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COMDESRON 24, Three U.S. Ships Complete Neptune Warrior

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060630-16
Release Date: 6/30/2006 4:13:00 PM

By Journalist 3rd Class Brandon Shelander, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

USS MONTEREY, At Sea (NNS) -- Commander, Destroyer Squadron (COMDESRON) 24, in company with Norfolk-based USS Monterey (CG 61) and Mayport, Fla.-based USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) and USS Boone (FFG 28), completed the Neptune Warrior course in the North Atlantic, June 30.

Capt. Robert E. Kapcio, COMDESRON 24, served as the Task Group Commander for one side during the 10-day scenario. He and his staff also evaluated the three U.S. ships for their deployment certification.

“They did extremely well,” said Lt. Cmdr. Rick Hughes, operations officer for COMDESRON 24, describing how Monterey, Boone and The Sullivans performed. “I think the first challenge is for our U.S. forces to integrate with our coalition partners, and that’s important.”

Neptune Warrior is a course designed to increase the coordination between coalition and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies in maritime operations. The course takes units from the participating nations and divides them into different groups to simulate contact between air, surface, and sub-surface threats. COMDESRON 24 was the task force commander for one of these groups and helped to make Neptune Warrior a successful training environment.

Hughes said the intricacy of operating with many different ships from different countries is the primary lesson learned from the Neptune Warrior course. Integration and communication with foreign partners is COMDESRON 24’s primary goal to ensure that everyone learns from the course.

“We have a different composition of units, but what you learn is that cooperation and communications between units and the countries’ different cultures is extremely important,” said Danish Lt. Cmdr. Lasse Hirsch, Danish liaison officer between COMDESRON 24 and the Task Group’s Danish and Norwegian ships.

Hirsch has been in several Neptune Warrior courses and understands the importance of communication. “If you do not communicate, your mission and your objectives are not fulfilled and it will compromise your mission and eventually, in a real situation, you might risk your life.”

Hughes commented on what it was like to work with foreign navies. “After a day or so, once we got our communications in synch, it was like operating with the same forces you’ve been operating with for months and years. It takes a while to adjust, but I think that everyone did extremely well.”

Lt. Cmdr. Mario Gonzalez is the helicopter element commander for COMDESRON 24 and said that communications weren’t the only challenge they had to overcome during the course.

“It’s always a challenge to come to a new area and operate in a new environment. There’s a lot of challenges to be met, not just physically but administratively, like time, distance, logistics, change of plans, and weather,” said Gonzalez. “You have to do a lot of thinking on your feet and planning as you go. So I think the ships have reacted very well to that and I think they’ve been able to maximize their training out here even as the situations and the plans change.”

The hands-on experience of dealing with threats from surface, air, and subsurface added valuable training for everyone involved in the course.

“The ships and the staff gained a lot of tactical experience. For some, this is the first time in many months that they have operated in a multi-ship environment,” explained Kapcio. “Neptune Warrior offers a greater challenge than U.S.-only exercises because we're working with coalition partners and allies and gaining a better understanding of their procedures. One of our principal responsibilities was directing the Norwegian patrol boats and the Danish corvettes. We learned a great deal about their capabilities and how to utilize them in different warfare areas. The Danish corvettes had ‘plug-n-play’ modules for anti-surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare, which are similar in concept to what is envisioned for [the Navy's future] LCS.”

The variety of encounters faced in Neptune Warrior prepared COMDESRON 24, Monterey, Boone and The Sullivans for future roles in U.S. 2nd Fleet and upcoming deployments.

“Even though we’re a small staff I think we’re very capable to come out here and work with these ships and accomplish the mission,” said Gonzalez. "We’re a very experienced unit, and from the staff perspective we have a lot of knowledge in a lot of different warfare areas. I think that we’ve done well here and we’ll do well in other real-world exercises in support of the global war on terrorism."

COMDESRON 24 was embarked aboard Monterey, which served as a flagship for the task force. Monterey, Boone and The Sullivans will return to homeport and prepare to deploy later this year.

For related news, visit the Destroyer Squadron 24 Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/desron24/.