Photo By LaShawn Sykes | Military Sealift Command’s tenth Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport vessel...... read more read more
Military Sealift Command’s tenth Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport vessel USNS Burlington (T-EPF 10) returned home to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek – Fort Story, Va., Oct. 15, after a three and a half month deployment in U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, U.S. Fourth Fleet’s area of operations, which includes the waters adjacent to Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea.
Destroyer Squadron 40 embarked U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Adam Huber who served as the officer in charge for the embarked military detachment, while Burlington’s ship master, Capt. Tyler Driscoll, maintained responsibility for the operation and safety of the vessel and discipline of the crew.
Huber said he was amazed by the professionalism of the Burlington crew. “We met and deployed on the same day. I integrated with ship’s core civil service mariners and began conducting operations at the pace and level of a warship. When you look at the missions we encountered and executed, you'd be surprised to learn that Burlington is an auxiliary vessel. Her CIVMARS safely took her beyond its original design, setting the gold standard for future EPF deployments.”
Steaming 14,253 nautical miles for 105 days with 26 CIVMARS, four contractors, and 64 U.S. Navy Sailors, Burlington’s primary mission was to serve as an afloat staging base platform for active duty Sailors and their equipment and materials to Freedom-class littoral combat ships’ (LCSs) USS Billings and USS Sioux City. The Burlington crew assisted in the successful completion of 1,231 maintenance checks across four expeditionary LCS Preventative Maintenance Availabilities (PMAVs), Driscoll said. “Keeping Billings and Sioux City deployed and on station, allowed both ships to continue counter illicit drug operations and bolster strategic partnerships in the region.”
EPFs are a great complement for LCSs; because like EPFs, LCSs are designed for high speed intra-theater operations, “making EPFs a force multiplier for LCS’s at sea,” Capt. Daniel Broadhurst said; he is the commodore for Military Sealift Command – Atlantic in Norfolk, Va.
Additionally, Burlington supported five counter-narcotics operations with Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-South (JIATF-S), assisting in the seizure of $33 million worth of suspected drugs. "Because the Navy’s anti-drug mission remains critical, now more than ever before, each crew member can return home knowing that they made a difference in the fight against drug trafficking and crime in the Americas," Broadhurst said.
The Burlington crew also developed a successful partnership with foreign Special Operations Forces (SOF), conducting integrated Navy Seal training for both the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. “In one single instance, that partnership fostered a relationship that extended itself to real world,” Driscoll said.
Equally impressive, Broadhurst said, was the crucial, lifesaving support provided to Joint Task Force – Haiti’s relief effort in the aftermath of the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti Aug. 14, causing widespread destruction to buildings, to include churches and hotels, killing at least 2,200 people and injuring more than 12,200, and leaving more than 650,000 people in need of dire assistance. Besides being the first naval asset on the scene in the Gulf of Gonave to provide command and control of the area, Burlington successfully contributed to the relief effort, by supporting 671 humanitarian missions, which directly assisted 477 Haitians, and delivering 587,950 pounds of critical supplies.
In the end, this deployment was a huge success for a multitude of reasons, Driscoll said. First, let’s talk about the entire crew who “worked and performed exceptionally well together. From the start of the deployment, everyone quickly became a family, completing each mission at the highest standard.” Second, answering the call to support the JTF - Haiti relief effort was a profound moment in our lives, he said. “In the words of one Navy Sailor, “We are all volunteers called to duty, and the fact that we got to answer that call in the pursuit of a noble cause is a career's worth of justification to wear the uniform.”
Huber echoed Driscoll’s sentiment. “The fact that we executed counter narcotics and operated with foreign partners, strengthening international relationships, and played an instrumental role in the Haiti relief effort, making a difference in the lives of people in need, was the icing on the cake. We exceeded expectations, and I couldn’t be prouder of the entire crew.”
Burlington is a 338-foot-long aluminum catamaran designed to be fast, flexible and maneuverable, even in austere ports, making it ideal for rapidly transporting troops and equipment within a theater of operations. The 20,000-square-foot mission bay area can be reconfigured to quickly adapt to whatever mission the ship is tasked with anything from carrying containerized portable hospitals to support disaster relief to transporting tanks and troops.
Burlington is one of 14 EFP vessels planned for the Navy. It’s a government vessel owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Military Sealift Command. It is capable of carrying up to 312 passengers.
Military Sealift Command exists to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operations. MSC provides on-time logistics, strategic sealift, as well as specialized missions anywhere in the world, under any condition, 24/7, 365 days a year.
| Date Taken: | 10.15.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2021 12:14 |
| Story ID: | 407787 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 293 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 94 Burlington Crewmembers Returned Home from a 3.5-month Deployment in USSOUTHCOM, Supporting two LCSs, Five Counter-Narcotic Operations, and Haiti’s Relief Effort, by LaShawn Sykes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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