Summer Cruise_Day 9

DDG 66 (GONZALEZ) versus CG 66 (HUE CITY) - If I thought yesterday was good SWO stuff, today was even better. Overnight, we chased the BLUE force carrier and kept her escorts extremely busy. Then, knowing that a pre-dawn surprise attack by us and the other OPFOR ships was imminent, GONZALEZ went to General Quarters at 0430 and ran a series of challenging damage control drills. At 0530 with our drills in progress we attacked BLUE forces. After unloading all of our sim missiles, there was only one BLUE force ship Fighting Freddy had in her sights, the other 66 – USS HUE CITY! It was a glorious gun battle in which the GONZALEZ bridge team expertly took advantage of our strengths and the cruiser’s weaknesses, but in the end, one gun lost to two. At 0630, our drills secured, our guns ceased firing, the drill team coordinator played taps over the 1MC, and we saluted HUE CITY with a BRAVO ZULU flying from our starboard halyard as she passed close down our starboard side to ensure we were out of action.

We then took a little time for some morning holiday routine following our early GQ, held an awards ceremony and Captain’s Call on the flight deck, promoted a new LCDR, qualified a new Command Duty Officer, fresh water washed the ship, and pulled into Mayport for a port call in the late afternoon. Thursday (tomorrow) is an all hands topside preservation day followed by a 4-day holiday weekend! On the horizon GONZALEZ and HUE City have a wardroom softball challenge coming up, and I have two guest bloggers from the crew working on some blog entries of their own. - CO

Summer Cruise_Day 8

Great SWO Moments at Sea – With only 6 weeks left in command for me, GONZALEZ experienced one of those awesome Surface Warfare moments at sea which I will remember for a long time. All through the night, we stalked the BLUE force carrier and her escorts. Very early in the morning, two of the BLUE force escorts broke off to the north for a pre-dawn refueling at sea with the oiler in our operating area. After gaining sufficient sea room, the oiler and the two escorts turned south and connected to refuel. We then followed the carrier and her remaining escort at high speed on a reciprocal northerly course toward the refueling trio. The carrier then hauled out to starboard and we followed the one remaining BLUE force escort to the north. Just as the other two BLUE force ships broke away from the oiler, we suddenly became a BLUE force ship ourselves so that we could refuel with the remaining BLUE force escort we had been trailing. Just as we took the oiler down our starboard side, she put her rudder over right towards us. Now inside her turning circle and with the other BLUE force escort turning on the other side of the oiler to port to maneuver into station, my conning officer expertly swung around to port and then made an awesome full rudder turn back to starboard to bring us into station on the oiler’s starboard quarter with the other escort now on our port beam.

So if the excellent SWO shiphandling wasn’t enough, the as yet unnamed ship on the other side of the oiler taking fuel with us was none other than USS HUE CITY (CG 66). If you have followed the blog or know your Naval and Marine Corps history, you know Sergeant Freddy Gonzalez was the only Marine to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry and intrepidity at the Battle of Hue City – a great day at sea whenever DDG 66 gets to sail in company with CG 66. But wait there is more great SWO stuff! About 30 minutes into the refueling, the skies opened up on us and the heavens pelted all three ships with heavy, driving rain in 40 knots of wind. Both ships then very professionally executed emergency breakaways at the same time and hauled out to port and starboard respectfully and raced back to the carrier. Of course, photos rarely do the weather at sea true justice and there were no cameras on the bridgewing in the rain, but the included photo at least shows the approaching storm. The games continue….

Afternoon Update: The afternoon was filled with some more excellent shiphandling opportunities as the BLUE forces attempted to keep us from approaching their carrier. Naturally, we came prepared. We honed our warfighting and damage control skills further this afternoon with a General Quarters drill as well.

Summer Cruise_Day 7

Fun with Aircraft Carriers – Today was our first day to operate with the BLUE Forces carrier. As part of our tasking, our bridge watchstanders and new Sailors had an opportunity to observe a nice air show as we performed our Opposing Force duties very well – some nice shiphandling and tactical maneuvering by GONZALEZ Sailors! Only a couple of photos today as I spent most of my time on the bridge.

