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USS Mount Whitney supplies Persian Gulf-bound ships

USMC News

Story Identification Number: 2003329115739
Story by USS Mount Whitney and CJTF-HOA Public Affairs

USS MOUNT WHITNEY (LCC/JCC 20)(March 29, 2003) -- Sailors from USS Mount Whitney and pilots and crews from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron- 6 conducted two separate vertical replenishments at sea (RAS) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom March 27 and 28 in the Gulf of Aden.

The Mount Whitney and HC-6 currently support Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), whose mission is to detect, disrupt and defeat terrorism in the Horn of Africa region. Though the CJTF-HOA mission is not directly linked to actions in Iraq, the proximity of USS Mount Whitney to ships carrying U.S. military security forces and equipment to Operation Iraqi Freedom made the ship a perfect choice.

The recipients of supplies from USS Mount Whitney were the vessel Warnow Trader, a container ship chartered from a German company, and MV Cape Vincent (T-AKR 9666), assigned to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) Ready Reserve Force (RRF), which activates designated ships in times of need, such as war.

Both ships are transporting soldiers and military equipment for the U.S. Army's 16,500-member 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas. In recent days the ships were redirected from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf as soldiers began boarding chartered jets in Texas headed to Kuwait, not Turkey as originally anticipated.

Both replenishments provided unique challenges to the Mount Whitney and HC-6 crews. One RAS was a daylight mission; the other was accomplished at night with pilots using night vision goggles (NVG), marking the first night RAS for HC-6 aircrews since arriving in the Gulf of Aden in December 2002.

Altogether, USS Mount Whitney and HC-6 sailors delivered nearly one and a half tons of food supplies to the Warnow Trader and Cape Vincent, as they steamed non-stop through the Gulf of Aden.

According to Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Kropp, HC-6's lead pilot, the Warnow Trader's decks were completely covered with large containers, stacked four deep, leaving the helicopters with no place to land and no space to place supplies.

To accomplish the daytime RAS mission, H-46D Sea Knight helicopters hovered over the moving ship while lowering air crewman onto the top of the containers via winch. Supplies were then ferried from USS Mount Whitney in mailbags and lowered to the waiting HC-6 crewman, who in turn lowered the supplies to the ship's main deck.

"It was physically taxing for the air crewmen," Kropp said. "Each bag weighed 70 to 80 pounds. They were exhausted by the time it was over."

The night RAS with the Cape Vincent required all HC-6 air crewmen to wear NVGs, which use existing light sources to illuminate people and objects in the dark. Although skies were clear, the mission was complicated by the fact that very little natural moonlight was available.

The limiting factors of the goggles, according to Kropp, are a lack of depth perception and a relatively narrow field of view, which is much like looking through a tube. However, he noted that the benefits of the goggles greatly outweigh limitations.

Cape Vincent personnel cleared space on their deck for the 1:00 a.m. rendezvous, enabling HC-6 pilots to transfer pallets of supplies directly onto the moving ship.

David Byrnes, master of the Cape Vincent, sent an e-mail message saying he was impressed with the hard work and ingenuity of Mount Whitney and HC-6 sailors, noting that, "the crew and soldiers aboard Cape Vincent are very grateful for your efforts."

USS Mount Whitney has participated in 19 previous replenishments since deploying from its homeport in Norfolk, Va. on Nov. 12 to the Horn of Africa region, mainly taking on supplies.

In addition to the RRF ships, U.S. Navy ships have also received supplies from German, Spanish, Italian and French coalition ships from Combined Task Force -150 (CTF-150) operating in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The Mount Whitney has a crew of more than 600 sailors and is also home to the CJTF-HOA headquarters, which has nearly 400 members representing all U.S. armed services, civilian personnel and Coalition forces.

The CJTF headquarters was formed to oversee counter-terrorism operations for U.S. Central Command in the Horn of Africa region, defining the area as the airspace, land areas and coastal waters of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen.