Photo By Spc. Cal Turner | Transportation Soldiers participating in the Seaport Operations Company 13-2 training...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. – As the multi-faceted Seaport Operations Company 13-2 training exercise continues, the importance of safety and the role of command and control on the port falls in the hands one group: the Harbormasters.
The Harbormasters’ duties are dual level; the civilian Harbormaster handles the main port operations while the Soldiers of the 338th Harbor Master Operations Detachment located here at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., handle the command and control of the vessels on-site for the exercise.
“There’s no Coast Guard in this area, so we are responsible for responding to marine accidents as the initial responders to events like fuel spills,” said Jay DeHart, an installation harbormaster with the 733rd Mission Services Division.
In addition, Dehart said, they handle the command and control for all DoD assets in the port, providing a 24-hour duty boat for quick response in case of an emergency on the river in this area. DeHart, a retired warrant officer, is quite familiar with the units that operate here.
“Having sailed all these boats, I know a lot of these guys,” he said. “I even deployed with some of them. This is a very small community. This job was the perfect fit for me.”
While the civilian harbormaster tracks all the vessel traffic in the port, the Army harbormasters working on the exercise stay in contact with the harbor tower and act as command and control for the units taking part in the exercise.
“Our mission is to ensure the general safety overall and provide command and control of Army vessels while coordinating cargo movement,” said Sgt. 1st Class William Shaw, harbormaster with the 338th HMOD. “We monitor all the activity on the water and in port. Basically we are the Army equivalent of the [civilian] harbormaster, but we’re also mobile.”
Using various civilian radios and tactical military systems, the 338th HMOD tracks vessels on the water and even incoming weather formations to provide vessels on the water and nearby personnel an early warning of incoming storms.
“Everything has been according to plan,” Shaw said. “The SPOC units are right on time. Communication and support have been excellent. And our main priority is the welfare of the Soldiers obviously; they all have food and a place to stay.”
Having been absent for a few years, the railroad operations are a welcomed additional asset.
“The train has been busy this year,” Shaw said. “It’s like a five-man unit, and I heard they had to drag a tree off the tracks.”
Several enlisted Soldiers support the harbormaster handling communications and logbook entries with vessels moving around the area of operations.
“We track all the vessels. Their locations at all times, the whereabouts of their cargo, we make sure everyone and everything is where it needs to be,” said Spc. Dadryan Felton, a watercraft operator with the 338th HMOD. “We make sure vessels are loading and unloading the right cargo and keep track of fuel and water for the soldiers and even rations if they need them.”
Spc. Sasha Autry, another watercraft operator with the 338th HOMD, estimated she fields more than 50 radio calls a day from vessels on the water during the exercise.
“Mostly they are calling for instructions about where to go,” she said. “A lot of times it depends on how many vessels you’re working with. I like it; it’s a very close-knit unit where we are constantly learning something new.”
The daily port operations continue throughout the exercise. This week, the harbormasters are working with the Navy as they also support NASA in moving a landing capsule down to Newport News, Va., while the SPOC 13-2 mission winds down. Transportation units will return here in December for another SPOC training mission.
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2013 12:20 |
| Story ID: | 111500 |
| Location: | VA, US |
| Web Views: | 203 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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