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Special Operations Units to Leave Roosevelt Roads, Mission Unaffected

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS030828-11

Release Date: 8/29/2003 5:00:00 AM

By Journalist 3rd Class Landon Mason, Naval Station Roosevelt Roads Public Affairs

NAVAL STATION ROOSEVELT ROADS, Puerto Rico (NNS) -- There will soon be no more little brown parachutes in the skies over Naval Station Roosevelt Roads (NSRR).

By the end of September, the special operations forces under Special Operations Command South (SOCSOUTH) stationed here will begin relocating to bases in the continental United States.

According to Army Lt. Col. Nicolas Britto, the public affairs officer for SOCSOUTH, the Army's D-160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Charlie 3/7) will head for new headquarters by the end of September, while the command group for SOCSOUTH will remain at NSRR until next year.

"Delta-160 will be stationed out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., while Charlie Company will be moving to Fort Bragg, N.C.," Britto said. "While the component commands are gone, we will stay here until next August, when our new headquarters in Miami is scheduled to be finished."

Britto said a new location won't change SOCSOUTH's job, though.

"Just because we will be stationed a little farther north will not affect our mission to serve the Southern Command area of responsibility," Britto said.

The Army's units aren't the only ones to go. Naval Special Warfare Unit (NSWU) 4 is also scheduled to depart NSRR by the end of September. It will be headquartered in Virginia with a new name.

"We will be stationed in Little Creek and Virginia Beach, Va.," said Lt. Cmdr. Pete Berardi, executive officer of NSWU-4. "After we get there, NSWU-4 will be decommissioned and renamed Naval Special Warfare Group 2, Det. South."

According to Cmdr. Colin Kilrain, the commanding officer of NSWU-4, the move will be bittersweet.

"We are a little sad we're leaving," Kilrain said. "This is a great place to train, a beautiful place to live, and there are a lot of people here we'll miss."

While SOCSOUTH has been at NSRR since 1999, NSWU-4's departure will end more than 40 years of naval special warfare in Puerto Rico.

"We weren't always NSWU-4, but naval special warfare has been here since the '60s," said Berardi. "It will be sad to see us leave this place for good."