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Stout Sailors Train with Coast Guard for VBSS

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060519-12
Release Date: 5/19/2006 12:12:00 PM

By Photographer’s Mate Airman Tristan Miller, USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs

USS STOUT, At Sea (NNS) -- Stout Sailors and the embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team (LEDET) 101 have been training together for Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) operations while operating in the Caribbean Sea during the month of May.

The LEDET Coast Guardsmen were attached to Stout to train and prepare members of the Stout crew, while they used the ship as a platform to board vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics and people.

“VBSS is something different than my normal routine,” Stout’s Postal Clerk 2nd Class (SW) Dustin Griffith said. “I wanted to do it and the Coast Guard asked for volunteers, so I volunteered. I think we all are excited and anxious to learn as much as we can.”

The Coast Guard plays an extensive role in Stout’s boarding operations in the Caribbean, as they are the law enforcement entity and U.S. Navy ships are the platforms they use to deploy. When they need to conduct a boarding, the ship will shift tactical command to Coast Guard District 7, providing them the jurisdiction they need to legally board.

“We use the Navy assistance by using them as platforms of opportunity,” Leading Petty Officer of Law Enforcement Detachment Team 101, Food Service Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Rowley said. “Using the Navy’s expertise and methods for finding other vessels is a big help.”

The training involves step-by-step lessons of searching a vessel space by space and where to search for possible illegal items. They also taught the crew how to approach possible hostiles and disarm them while protecting the team.

“Training keeps us up on our skills and helps prepare the crew for an actual VBSS boarding,” Rowley said. “Working with the Navy, we both profit from shared experience and it helps promote relations between both branches of service.”

Stout is currently deployed as a unit of “Partnership of the Americas,” a maritime training and readiness deployment of U.S. naval forces with countries from the Caribbean and Latin America, in support of U.S. Southern Command objectives for enhanced maritime security.