The San Diego Union-Tribune January 18, 2003
SHIPPING OUT; Thousands of sailors and Marines steam off to an uncertain future on seven ships;
By James W. Crawley
Deep within the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard is a huge parking lot. Not for cars, pickups and SUVs, but for Humvees, 5-ton trucks and fuel carriers.
"Lower V" -- Marine lingo for the lower vehicle deck -- is six decks below the flight deck and one below "Upper V." Both can be reached by steep ramps connecting the ship's cargo decks.
It's hard to edge past the vehicles -- plus crates and heavy weapons -- because they are placed mere inches apart. Thick chains hold down the rolling stock and dozens of steel shipping containers loaded with aviation parts, electronic repair equipment and construction gear. For more than a week, convoys of trucks, semitrailer trucks and buses streamed down Interstate 5 from Camp Pendleton to the piers of San Diego Naval Station at 32nd Street, where the seven ships of Amphibious Task Force-West were prepped for departure yesterday for the Persian Gulf and the prospect of war with Iraq.
Loaded aboard the ships are enough supplies of ammunition, food, spare parts and other war materiel to sustain the Marines for several weeks of combat. Planning started more than three months ago, as military officials started developing a contingency for a deployment to the gulf, officers said.
The importance of logistics -- supplying fighting forces with everything from bullets to pullets -- is never underestimated by professional soldiers.
The Marines and their equipment are spread among the large, carrierlike amphibious assault ships Bonhomme Richard and Boxer, the landing transport docks Cleveland and Dubuque, and the dock landing ships Anchorage, Pearl Harbor and Comstock.
There is so much equipment aboard the Boxer that Capt. Tom Crowley, the ship's skipper, said the huge vessel is near its carrying capacity.
"The inn is full," he said.
Loading a ship for deployment is an exact science.
"You don't load (a ship) like you pack a car," said Patrick Garrett, a defense analyst with the GlobalSecurity.com think tank in Alexandria, Va.
Following computer-generated plans developed from combat experiences stretching back to World War II, sailors and Marines have directed millions of pounds of tanks, trucks, ammunition, parts, guns and aircraft onto the ships.
Care is taken to place every piece in the proper order for a speedy unloading, keeping in mind that these amphibious ships could be disgorging their cargo across a beach and into combat, Garrett added.
"Any mismanagement in the loading will create tons of difficulty when they reach the Persian Gulf," he said.
On the Bonhomme Richard's 844-foot-long flight deck, Harrier jump jets vie for space. The rest of the Marines' war materiel is stored on lower decks.
Giant storerooms hold everything from CD boomboxes for sale at the ship's store to thousands of reams of copier paper to hundreds of pints of blood for the ship's sick bay.
Elsewhere on the Bonhomme Richard are ammunition magazines, loaded with munitions ranging from cartridges for M-16 rifles to laser-guided bombs for the jump jets. Armories are filled with assault rifles, machine guns and pistols.
Tanks, light armored vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, Humvees and trucks are spread among the smaller ships.
Loading the flotilla is a much bigger task than marching Marines aboard the vessels.
Navy and Marine Corps officers informally began planning the ships' deployment about four months ago, said Navy Capt. Stan De Geus, the Bonhomme Richard's commanding officer.
Though the ships didn't get official orders until recently, the Navy earlier decided to speed up training and maintenance on the Bonhomme Richard, which returned from its last deployment in June 2002, he said. Two weeks were shaved off an overhaul and repair period. Months of training were condensed into five weeks.
However, the abbreviated sessions didn't shortchange the crew's training, he said.
Besides military hardware, the ships are stocked with the food and everyday necessities for about 10,000 people. Meat, potatoes, eggs, milk, sodas, snack food, toilet paper, office supplies, plumbing parts, computers, fuel and medicine are just a few of thousands of items vessels carry to war.
Sailors and civilians at the local Fleet Industrial Supply Center worked nonstop for 10 days to fill the task force's storerooms, said Lt. Cmdr. Aidan Talbott, a British Royal Navy exchange officer who is in charge of getting the ships supplied.
"In short order, we've more than tripled our workload," he said.
Getting everything on board isn't easy as workers jostle for space on the narrow piers. To speed loading and reduce traffic jams, Marine Corps weapons have been brought aboard mainly at night, while Navy supplies have been moved during the day. That has required long hours for crews.
"It's an all-ship evolution to get materiel on board safely and stowed properly," Talbott said.
The supply center has had to deal with several last-minute challenges, including getting enough milk and anthrax vaccine, he said.
The Navy's supplier of ultra-high-temperature pasteurized milk normally requires three weeks' notice to deliver, partly because it takes five days to test the milk before it can be consumed. But the supply office had just 11 days' notice.
To meet the deadline, the milk processor in Grand Rapids, Mich., shipped it cross country immediately. The company continued testing samples for purity, giving a final OK as the milk arrived in San Diego, Talbott said.
As for the anthrax vaccine, the Pentagon requires that most personnel going to the Persian Gulf region be inoculated against the deadly germ-warfare weapon. But stocks of the vaccine have been limited by past problems with production and certification.
"It's hard to get because everyone wants to get it," Talbott said, adding that adequate supplies were found.
As the ships completed final preparations, Talbott said, "So far, there's been no show-stoppers."
Copyright © 2003, The San Diego Union-Tribune
