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Patriot Recipient of Excellence Awards

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070317-04
Release Date: 3/17/2007 11:37:00 AM

By Chief Electrician’s Mate (SW) Noel B. Corneja, USS Patriot Public Affairs

SASEBO, Japan (NNS) -- Mine countermeasures ship USS Patriot (MCM 7) earned the Battle Effectiveness Award and officially painted on the “E’s” ceremoniously March 9.

The Battle E, awarded by Naval Surface Forces, is earned by a ship’s sustained superior performance in five areas: maritime warfare; engineering and survivability; command, control, communications, and information warfare; logistics management and type commander’s safety award.

The hard work and yearlong preparations paid off, according to members of Patriot’s crew.

“This crew highly deserves this award,” said Patriot Commanding Officer Lt. Cmdr. Thomas E. Schulz, who took command of Patriot on Jan. 13. “Though I have not been here long, this crew has greatly impressed me for its resilience and attention to detail.”

The numerous unit awards not only made the port and starboard bridge wing colorful, they did a lot to boost the pride of the crew.

“I am prouder of my shipmates, knowing that everyone is a piece of those awards and those pieces came as one and formed as one large part making a battle ready efficient ship,” said Mineman 2nd Class (SW) John R. Golden, who acted as an assistant to the manlift crane operator used to paint the Battle Efficiency awards forward-outboard of the bridge.

The black letter-E is the Maritime Warfare Excellence; the green-E is Command and Control Communication and Information Warfare; blue-E, Logistic Management Efficiency; yellow-E, Command Surface Ship Safety; and the newest in the line of awards is the purple-E for Efficiency Excellence. Green-H also is one of the awards from the Force Commander Annual Health Promotion Award, and the highlight is the Battle-E.

“It tells the fleet what we are really made of -- battle efficient crew, ready for almost anything. Not to mention that we passed the Final Evaluation Problem (FEP) by the Afloat Training Group of Western Pacific (ATGWP), and here we are ready for deployment as needed,” said Electrician's Mate 1st Class Mario J. Ramirez, the leading petty officer of Engineering Department.

Others felt the same way. “This award is well deserved. We worked hard to get it and honestly we earned it,” said Chief Engineman (SW) Victor M. Montes, Patriot’s main propulsion assistant (MPA).

Patriot is a mine countermeasures ship operating out of Sasebo, Japan, and serving under the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 7/Task Force 76, which is based out of Okinawa with an operating detachment in Sassebo.