Logistic Support Vessel 2 – U.S. Army Vessel CW3 Harold A. Clinger, manned by a 163rd Transportation Detachment crew, got underway from its homeport at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on July 2 to conduct the first of eight surface lifts between Kaneohe Bay and Kawaihae Harbor in support of 3rd Marines as part of the biennial Rim of the Pacific 2014 exercise.

LSV-2 will also partner with 25th Infantry Division’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, for casualty evacuation operations and a shipboard aerial resupply with the New Zealand Navy, and conduct Logistics over the Shore operations during RIMPAC 2014.According to the Facebook page of CW3 Harold A. Clinger:

Mission

Transports cargo throughout a theater of operations or along inter-theater routes not otherwise serviced by the Military Sealift Command. The Logistic Support Vessel (LSV) will also assist in roll-on/roll off or Logistical-Over-The-Shore (LOTS) operations. The LSV has the capability to deliver up to 850 short tons of cargo to bare a beach with a gradient of 1:30 or better.

Description

CW3 Harold C. Clinger

Harold C. (Spike) Clinger was born May 26, 1951 in Brookville, Pennsylvania. In September, 1976 he joined the U.S. Army and was appointed a Marine Warrant Officer in February, 1980.

As the OIC of the Marine Engineering School at Ft. Eustis, Virginia, he designed the task list used worldwide as teh basis by which all marine engineers are trained.

On February 28,1986 CW3 Clinger and his entire crew of five Korean nationals were killed when a D-long pier they were operating, off the coast of Kangnug, broke up in heavy seas. CW3 Clinger was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on March 10,1986. He is survived by his wife, Wendy and son, Richard.

CW3 Clinger’s award include the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Ribbon, Vietnam Service Medal, Air Force Enlisted Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon and two (2) Air Force Good Conduct Medals.

And the Command released this story:

Army watercraft, divers, sustainment troops to participate in RIMPAC 2014

June 30, 2014

By Sgt. 1st Class Mary Ferguson, 8th Theater Sustainment Command

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (June 30, 2014) — Hawaii-based Army watercraft assets, divers and sustainment troops are set to play major roles in surface/vertical lift, casualty evacuation, and Logistics over the Shore operations during the biennial Rim of the Pacific 2014 exercise, June 26 through Aug. 1.

The 8th Theater Sustainment Command troops will join the 22 nations, 49 ships, six submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participating in the world’s largest international exercise, designed to provide unique training opportunities and strengthen the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring safety of sea lanes and security in the world’s oceans.

Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Roth, the 8th Theater Sustainment Command’s Sea Operations lead, said that nearly 70 percent of the world is water and 80 percent of the world’s population lives on or near a coast, so freedom of movement is essential, especially in the Pacific region.

“The global maritime environment is too large and too complex for any one service or nation to safeguard and respond to situations in and around it alone,” he said.

Rim of the Pacific 2014 will exercise a wide range of capabilities and situations, from disaster response and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. It will also feature a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief event to facilitate training and certification for expeditionary forces to respond to foreign disasters. 

During the exercise, the 524th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion will set-up and validate its Early Entry Command Post’s ability to monitor, battle track, and provide mission command in an austere environment.

A 163rd Transportation Detachment crew will man Logistic Support Vessel 2, named the U.S. Army Vessel CW3 Harold A. Clinger, for long range escort and harbor approach operations with the Navy and Coast Guard, and provide eight surface lifts between Kaneohe Bay and Kawaihae Harbor, in support of 3rd Marines.

The vessel will also partner with 25th Infantry Division’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, for casualty evacuation operations and a shipboard aerial resupply with the New Zealand Navy.

During Logistics over the Shore operations, the 7th Engineer Dive Detachment will conduct port reconnaissance and the LSV-2 crew will exercise working in unimproved port conditions, as the 545th Transportation Harbormaster Detachment provides command and control to train and validate the unit’s Harbormaster Command and Control Center for employment in remote and unpredictable environments.

And a more general look at the “floating” US Army can be seen in this article:

Army’s ‘best kept secret’ floats

January 26, 2012

By Cpl. Jeffrey Daniel, 1st Sustainment Command (Theater) Public Affairs

KUWAIT NAVAL BASE, Kuwait (Jan. 26, 2012)

The 824th Transportation Company, a U.S. Army Reserve unit from Morehead City, N.C., recently arrived in Kuwait to start their yearlong deployment. Its home away from home has a unique feature.

It floats.

