CVN 77 Conducts Simulation Drills

ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) -- USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) Sailors train how they fight, and proved it during a man-overboard simulation and rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) training operation April 18.

This training is conducted every underway to ensure Sailors are prepared for real search and rescue scenarios and to teach them how to properly deploy and operate the RHIB.

"We try to do this once or twice every underway, because we get new Sailors in deck department and they need to know what to do during an event if a real man overboard were to happen," said Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Brandon Foor, the RHIB's coxswain.

When a man overboard is called away, the RHIB must be launched onto the water in less than four minutes in order to expeditiously recover the fallen personnel.

"After 12 minutes in the water, the human body will go into paralysis because of hypothermia," said Chief Hospital Corpsman Kelly Miller, one of the ship's independent duty corpsman. "When hypothermia starts to take over the human body, the muscles break down and the respiratory system will begin to fail. It is crucial that the entire operation move as quickly as possible."

The ship's lookouts are usually the Sailors who would first discover a fallen Sailor. At this point they must throw a throw a life ring to the personnel to hold while awaiting rescue. They would then report the man overboard's direction and range to the bridge. In the bridge, the boatswain's mate of the watch makes the announcement over the ship's number one microphone circuit (1MC). All personnel are then required to go to their mustering stations to ensure proper accountability and identify the Sailor in the water.

"All Sailors throughout the ship need to get to their mustering stations as fast as possible," said Chief Machinist's Mate Mate Bill Ostrander, reactor department career counsler. "We need to get the accountability of all the Sailors so we can find out who is in the water."

The navigation department also plays a role by hoisting the Oscar flag which tells other vessels in the area, if there are any, that our ship currently has a man overboard, they also plot the location of the personnel in the map.

The officer of the deck then leads the bridge team into turning the ship around to rescue the Sailor in the water. With the commanding officer's permission, the process of launching the RHIB onto the water starts. At this time, deck department Sailors must be in place and have the boat deck manned and ready. The boat deck crew is in charge of quickly and safely lowering and raising the RHIB. They will be in place before the RHIB crew enters the boat.

The RHIB crew consists of a boat officer who communicates with the ship, a coxswain who steers the RHIB, a bow hook who serves as a lookout and engineer and a search-and-rescue (SAR) swimmer who rescues the Sailor in the water.

After the rescue, the RHIB gets raised back onto the ship, where a medical team is standing by to take the personnel to the ship's medical department to be treated for any injuries sustained.

"All these processes are critical in responding to a man overboard," said Chief Boatswain's Mate Michael Cassidy, Deck Department's 3rd division leading chief petty officer. "It is important that all the Sailors work together as a team to do this in a timely manner."

The successful completion of the man overboard drill can be credited to Sailors working as a team and continuous practice.

"Being able to complete this drill in less than 12 minutes was a true accomplishment for all the Sailors who took part," said Cassidy. "I couldn't be more pleased, with how safe this went, and once again we have set the standard."


For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.>
For more news from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn77/.