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San Antonio Reaches Milestone

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS061214-16
Release Date: 12/14/2006 2:50:00 PM

By Mass Communiation Specialist 1st Class Erik Hoffmann, USS San Antonio Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- USS San Antonio successfully completed the finale of the ship's 10-month Unit Level Training (ULT) with a successful Final Evaluation Period (FEP) Dec. 12 off the coast of Virginia.

San Antonio’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Brad Lee, said the crew spent those months training and drilling on the scenarios they were to demonstrate to the Afloat Training Group (ATG).

"It is the culmination of lots of training and preparation by our training teams and our crew,” Lee said.

The FEP is “a small demonstration of all that training that you accomplished during that ULT,” said Lt. Tim Mead, training officer aboard San Antonio.

Mead added that fine-tuning preparations as individual crew members walked through training scenarios such as firefighting and engaging and identifing tracks in simulated combat was important.

"[We did this] to the point where we stood back, hands off," Mead added. "Training team members didn’t say a word to any of the crew members at all, and they just executed the scenario to perfection.”

As the crew trained and drilled for the final test on a ship commissioned less than a year ago, there were some concerns if the ship’s hardware was ready.

“With the ship not done with post shakedown availability (PSA), there were concerns that all the equipment was not installed in its final configuration,” Lee explained. “But we are testing and operating what we do have while making sure that we train to what we will have in the future.”

Mead added the high expectations Lee set for them were met.

“This was definitely by far the best scenario that we had executed for FEP,” Mead said. “We had done it for practice on numerous occasions, but yesterday was by far the best that the crew had ever executed it.”

San Antonio will enter intermediate phase training, Mead said, where the ship will begin work with other platforms of its expeditionary strike group, then finish an advanced phase of training in preparation for the Navy’s newest amphibious ship’s first deployment.