2009 - I am a GONZALEZ Sailor

The Sailor's Creed is an important aspect of many ceremonies onboard GONZALEZ. To honor the best crew in the Navy, I incorporated a GONZALEZ version of the Sailor's creed with pictures and video from the 2008 deployment. The full DV version looks much better, but this compressed version was suitable for publication on the blog. Hit play on the video below to check it out.

I am a GONZALEZ Sailor.
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and I will obey the orders of those appointed over me.
I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and all who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.
I proudly serve my country’s Navy combat team with Honor, Courage and Commitment.
I am committed to excellence and the fair treatment of all.

The GONZALEZ Year in Review - 2008

2008 was a great year to be 66! While I look forward to the events of 2009, it is a pleasure to look back on the personal and professional accomplishments of GONZALEZ Sailors during the last year. Many of those accomplishments are captured in the posts or links on my blog, but I couldn't resist posting a quick top 5 highlights.

1. Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG-2) Deployment. From the 19 February to 18 August, GONZALEZ deployed to the Mediterranean Sea as the US Navy component to the SNMG-2 task force. While deployed to 6th Fleet, GONZALEZ Sailors experienced first hand many tenants of the Maritime Strategy.

2. Commemorating the 66th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. What better way for the Sailors of DDG-66 to commemorate the 66th anniversary of Midway than to pose for some retro photos to remember those who have gone before us.

3. Celebrating Mrs. Gonzalez’ birthday. On the day of our return from deployment, we had the honor of combining our homecoming with Mrs. Gonzalez’ birthday. I will never forget the image of GONZALEZ Sailors singing happy birthday after we moored.

4. Participating in the North Carolina Seafood Festival. After such a successful overseas deployment, GONZALEZ Sailors had a chance to demonstrate their pride and professionalism during a port visit to Morehead City, North Carolina.

5. Successfully completing our Unit Level Training Readiness and Assessment Certification (ULTRA-C). While GONZALEZ Sailors will continue to be faced with assessment and inspection challenges in 2009, wrapping up 2008 with a successful ULTRA-C was an excellent conclusion point for the year.

Gonzalez Holiday Cheer

Happy Holidays to all of our GONZALEZ family and friends! It’s that last time of the year between Christmas Day and New Years Eve, that time when children are out of school and for many of us things seem to be moving in slow motion as we await the New Year. Even though the ship is in a holiday leave and upkeep period, your Sailors still stand their watches, still stand duty, and still stand ready for the call. And while we are always ready, the best crew in the Navy certainly knows how to take care of our family and friends during the holidays. This year we held both a GONZALEZ Holiday Party and a Children’s Holiday Party. The GONZALEZ Holiday Party was a tremendous success and a real testament to the Sailors of the planning committee who organized it. Well done! One of the hits of the party this year was the dance contest. While we may not have anyone quite ready to dance with the stars, we did have a few stars of our own.



The very next day, we hosted our Children’s Holiday Party at the Bowling Center on the Naval Station. The GONZALEZ kids had a great time bowling, sampling pizzas and cake and taking part in a few special contests. The best part, of course, was the visit of Santa who brought gifts for everyone! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! - Captain

Fighting Freddy BLOG Update

GONZALEZ Family and Friends,

We are two weeks away from closing out 2008, and as Commanding Officer of the Best Crew in the Navy it is easy to look back on the year with a swell of pride. Not only did we complete a very successful deployment to the Mediterranean, returning home with broomsticks lashed to the yardarms, we just passed our Unit Level Training Readiness Assessment Certification (ULTRA-C). Completing ULTRA-C caps off successfully completing every inspection, assessment, and certification since returning from deployment. The men and women of GONZALEZ (your sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends, and shipmates) are batting 1000% for the year, and we are taking that record into 2009. Keeping us so busy has meant less time for me to update the blog and tell you about all the great things your Sailors have been doing, and I am woefully delinquent on some significant updates. So here we go...

