• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

SOUTHCOM Commander Visits NAVSO, USS Mitscher

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070802-08
Release Date: 8/2/2007 12:32:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Holly Boynton, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command

MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) visited his Navy component, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57) July 30.

Adm. James G. Stavridis met with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO) Rear Adm. James W. Stevenson Jr. at NAVSO headquarters to discuss this summer’s Navy deployments in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. While in Mayport, Stavridis also met with Mitscher’s Commanding Officer Cmdr. William McKinley and the ship’s crew to express his appreciation for their work in this year’s Partnership of the Americas (POA) 2007 deployment.

“You’re doing a superb job,” said Stavridis of Mitscher’s role in POA. “The work you do for us is incredibly important, to the Navy and especially to the United States.”

POA 2007 is a NAVSO deployment focused on enhancing relations with partner nations through a variety of exercises and events at sea and on shore throughout South America and the Caribbean. POA Task Group 40.0 consists of dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52), guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58), Mitscher and the staff of Destroyer Squadron 40, commanded by Capt. Randy Snyder.

Earlier in the deployment, the POA Task Group included Chilean Frigate CS Latorre (FFG 41); Latorre participated in the initial phase of the deployment including UNITAS Atlantic off the coast of Argentina, Team Work South off the coast of Chile, and UNITAS Pacific off the western coast of South America.

“We are fully engaged in this region, though in a different way than in Iraq and the Middle East,” stated Stavridis. “It’s a battle of ideas. We’re launching ideas instead of Tomahawk missiles. We’re launching ideas like USNS Comfort, which has logged over 50,000 patient contacts during its first month of deployment; ideas like Mitscher and the entire POA deployment, to interact with foreign navies and with the people of this area.”

After his visit to Mitscher, Stavridis attended a meeting of the Meninak Club in downtown Jacksonville as the guest speaker. Stavridis expressed the importance and goals of SOUTHCOM, including the continued efforts to counter the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States, to his audience of area business and community leaders.

Mitscher, homeported in Norfolk, is currently deployed for POA 2007 under operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, and tactical control of Commander Destroyer Squadron 40. Mitscher is conducting Counter drug and Theater Security Cooperation missions in the Caribbean, Central and South America.