focus on personal qualifications for its crew members, qualifying nine new surface warfare officers and 48 new enlisted surface warfare specialists.

The crew enjoyed several port visits to the cities of Mazaltan and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Balboa, Panama, giving McCampbell Sailors the opportunity to experience the different cultures and proudly represent the U.S. Navy.

McCampbell's assignment on this deployment occurred while the ship is still in its new construction period, less than one year since leaving the shipyard in Bath, Maine. McCampbell is part of a Commander, Naval Surface Forces, Pacific Fleet and Commander, 3rd Fleet initiative to employ newly commissioned warships immediately upon delivery and prior to their normal rotation as Carrier Strike Group (CSG) or Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) escorts. McCampbell is assigned to Commander, Destroyer Squadron 1 and is homeported in San Diego.

The ship's Combat Systems Officer Lt. Greg Fitzgearld has been aboard McCampbell since it was a precommissioning unit in Bath, Maine. "It speaks volumes for the quality of the crew and the ability of the program office to build a good combat systems suite, that the ship has been able to complete a sail away, Combat Ship Systems Qualification Trials, an Inter-Deployment Training Cycle, and a counter narcotics deployment successfully in just one year," Fitzgearld commented. "The equipment and hardware are great, but without the operators and technicians, we would not have gotten here. We have done nothing but get better since we left the shipyard. Considering that when we started in Maine, two-thirds of the crew had never been to sea, and the enormous amount of new and developmental equipment the ship has, it's incredible that we have accomplished all the successes we have."

McCampbell's Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Mark Montgomery, reflected that, "The counter-narcotics mission is an important element of the Navy's commitment to homeland defense and counter-terrorism. Our teamwork with JIATF-west and the U.S. Coast Guard ensured significant amounts of illegal drugs did not reach North America."