Photo By Jeanette Steele | Petty Officer 1st Class Oscar Caviedes, left, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Carlos...... read more read more
How do you top up fluids in a foreign country when you are driving a 48-year-old diesel-electric submarine? Especially when you need hard-to-find items such as European oil?
That’s where Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Jacksonville enters the picture every year for the Diesel-Electric Submarine Initiative (DESI) exercises.
The 22-year-old Naval Submarine Forces program brings submarines from the navies of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru to Jacksonville and San Diego for anti-submarine warfare exercises. This year, the Colombian submarine ARC Pijao (SO 28) is visiting from October to November for a busy slate of training with U.S. Navy P-8s, helicopters and surface ships.
DESI exercises benefit both sides: American forces get to train against diesel-electric submarines, the technology used by most of the world’s navies, though not the United States. And the South American submarine crews pit their skills against state-of-the-art U.S. naval power.
This year, Pijao took part in exercises at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, a sophisticated underwater training range in the Caribbean. It was a first for everyone on the Colombian crew.
When the submarine pulls into Naval Station Mayport, the crew works with NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville’s Logistics Support Center for resupply. The visiting sailors not only need to replenish food and fuel, they also require help getting identification cards, security gate access and sometimes even medical care.
Lt. Cmdr. Bentley Hodsdon leads the Logistics Support Center at Mayport. Lt. Daniel Bernal is the Colombian naval officer assigned as liaison from Pijao. Each officer talked about what makes the interaction unique.
Q: What is NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville’s role in supporting DESI?
Hodsdon: We provide the DESI crew all the logistics services we give our homeported ships, but with a twist. I say twist because there is a bit more coordination to having a foreign submarine operate out of our basin.
In addition to pier services, we coordinate with base security, so every crew member has an official ID. We also provide office space for the country’s designated supply duty officer. This allows daily interaction and communication about part support, lodging questions, transportation requests, provisions procurements and general questions about the local area.
Q: How does this work differ from your everyday work?
Hodsdon: It’s really more hands-on. We want to ensure they not only get superb support, but they feel as comfortable as the crews of our homeported vessels. Naval Submarine Forces Atlantic dispatched a liaison officer to help on the ground, which is integral to making this happen.
Q: What’s the benefit of the international interaction for this command?
Hodsdon: On a daily basis we’re working together and overcoming logistics challenges. I believe this relationship continues to mature and it fosters cooperation and interoperability.
Q: For Colombia, what is the benefit of this training?
Bernal: This is submarine training that we can only have here. You have some anti-submarine warfare technology that our navy doesn’t have. With your ships, helicopters and aircraft, we can have that kind of war scenario that will make our crew improve their training in some procedures – like, to avoid detection and to detect, track and attack a surface ship.
Another benefit is to have interoperability procedures with another navy, so we work together in some exercises. It’s good for us to develop that kind of training, to be in international operations. With submarines, we don’t do a lot of multinational exercises. It’s very unique.
Q: How unique is it to resupply and refuel in a foreign country?
Bernal: You have a different standard, not metric. So we have a lot of work trying to locate spare parts that we may need at sea. And the oil and the fuel, we have to search for some equivalents that we use normally in Colombia. I think every year we have new things. This year, we have to look for a special oil that we had to bring from London because it’s a European oil and you don’t use it here normally.
And we have to change some of our normal menu. Because we have a lot of different dishes than you have here. But we are allowed to approve some new menus for the crew.
Q: What new menu items?
Bernal: New York steak. In Colombia, we have more fish and chicken. And, in Colombia we can find more fruits. Here the fruits are more expensive, and we can’t find all the fruits we have in Colombia. For example, passion fruit. In Colombia, it’s easy to find passion fruit.
Q: What do you think Pijao’s crew will remember from this visit?
Bernal: We have a very strong partnership with the U.S. Navy, and every time we come here they treat us like Navy members, with camaraderie. In exercises normally we are in opposing teams, but on shore we are on the same team. Every year we make something new in the training.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.14.2023 15:51 |
| Story ID: | 457824 |
| Location: | JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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