The 824th’s floating home for the next year is the Landing Craft, Utility, 2002 — United States Army Vessel Kennesaw Mountain, a 174-foot-long watercraft.

The crew is made up of 17 Soldiers. Its mission is to carry materiel throughout the Persian Gulf. The crew is made up of seven Soldiers on the deck side, seven watercraft engineers, two cooks, and a medic.

Since the crew just arrived, it had to do an extensive check of the vessel’s safety and mechanical equipment, and complete one mission with the Kennesaw Mountain’s previous crew.

In between missions the crew will polish its vessel-operation skills and makes sure its licensing requirements are met. This will enable the crew to be in a constant state of readiness, and ensure it’s ready for any mission.

Early in the morning of Jan. 20, the crew loaded the food order that just arrived into the galley and prepared to depart for a day of training and licensing exercises. Just after 9:00 a.m., Sgt. Robert L. Wallace, the vessel’s boatswain, blew the horn to alert anyone within earshot that the Kennesaw Mountain was pulling away from the pier at Kuwait Naval Base.

Wallace, a North Carolina state trooper in civilian life, joined the unit in July 2006. Wallace manipulate the controls on the vessel’s bridge to pull the Kennesaw Mountain away from the pier, turn it around, and depart the harbor. Even though Wallace was under the watchful eye of the skipper and first mate, he handled the vessel like a pro.

Wallace, like many of the other Soldiers on board, have a common story. They had no idea the Army had a fleet of watercraft until they went to the Military Entrance Processing Station.

“We are the Army’s best kept secret,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kenneth “Neil” Styron Jr., the vessel’s chief engineer. Styron spent six years as an enlisted Soldier before becoming a warrant officer.

Styron said most people, even Soldiers, don’t realize the Army has watercraft. His big grin shows his appreciation for finding this unique opportunity to continue serve the United States as an Army Reserve Soldier.

Sgt. 1st Class Ronald E. Buffkin is the vessel’s first mate. He served with the Navy in the mid-’70s and was out of the military for 18 years before finding out about the Army Reserve unit near his home that operated watercraft. He has been with the 824th since 1996.

Buffkin said he’s reluctant to be promoted to the next level, since master sergeants have to come off the LCU and become part of the land-based crew.

“We have a saying,” said Buffkin. “If it ain’t got water under it, we don’t want anything to do with it.”

Pfc. Tyler M. Morrow, 18, a vessel engineer, is the youngest and least-experienced Soldier on board the Kennesaw Mountain.

“I volunteered for this deployment while I was still in AIT [advanced individual training],” said Morrow. “With all the training, I have only been home for maybe three weeks since I shipped off to basic training.”

Morrow recited the all-too-familiar story about how he didn’t know what job he wanted to do in the Army. His recruiter sent him to MEPS, where the position of watercraft engineer was offered. When Morrow told his recruiter what military occupational specialty he chose, the recruiter had to look up the job to see if it actually existed.

Even the Kennesaw Mountain’s skipper said many Soldiers don’t know about the Army’s watercraft.

“The Army has more boats than the Navy,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tom Heald. “Most people don’t realize the size of our fleet.”

In addition to having a job that most people don’t know about, the crew has another similarity: they love what they do. Most of the crew has lived around the coastal Carolinas for years. Many have had family in the marine industry.

“A lot of people on here enjoy their jobs and love to talk about it,” Styron said. Buffkin agreed. “Most people in this field, you can’t run them off,” he said.

As Heald watched, Sgt. 1st Class Daniel A. Close, the 1st Theater Sustainment Command’s maritime mobility noncommissioned officer, performed an anchor maneuver. The procedure was part of Close’s licensing process.

“It doesn’t matter if we are licensing or delivering something, we are out here doing what we love,” Heald said.

Close and Wallace worked on their licensing packets during this trip. They both hope to advance their skills to take them to the next level of Army watercraft operation.

“The boat field is run by license type instead of rank,” explained Spc. Devan C. Foley, one of the Kennesaw Mountain’s deckhands.

That means if a specialist has a higher-grade license than a staff sergeant, while on the boat, the specialist is in charge.

Foley, who is also a Landing Craft, Mechanized, 8000-series operator, known as a Mike boat, assists with all deck operations including emergency drills, cargo loading and unloading, and battle stations.

“The Mike boat is run by all NCOs,” Foley explained. The size of the vessel dictates the size of the crew. The Army’s largest watercrafts are the Logistic Support Vessels, which feature a crew of 32 versus the three-person crew of the Mike boat.

