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Joint Exercise Enhances Relationship Between Military and State by Protecting Environment

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS140409-25
Release Date: 4/9/2014 9:43:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Diana Quinlan,

Navy Public Affairs Support Element West, Detachment Hawaii

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The Navy Supervisor of Salvage, Naval Sea Systems Command (SUPSALV), along with Clean Island Council and Metson Marine (Port Operations) conducted an equipment deployment exercise April 8 off the shores of Ford Island, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH).

The designed objective of the exercise was to test the equipment and communications as well as to conduct a simulated oil spill recovery effort near shore.

'The environment is a big concern for the military and the State of Hawaii,' said Chief Warrant Officer Three (CWO3) Timothy Greene, port operations. 'It is great to be able to work with civilian partnership and to help protect and maintain the environment.'

Representatives from the Clean Island Council, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard oversaw and participated in the exercise.

'For the training today, we did a joint oil spill recovery exercise to better the relationship with the state and the base, to tie in to future joint operations if ever needed,' said Greene. 'The training involved different methods of recovering the spill and moving it to the main vessel for treatment.'

The oil spill recovery vessel (OSRV) Clean Islands participated in the exercise as the main vessel. Training was monitored from aboard Clean Islands as well as conducting operations utilizing a skimmer system with a three-vessel configuration and several SUPSALV towboats guiding and containing the simulated spills with floating barriers.

The simulated oil spills were visually created by using yellow blocks of wood that were distributed in the water.

'We had two different types of skimmers,' said Cynthia Pang, on-scene coordinator for Navy Region Hawaii. 'One was a SUPSALV Mark Five skimmer. They took the oil and brought it to the skimmer and the other boats captured the oil near the shore as the skimmers are unable to go near because of the depth, relying on the boats to bring it to them.'

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Shannon N. Gilreath, Commander of Sector Honolulu, oversaw the training in addition to touring the SUPSALV mobile facilities and learning more about the wide range of equipment used. He emphasized the importance of effective communications between military branches and the civilian sector.

'One of the challenges when you are dealing with oil spills is to get different groups together to do a cleanup,' said Gilreath. 'Communication is usually the biggest challenge, figuring out how to work together. So this was an opportunity to practice and demonstrate that it can be done and it is a great team-building exercise for us for the future.'

Pang reiterated the subject of communication between everyone involved and the importance of protecting the eco system surrounding the islands of Hawaii.

'The collaboration was really the key because without it, there would be chaos,' said Pang. 'Teams have to know who is in charge, who provides the orders and direction for these teams. It is crucial to do the work in sync with each other.'

'It is very important that we are environmentally conscious,' said Pang. 'We have a lot of environmentally sensitive areas here in Pearl Harbor and we want to make sure that we keep those areas clean and pristine and to avoid damage to wild life refuge.'