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USS Nashville Visits Crete During Phoenix Express 08

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080415-11
Release Date: 4/15/2008 1:36:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Charles L. Ludwig, Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group Public Affairs

SOUDA BAY, Crete (NNS) -- Sailors aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS Nashville (LPD 13) visited the port of Souda Bay, and the nearby city of Chania, April 8-14, as part of Phoenix Express 2008 (PE 08).

This year, 12 countries are participating in PE 08, including the United States, Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Malta, France, Italy, and Turkey. Together, the countries took the week in Souda Bay to focus efforts on maritime interdiction operations, ship visit and boarding techniques, and medical and shipboard training.

As part of Nashville's role in the exercise, Sailors aboard welcomed members of the various navies to take part in seamanship training and senior enlisted leadership discussions. The ship also served as a training platform for the U.S. visit, board, search and seizure teams (VBSS) that will be participating. International visits centered on tours of the ship.

Visiting sailors got an idea of what working on an American ship would be like.

"We wanted to show them a little bit of what we use on Nashville on a day-to-day basis," said Boatswain's Mate 1st Class (SW) Justin House, who helped conduct one of the tours. "Getting to show off our ship and the way we do things is always a good thing."

Nashville Sailors took pleasure in six days of liberty in the Chania area, but also took the time to help the local community and Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Crete through a pair of community relations projects in tandem with other ships from the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group.

On April 8-9, Lt. Edward D. Bass, Nashville's chaplain, led 28 Sailors from the amphibious transport dock in projects at the Chania Senior Citizens Home and the NSA Souda Bay Base Chapel, assisting in cleaning up the facility, as well as handing out clothing, food and other supplies.

"These projects are important because it gives the Sailors an outlet to do something very positive for others, on their own time. The fellowship and camaraderie experienced is very special when you know the vital effort is helping others and the work wouldn't have gotten done without us," said Bass.

The Chania Senior Citizens Home is an assisted living facility for 125 elderly people run by the city. Volunteers painted, worked on landscaping, and visited with the residents.

The base chapel, which currently serves as a site for emergency supplies, required a different set of skills. According to Bass, that project was intended to make the chapel more assessable for worship services.

"We completely emptied out a large building of boxes, furniture and shelving and moved it into several other buildings, then we moved the contents of the old chapel space into the emptied out building and cleaned it all up. The chapel will now have suitable space for Sunday school classes, counseling offices, and work spaces," he said.

After leaving Souda Bay, Nashville will continue its participation in PE 08 with the rest of the strike group during the exercise's underway portion. Nashville will serve as a boarding platform to combined forces' MIO and VBSS teams to hone their ship boarding skills.

For more news from Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group, visit www.navy.mil/local/esg8/.