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Anzio VBSS Team Trains for Upcoming Deployment

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060423-05
Release Date: 4/23/2006 9:03:00 PM

By Journalist Seaman Recruit Jeff Hall, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

USS ANZIO, At Sea (NNS) -- Members of guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio’s (CG 68) Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) team are using their time at sea for their Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) April 12 to May 12, to hone their skills using compliant and non-compliant boarding drills to ready them for their scheduled fall 2006 deployment.

The drills test the basic principles VBSS members learn through months of training aboard Anzio and in VBSS schools.

“All members have gone to at least eight weeks of school to become non-compliant trained,” said Ensign Patrick King, Anzio’s VBSS officer.

Topics covered at VBSS schools consist of weapons handling techniques, tactical team movement, clearing rooms and passageways, using deadly force and the use-of-force continuum, tactical communications, intelligence gathering and combat first aid.

To give potential VBSS members even more real-life experience, they must negotiate their way through boarding scenarios using simunition rounds for real-life training, learn to climb using a climbing harness and belay device, and learn how to use climbing gear to inspect CONEX boxes.

“The Anzio VBSS team on board provides the ship the capability to board foreign merchant vessels and dhows at sea,” said King. “We inspect these vessels and their manifests for crew and cargo to ensure they are not smuggling and violating any United Nations Security Council Resolutions or carrying terrorists or terrorism-related material.”

The training each VBSS member receives, including cultural awareness and diversity training, gives them the edge they need to perform under pressure.

Anzio's VBSS team is comprised of volunteers from different departments, and these Sailors continue to work in their respective rates despite the additional duties of the VBSS team, sacrificing their free time to train with the team.

“We get together as a team and train pretty much every day,” said Fire Controlman 3rd Class Richard Owens, a member of Anzio’s VBSS team. “We PT every day, which usually includes running a few miles, swimming a few hundred meters and weight training. Then we follow that up with a couple of hours training on different things to help keep up our skills as a team.”

COMPTUEX tests the hard work and training the VBSS team has gone through with six boarding drills, including two compliant and two non-compliant boardings.

“VBSS will most likely play a major role in our next deployment to the Persian Gulf,” said King. “Boarding teams currently in the region are very busy, conducting primarily Approach and Visits (AAV), but also some compliant and a very few non-compliant boardings. We are training daily and gearing up for a busy cruise.”

King is confident that Anzio’s VBSS team is trained and ready to rise to the challenge of their critical role in the upcoming deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) Carrier Strike Group.