Before maneuvering into the BLUE Forces operations area we had time to conduct a re-enlistment of a Gunners Mate up in the gun mount and kicked off DITS for the week. DITS is short for Division in the Spotlight. Each week all aspects of a single Division are reviewed by various leaders throughout the ship. We review administrative programs, Sailors in the DITS Division take various level of knowledge exams, there is a personal and space inspection, and a host of other events. We even run no-notice damage control and medical emergency drills on the DITS Division to make sure they are keeping their fundamental skills sharp. - CO

Summer Cruise_Day 6

Sunday at Sea – Whenever our operations allow we respect Sunday at Sea as a day of rest as much as possible. Sometimes our duties don’t allow, but nonetheless we always offer church services led by our Lay Leaders as GONZALEZ does not have a Navy Chaplain onboard. We also do not pipe reveille on Sunday morning which allows everyone (except the morning watch unfortunately) an opportunity to catch up on sleep. Following Sunday brunch the ship comes to life again and various training opportunities arise. We held some training on the mess decks this afternoon and then participated in a search and rescue training exercise by marking a downed aircraft site for the blue forces. In the afternoon I took the opportunity to talk with our embarked Midshipmen about leadership and naval history related to the Battle of Trafalgar. And for those who asked, yesterday’s flag hoist was simply an A-L-O-H-A to the CO of our target ship.

On a completely separate note, one of the events which takes place in the wardroom each year, usually unheralded throughout this ship, is the Wardroom Mess Treasurer election. The Wardroom Mess Treasurer is typically a new Ensign who is charged with computing the monthly mess bill for the officers and then collecting monthly payments. It’s a somewhat unexciting but necessary duty. Given the number of new Ensigns GONZALEZ has onboard, the competition is heating up. The photo at the right says it all.

Lastly, it seems as if tensions between blue forces and the OPFOR are increasing so I suspect our action will increase dramatically very soon! -CO

Summer Cruise_Day 5

Let the Games Begin! After stalking our contact of interest overnight we proceeded to disrupt their operations this morning through a range of tactics, techniques and procedures – what otherwise might be known as good Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) fun. We then maneuvered in close to give our Midshipmen a chance to observe their flight operations and surprised them with our ability to rapidly man up our ship self defenses – very good SWO fun! Not content with simply carrying out our OPFOR duties though, we also ran a series of engineering training evolutions in preparation for our upcoming engineering certification, completed a complex combat and strike scenario, and conducted several other training events throughout the ship. As part of our fun disrupting the operations of our contact of interest our new Ensigns and Midshipmen practiced station keeping, maneuvering board drills, and flag hoist drills. We even managed to hoist up a three halyard personal signal for the Commanding Officer of our contact of interest.

As for the weather...it’s very hot out here in the operating area. Much hotter off our southern coast than it was in the Mediterranean last summer, but our engineers are keeping the ship’s a/c plants running in peak condition to keep everyone as cool as possible, and they’re doing a great job! After just a few days at sea, everyone is settling into our underway routine, and we continue to improve our operational prowess every day. GONZALEZ Sailors continue to prove they are the best crew in the Navy and our Midshipmen are right at home with their running mates in the wardroom and crew!

Qualifications of course continue in earnest as we qualified a new Officer of the Deck last evening and expect to qualify a couple more before we return to port. I’m also very ready to qualify some more Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialists and Surface Warfare Officers. Lastly, we held a special birthday meal this evening – steak, lobster tails, baked potatoes, and more. Another great day at sea! - CO

Summer Cruise_Day 4

Battle Preparations! We started this Friday morning with a no notice torpedo evasion drill, man overboard drill, and general quarters drill in preparation for our OPFOR role in our training exercise. I expect there will be many more no notice events over the course of our training time at sea. In the afternoon we conducted visit, board, search, and seizure training while fulfilling another target role – no reason to waste any training time! And now, we are stalking the other forces. Should be a good night of hunting. -CO

Summer Cruise_Day 3

Refueling at Sea – We started the morning with some more basic damage control training which finished with an impromptu fire hose handling competition. In the afternoon we moved on to some combat training and then finally joined up with other naval air and surface forces to begin training together. Truth be told, we are playing an opposing force (or OPFOR) role and for our first event we were simply a “target.” Being the target though, got us a couple of great fly bys which we enjoyed. The big event of the day was an early evening refueling at sea. Refueling at sea or what we refer to as Underway Replenishment or UNREP for short, is one of the most fascinating and exciting things we do at sea. More than 25,000 tons of naval power sailing together on the same course and speed at a distance of 150-160 feet lateral separation for more than an hour to take on upwards of 100,000 gallons or more of fuel! Today we refueled from the oiler USNS LARAMIE (TAO 203). We refueled on the LARAMIE’s starboard side while USS DEWERT (FFG 45) refueled on the other. Five new Ensigns had the opportunity to conn the ship alongside and a deck seaman stood her first watch as Rig Captain – all in all, another great day of training at sea.