USS SHOUP COMMISSIONED IN SEATTLE

The Pacific Fleet's newest destroyer has mustered in for service at her homeport of Naval Station Everett, Wash.

The Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup (DDG 86) was brought to life in Seattle, Wash., with orders from one of the ship's two sponsors, Claudia Natter, wife of Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and from Lt. Col. Catherine Chase, matron of honor and granddaughter of the ship's other sponsor, Zola Shoup, whom Chase represented at the ceremonies.

The 509.5-foot Shoup is named for the 22nd Marine Corps commandant, Gen. David M. Shoup (1904-1983), who was awarded the Medal of Honor (MOH) for heroic actions during the November 1943 amphibious landing on Betio, an island in the Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Shoup, commander of the Second Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division, led his Marines into withering enemy fire despite suffering an extremely serious leg wound that had become infected. Shoup's "brilliant leadership, daring tactics, and selfless devotion to duty," the MOH citation reads, "... were largely responsible for the final decisive defeat of the enemy."

Shoup was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959. Shoup later became known as President John F. Kennedy's "favorite general."

The current commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James L. Jones Jr., was the principal speaker at the 22 June ceremonies. Also in attendance were Rep. Rick Larsen (R-Wash.); Admiral Natter; Rear Adm. Roland B. Knapp, the Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers; Rear Adm. Vinson E. Smith, commander, Naval Surface Group, Pacific Northwest and commander, Navy Region Northwest; Capt. David G. Yoshihara, commander, Destroyer Squadron Nine; Capt. Philip N. Johnson, supervisor of shipbuilding, conversion, and repair in Pascagoula, Miss.; and Philip A. Dur, corporate vice president for Northrop Grumman and president of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.

"This great ship builds on General Shoup's legacy and will soon be the embodiment of the power of our naval teamwork," said Jones. "Throughout The world, she will sail with confidence in defense of our freedoms, representing our 21st-century answer to those who would threaten the promise of democracy and our freedom--still mankind's best hope for the future."

"One of the major lessons from the Battle of Tarawa was the need for naval gunfire of greater duration and greater accuracy," said Dur. "USS Shoup will bring more accurate and longer gunfire support to the fleet."

The 9,300-ton Shoup is the 36th Arleigh Burke-class DDG to be commissioned and the 16th built by Northrop Grumman. The Shoup--which will replace the Spruance-class destroyer USS David R. Ray in Everett--also will serve as a test platform for the RIM-162 ESSM (Evolved SeaSparrow Missile) System. The new DDG is commanded by Cdr. E. Bernard Carter.

Sea Service Notes

The Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif., has taken on the task of extending the service lives of the Navy's 36 C-2A Greyhound carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft. The C-2As, which are no longer in production but have no replacement on the horizon, are being processed through a Structural Life Enhancement Program (SLEP) to increase their design life to 15,000 flight hours and 36,000 landings from the present 10,000 flight hours and 15,000 landings. During the SLEP the aircraft will be rewired and fitted with new eight-bladed NP2000 propellers; their center wing sections also will be strengthened. The NADEP expects to complete the first C-2A SLEP later this year as a program validation aircraft, followed by another as a verification aircraft. Production is expected to increase to two aircraft in 2003, to four in 2004, and to six in each subsequent year until all 36 C-2As have been upgraded.

The Navy's only mine counter- measures support ship--the USS Inchon, last of the Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships--has been decommissioned. The Navy is studying a number of options--including catamaran high-speed vessels--to replace the 600-foot Inchon, a Naval Reserve Force ship that had been based at Naval Station Ingleside near Corpus Christi, Texas, until her 20 June 2002 decommissioning ceremonies. The Inchon, originally commissioned on 20 June 1970, is slated to be sunk as a target after it is towed to Philadelphia, Pa., and stripped of reusable equipment.

The Supply-class fast combat support ship USS Arctic has been transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC). The 754-foot-long replenishment ship--now the USNS Arctic--is the second ship of her class to be assigned to MSC, which will assume control of the third and fourth Supply-class ships over the next two years. Until her decommissioning on 14 June 2002, the Arctic was operated by a Navy crew of 744 Sailors. Under MSC control, the ship will be operated by 176 civilian mariners, augmented by 28 Sailors for communications and supply coordination, and 31 Sailors assigned to the ship's vertical-replenishment helicopter detachment. MSC has awarded a $5.7 million contract to Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydocking Corporation to convert the ship for the MSC; included in the conversion will be a number of habitability modifications.

Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has announced grants totaling $92.3 million to 51 seaports in the United States to enhance the security of the maritime transportation system.

Four more ex-Navy ships have entered Davey Jones' locker after serving as targets for live weapons launched during training exercises. During Exercise RimPac 2002 off Hawaii, the Mars-class combat stores ship ex-White Plains succumbed to two direct hits by Harpoon missiles launched by the Republic of Korea Navy submarine Nadaeyong and destroyer Wonju. The Knox-class frigate ex-Harold E. Holt was struck by Standard SM-1 and SeaSparrow missiles before being sent to the bottom by 5-inch projectiles from the Spruance-class destroyer USS Paul F. Foster. The Knox-class frigate ex-Rathburne also was sunk by naval gunfire and Harpoon missiles launched by Australian and Japanese P-3C maritime patrol aircraft. In a separate exercise off Southern California, the Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship ex-Okinawa was sent to the bottom in June by a torpedo launched from the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Portsmouth.

The hospital ship USNS Comfort has been activated for six weeks for a multinational exercise in the Baltic Sea. The 894-foot ship--manned by a crew of 61 civil-service mariners and approximately 600 Navy medical personnel--left her layberth in Baltimore, Md., on 28 June to participate in Rescuer/Medical Exercise Central Europe in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Also participating in the exercise were personnel from those nations as well as from Poland, Germany, and Sweden.

Agents of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have made two significant seizures of contraband in recent weeks. NOAA agents in Boston, Mass., seized more than 33 tons of illegally imported Chilean sea bass--valued at more than $275,000--that had been harvested from Antarctic waters. Other NOAA agents--in Port Elizabeth, N.J.--seized an illegal shipment from Namibia of more than 5,000 Cape Fur sealskins valued at more than $50,000. *

Operation Enduring Freedom Update

AV-8B Harrier IIs assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (Reinforced)--the air combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on board ships of the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)--conducted their first missions over Afghanistan on 5 July 2002, and took with them the Litening II pod targeting system on its first combat mission. The Harriers launched from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, which relieved her sister ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard, in the Arabian Sea. The 22nd MEU earlier had spent more than two months conducting training exercises, operations, and humanitarian projects in Djibouti. The Bonhomme Richard ARG and the 13th MEU (including HMM-165) returned to San Diego, Calif., on 15 June, the day before the USS Belleau Wood ARG--with the 11th MEU embarked--departed San Diego for the Arabian Sea.

The USS George Washington Battle Group departed Norfolk, Va., on 20 June 2002 for the Arabian Sea. The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington--with Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) embarked--relieved the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and CVW-7 in mid-July as the carrier designated to provide air cover for U.S. forces inside Afghanistan. Fighter Squadron 11 (VF-11)--the F-14 squadron embarked on the John F. Kennedy--delivered the first Joint Direct Attack Munition dropped from an F-14 in combat. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark has said that Navy and Marine Corps aircraft have dropped more than 5,000 precision-guided munitions in OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) missions over Afghanistan while flying more than 12,000 combat sorties.

Another unit of the 22nd MEU, a platoon of Marines, was dispatched to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, to provide security for the consulate, which was the target of a terrorist attack on 14 June.

Patrol Squadron Four (VP-4) has returned to its home base at Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The "Skinny Dragons" relieved VP-9 in flying more than 9,000 hours on 1,400 surveillance missions over Afghanistan, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf in support of OEF missions--including Operation Anaconda--as well as Operation Southern Watch over Iraq. VP-1 has relieved VP-4 in the Persian Gulf region.
Port Security Unit 305 has returned home to Newport News, Va., following five months of harbor patrols at the U.S. naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Some sea-service units deployed to the Philippines in support of a Filipino antiterrorist campaign have begun redeployment to their home bases--or, in some instances, other sites overseas. The 4th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion has returned to Port Hueneme, Calif., after refurbishing a WWII-vintage airstrip and building bridges on the island of Basilan.

U.S. Marines defending a Seabee construction team fired in self-defense in mid-June after an attack by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas and suffered no casualties. Operations of the Philippine armed forces resulted in the killing of the leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, Abu Sabaya, who was killed in a clash on Basilan on 21 June. His boat had been tracked by a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and SEAL boats, and was then intercepted by Filipino troops, according to Philippine government officials.

Sea-service reservists mobilized for active duty as of 10 July included 7,784 Navy, 3,865 Marine Corps, and 1,342 Coast Guard reservists. *