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U.S. 2nd Fleet/Striking Fleet Staff Move Back Aboard Flagship
Story Number: NNS040315-01
Release Date: 3/15/2004 8:46:00 AM
By Chief Journalist Jerry Sekerak, Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet Public Affairs
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- After spending more than a year in their shore headquarters in Building W-5--a red brick building on the Norfolk Naval Station waterfront--the Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet/NATO Striking Fleet (C2F/CSFL) staff is again haze gray and ready to get underway after moving back aboard their flagship, USS Mount Whitney (JCC/LCC 20) Feb. 26-29.
The U.S. 2nd Fleet/Striking Fleet staff disembarked Mount Whitney in November 2002 to make way for the ship, its officers and crew to deploy to the Horn of Africa (HOA) in support of the global war on terrorism. Now, 14 months later, the staff is back aboard Mount Whitney, ready to conduct their mission from a more flexible and mobile at-sea platform.
“I’m really pleased with the amount of effort that everybody has put into [the move]--our staff, the crew of the USS Mount Whitney. This was a huge evolution," said Capt. Mike Klein, commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet/NATO Striking Fleet chief of staff. "To take the entire staff and all of the connectivity that existed in [Building] W-5 and get it on board and functioning in what amounted to a weekend’s time period, it really was a Herculean effort.”
A working party of more than 150 enlisted Sailors moved hundreds of computers, truck loads of furniture and other supplies and left behind either what didn’t fit or was not needed. While the move didn’t go without a hitch, according to Klein, it went smooth enough, that to the people external to the staff, it was relatively seamless.
“A lot of credit goes to a number of people, most notably the J-6 department in their ability to get things wired back up,” said Klein. “And it wasn’t as simple as sliding servers into racks and hooking wires up to computers. Our J-6 technicians had to do a fair amount of trouble shooting, switch alignments and in some cases software loads, to work around the internal challenges of the ship, but they quickly got through it. And it was about as painless a move, for as large a staff as we’ve got, that you’re going to see,” he added.
For related news, visit the Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet/NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/c2f.
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