Way back in September after we returned from deployment, the Hampton Roads Surface Navy Association sponsored their inaugural Enlisted Shiphandling Competition. While GONZALEZ has several Sailors and Chiefs who have stood and still stand watch as Conning Officer on the bridge, I naturally selected our most junior and only qualified enlisted Officer of the Deck Underway, OS2(SW) Dennis Denk, to compete in the contest. I'll let the links below speak for themselves on Petty Officer Denk's performance.

http://pentagonbrief.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/uss-gonzalez-sailor-wins-shiphandling-award/

http://www.navy.mil/dnu.asp?id=11564

In November, we had the opportunity to conduct a towing exercise with our DESRON TWO sister ship, USS NICHOLAS (FFG 47). It just so happened that we conducted this exercise just days before we took part in two actual rescues at sea (see our earlier post: GONZALEZ to the Rescue). I thought you might want to check out of few pictures of our work with NICHOLAS. As a well done to the Chief Boatswain's Mate and the Best Deck Crew in the Fleet, the Officer of the Deck closed up BRAVO ZULU OD Division on the starboard halyard.

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving onboard GONZALEZ with a phenomenal holiday feast. Is that the XO on the serving line?

In December we also selected our Sailors of the Year and held our Holiday and Children's Holiday Parties. I'll post a holiday and congratulatory blog next.

- Captain

GONZALEZ to the Rescue

Every day of the year the United States Coast Guard rescues people and property all across the United States, on our inland waters and territorial seas, on the high seas, and around the world. During our last training period at sea, GONZALEZ Sailors experienced two opportunities to provide rescue and assistance to other mariners on the high seas and work with the Coast Guard at the same time. On the 8th of November we responded to a distress call from the sailboat Gypsy Dane. Just a few days later, we responded to a second distressed sailboat, the Reina Del Sol. In the case of the Gypsy Dane, GONZALEZ Sailors repaired a completely destroyed rudder post and cut away approximately 50 feet of line tangled around the sailboat’s rudder, shaft, and propeller. Just as we finished our repairs, the Coast Guard Cutter SENECA arrived on the scene and made sure the vessel and master were good to go as we continued on with our training.

On the Reina Del Sol, repairs were not possible, so we towed the sailboat with our 7 meter Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB) and embarked the two crew members for the night until the Coast Guard Cutter SPENCER arrived the next morning. SPENCER took the sailboat under tow for further transfer to the Canadian Coast Guard. All in all, I can’t express well enough in words how proud I was of every GONZALEZ Sailor who participated in our two rescue and assistance missions. The Coast Guard Atlantic Area Commander even said he would welcome us into the Coast Guard Fleet as an honorary cutter…as long as we could get just a few more search and rescues under our belt.

Training, Training, Training

One of the questions I often get asked by family and friends is, “What does the ship do while you are in port?” Day for day, it seems that in port we are always much busier than when we are at sea. At the same time, it is actually much easier to explain what we do while we are at sea on deployment rather than explaining what we do all day in port. Primarily our in port days are filled with training and maintaining GONZALEZ in the best material condition possible so we are always ready for any range of mission whether that be a surge deployment, a homeland defense, or a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief call.

During October we were afforded an opportunity to do some training with our installation command, the Norfolk Naval Base. We participated in an Exercise called Citadel Protect 2008. Check out the link to the exercise to read more. GONZALEZ Participates In Citadel Protect

Seafood and Tigers!

On Wednesday, the 1st of October, Fighting Freddy sailed for Morehead City, North Carolina to participate in the 22nd Annual North Carolina Seafood Festival. The morning of our departure we also embarked 37 Tigers – family and friends who joined us the ride down to the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. Our Tigers got to see us put the ship through her paces over the two and half-day transit during which some of the highlights included a gun shoot, damage control drill, F-18 fly-by, and a demonstration of our maximum speed. Mostly, I think the Tigers enjoying seeing their Sailors at work and getting to experience a few days of life at sea on a ship of war.

We arrived at the port of Morehead City early on Friday morning and moored as close to down town as our draft allowed. From the moment of our arrival we participated in a host of Seafood Festival Activities, including the opening ceremonies, the 8K Twin Bridges Race, and the Blessing of the Fleet. We also took the opportunity to visit the Harbor View Towers Nursing Home and volunteer with the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Of course, we also opened up the ship for tours and had almost 2000 festival attendees tour the ship on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

For me personally, following our six month deployment to the Mediterranean, I enjoyed the opportunity to visit a great American city and see GONZALEZ Sailors ashore in their white uniforms. I was very proud to see local folks shake the hands of my Sailors and thank them for their service. At a time when there are concerns about so many things going on in all of our lives, it was an honor to simply be surrounded by such a strong community whose livelihood, like ours, also depends on the seas. Please take a moment to check out some of the local news we generated.

GONZALEZ Sailors Participate in NC Beach Clean Up

News from GONZALEZ Tigers