THE SEA SERVICES

Prowler Numbers Reduced to Repair Structures

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

The number of EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft available to the Navy and Marine Corps is being temporarily reduced by approximately 40 percent in order to make structural repairs and replacements on wings plagued by structural fatigue.

The Navy announced in November that 24 flyable EA-6Bs would be removed from service for repairs over a period of months, following an earlier grounding on Sept. 23 of 19 other EA-6Bs for similar but more advanced structural fatigue in center and outer wing panels.

The Navy's aircraft inventory includes 119 EA-6Bs, of which 95 are normally considered operational and the remainder are going through modification, upgrade, or repair. The inventory reduction will leave the Navy and Marine Corps with 71 Prowlers for the near future. The Navy expects to return to pre-Iraqi Freedom availability numbers in approximately two years.

The temporary inventory reductions are expected to severely strain the Prowler squadrons. The 10 active carrier-based squadrons, which normally operate a total of 40 aircraft, will have to operate with only 30. The four expeditionary squadrons will be sharing nine aircraft instead of 16 but will find some relief with the planned deactivation of one squadron in 2004. The four Marine Corps expeditionary squadrons will share 15 instead of 20. The EA-6B fleet readiness squadron will operate 13 aircraft, and four aircraft will be assigned (two each) to the single reserve squadron and for flight testing.

The end of Operations Northern Watch and Southern Watch over Iraq has greatly reduced the deployment tempo of the EA-6B force, particularly of the Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary squadrons.

Sustainability of the Navy's Prowler fleet has become a priority issue for the Department of Defense in recent years because of the age of the aircraft--built between 1970 and 1991--and the heavy usage in recent operations, including Operations Northern and Southern Watch, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. Congress has authorized a total of $115 million in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget and the Iraqi Freedom supplemental appropriation to effect the repairs to the Prowler fleet.

The Navy plans to replace the EA-6B with the EA-18G version of the Super Hornet beginning in 2009.

Bath-Built Destroyer Chaffee Commissioned in Newport

The Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG)--built by Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics company--has been commissioned as a unit of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The USS Chafee (DDG 90), a Flight IIA version of the class, is named for John Hubbard Chafee, a former Marine who served in World War II and the Korean War and later served as a U.S. congressman, three-term governor of Rhode Island, secretary of the Navy, and U.S. senator (R-R.I.).

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee was the keynote speaker at the Oct.18, 2003, commissioning ceremonies in Newport, R.I. The ship's co-sponsors, Virginia Chafee, widow of the ship's namesake, and Diane Blair, wife of retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, former commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Command, gave the order to "man our ship and bring her to life."

The 9,100-ton Chafee is the 40th Arleigh Burke-class DDG built of the 62 ordered by the Navy. Cdr. John W. Ailes is the first commanding officer of the Chafee and her crew of approximately 30 officers and 355 enlisted personnel. The 511-foot-long ship is homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Prepositioning Ship Named For Marine Vietnam Hero

A prepositioning ship has been named for a Marine Corps lance corporal who was awarded the Medal of Honor for giving his life to save his fellow Marines in Vietnam. The USNS Lance Cpl. Roy W. Wheat has been christened in ceremonies at the Blount Island Facility in Jacksonville. Fla.

The new cargo ship was christened by her sponsor, Margaret Taylor, wife of Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.). Lt. Gen. Martin R. Berndt, commander of Marine Corps Forces Atlantic, was the keynote speaker at the Oct. 7, 2003 christening ceremonies, which also included Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, commander of the Military Sealift Command.

Lance Cpl. Wheat, a native of Moselle, Miss. accidentally set off a concealed land mine while on patrol in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam on Aug 11, 1967. He warned his fellow Marines and hurled himself on the mine, absorbing the explosion with his body and losing his own life, while saving the lives of two other Marines. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

The USNS Lance Cpl. Roy W. Wheat was modified from a Ukrainian-built former Soviet auxiliary ship that was purchased by the Navy in 1997. In its new configuration, the 864-foot-long ship is able to carry approximately 200,000 square feet of roll-on/roll-off cargo and containers reserved for Marine Corps use in operations overseas. The ship--50,059 long-tons fully loaded--will be operated for the Military Sealift Command by a crew of 31 civilian mariners and will be assigned to Maritime Prepositioning Squadron One in the Mediterranean. n

War Operations Update

U.S. Marines assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) patrol the streets of Al Faw, Iraq, as units of Expeditionary Strike Group One distribute water to Iraqi citizens on Oct. 16, 2003. The 13th MEU--the first Marine Corps combat unit to deploy to Iraq since the I Marine Expeditionary Force was pulled out of Iraq in September 2003--distributed more than 3,000 gallons of water and also provided food, medical, and dental care to the local population. The deployment is the first by an expeditionary strike group (ESG), which is a new operational organization designed to replace amphibious ready groups. The ESG includes the amphibious warfare ships that once formed an ARG, enhanced by the addition of a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine, and land-based P-3C Orion patrol aircraft.

The Department of Defense is planning to send approximately 20,000 Marines--primarily two brigades from the I Marine Expeditionary Force--to Iraq in March 2004 as part of a rotation plan to relieve some U.S. Army forces deployed to Iraq for security and civic affairs duty.

In other developments, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group--including Carrier Air Wing 11--returned to homeport on Nov. 5, 2003. Of the six aircraft carriers that participated in strikes on Iraq during operation Iraqi Freedom, Nimitz was the last to return. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and its strike group--including Carrier Air Wing One--have deployed to the Persian Gulf region.

Marine Attack Squadron 513's detachment to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has returned to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., after a year-long deployment. The detachment's AV-8B Harrier II aircraft flew combat sorties against Taliban and al Qaeda forces inside Afghanistan. A detachment of a Marine Corps reserve aviation unit--Helicopter Light Attack Squadron 773, based in Atlanta, Ga. and New Orleans, La.--has deployed to Afghanistan.

As of Nov. 12, 2003, the number of sea-service reservists activated for Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and Liberty Guard included 1,892 Navy, 10,915 Marine Corps, and 1,188 Coast Guard Reservists.