During a day of training and licensing, Foley was on deck with three others performing their tasks as proficiently as possible. Styron said that about 90 percent of the crew has worked together before this deployment. “Unlike most Reserve units, during [Annual Training], we do real-life missions, and they usually last about 28 days,” he said.

Styron recounted the missions the unit has had: Haiti, moving cargo to and from the Caribbean, and using one of company’s vessels to aid in the recovery operation to raise the USS Monitor, a Civil War ironclad.

After the crew took the Kennesaw Mountain beyond Kuwait Naval Base’s high-water barrier, it opened up the engine to allow the engineers to check some work that was recently completed on the vessel.

Over the loudspeaker, a voice bellowed. “Man overboard, man overboard, blue coveralls, port side.” The young but efficient crew raced into action. Out of nowhere, the deck was full of crewmembers, all pointing in the same direction.

“Everyone points in the direction of the person in the water so we don’t lose sight of them,” explained Foley as got his recovery gear ready to pluck the figure out of the water. The medic stood by, ready to administer any lifesaving skills the swimmer would need.

The deck listed as the Kennesaw Mountain turned to rush back to where the floating figure bobbed in the waves. As the vessel approached, the deck crew moved to its recovery positions to pull the figure out of the water.

The first pass was successful. As the lifeless figure was pulled onto the grey steel deck, there was a quick laugh as everyone joked with the medic about what to do next to “Oscar,” the mannequin.

Even though the day’s event was only a drill, the crew took it seriously, for going overboard could happen to any one of them.

On the bridge, Wallace and Close took turns at maneuvering the Kennesaw Mountain as the man-overboard drill was repeated until the skipper and first mate were satisfied.

Next, Wallace and Close started the duty performance test. “The licensing process is very extensive,” Buffkin said. “There are 22 tasks that must be evaluated.”

Heald placed an electronic imaginary X on the Electronic Charting System and told the expected licensees to drop the anchor on the X. Close went first. As he maneuvered the boat into position, Buffkin and Heald fired questions at Close, adding stress to an already difficult task. Close called out for wind direction and checked the water depth to determine how to best approach the target without damaging the boat. Close performed as if he had been born to the job. As the deck crew spotted the tension of the anchor chain and reported to Close, he smiled and said his token phrase, “All right.”

On board, lunch time is worked into the skipper’s master plan for today’s exercises. While at anchor, Heald can afford to have only one Soldier on the bridge to perform anchor watch. The Kennesaw Mountain has two Army cooks on board; Wallace explained the crew can place an order for just about anything.

“We don’t have access to a post exchange or morale, welfare and recreation facilities, so we stay well stocked,” Wallace said. “We do what we can to give the cooks a break and have the crew eat in the chow hall while in port if possible,” Heald added. The cooks provide three hot meals a day. That day’s lunch included fried chicken, mixed vegetables, rice with gravy, and a cinnamon streusel cake for dessert.

“After eating food this good, it’s hard to go back to eating at the chow hall every day,” Close remarked. Close and Wallace both passed their anchor test. Next, they had to simulate a beach landing.

Heald said the LCU is much like a barge. Its depth in the water, or draft, is very shallow. The Kennesaw Mountain is capable of landing on a beach to load or offload cargo.

For this day’s training, however, the LCU pulled up to a large concrete ramp. Wallace went first; Close stood at the front of the vessel, assisting the deck crew. Close used a radio to call distance reports up to the bridge, letting Wallace know how far he was from the ramp.

As the LCU neared the shore, the ramp was lowered slightly to help the bridge crew see where it was going. As young as Morrow is, he was well-versed in operating the ballast tank system, which is how they raise the nose to aid in a beach landing.

As the vessel approached the ramp, its bow rode high in the water. Just as the LCU stopped, the huge ramp was lowered, and fell within a foot of the waters’ edge. The crew raised the ramp, and Wallace, on the bridge, threw the Kennesaw Mountain into reverse, swinging the boat’s bow around and heading back towards the sea. Close, during his turn, was just as successful.

The last duty performance test for that day’s trip was bumper drills. The crew repeatedly pulled the LCU alongside a dock to show proficiency in using all the tools in the vessel’s maneuvering arsenal. That arsenal includes two screws, double rudders, and a bow thruster, which allows 360-degree movement of the bow.

Close and Wallace both passed their tests and the Kennesaw Mountain headed back portside.

The crew of the Kennesaw Mountain takes great pride in its job. Each Soldier knows their mission will be completed with professionalism and pride. From the youngest to the oldest, each crewmember has found their way into a little-known Army profession.