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USS Gunston Hall Departs for Amphibious - Southern Partnership Station 2011

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110117-02
1/17/2011

From Southern Partnership Station Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) departed Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Va., Jan. 12 for a two-month deployment to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR) to support Amphibious-Southern Partnership Station (A-SPS) 2011.

The ship will embark a U.S. Marine Corps Theater Security Cooperation Task Force (TSCTF) that will engage in subject matter expert exchanges with partner nations during SPS 11.

SPS is an annual deployment of various specialty platforms to the USSOUTHCOM AOR in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission's primary goal is information sharing with navies, coast guards and civilian services throughout the region.

Sailors and the TSCTF embarked on board Gunston Hall will conduct subject matter expert exchanges with partner nations in the region. During the deployment, Gunston Hall will visit Belize, Columbia, Guatemala and Jamaica.

Basic skill subject matter expert exchanges allow for joint operations between partner nations, including live fire exercises, search and rescue, martial arts, land navigation and combat marksmanship, in order to develop regional, civil and maritime services' capabilities to respond to a variety of maritime missions while exercising vital lines of communication between regional security services.

"A-SPS 11 and operations like it serve as an opportunity to strengthen cooperative maritime partnerships," said Capt. Brian Nickerson, Commodore for the A-SPS 11 mission. "Through multinational subject matter expert exchanges such as this one, participating countries are able to improve capability within specific mission areas as well as interoperability with partner nations."

Gunston Hall is also prepared to provide first-responder capabilities in the event of any disaster relief response while deployed to the region.

In addition, Gunston Hall will be transporting 89 Project Handclasp pallets, as well as gifts donated by various non-governmental organizations including Loving Hugs, Inc., Give a Kid a Backpack and Samaritan's Feet.

"These deployments are also a means of sharing charitable donations received through organizations such as Project Handclasp, Samaritan's Feet, Loving Hugs and Give a Kid a Backpack with our neighbors in the region," said Nickerson.

Project Handclasp is a U.S. Navy program that accepts and transports educational, humanitarian and goodwill material on a space-available basis aboard U.S. Navy ships for distribution to foreign nations.

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO) is the naval component command for USSOUTHCOM and is responsible for all naval personnel and assets in the AOR. COMUSNAVSO conducts a variety of missions in support of the U.S. Maritime Strategy, including theater security cooperation, relationship building, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, community relations and counter-illicit trafficking operations.