The amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) completed a weeklong underway period, March 2-9, to offload ammunition off the coast of southern California, following a seven-month deployment to the 3rd, 5th, and 7th fleet areas of operation.

Upon their return to homeport, Feb. 2, the crew took the month to reunite with loved ones and enjoy well-deserved rest before returning to sea to offload remaining unexpended ordnance.

During the offload, America, with the help of MH-60S Sea Hawks from the "Wildcards" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23, prepared and moved 1,250 pallets of ordnance through the air to a secured location in the vicinity of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. There it was placed on trucks and shipped to Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Det. Fallbrook.

"The ammunition offload involved multiple departments on the ship," said Lt. Troy McFadden, America's ordnance handling officer. "It takes a whole team effort with air, engineering, supply, and navigation departments to get this ammunition off the ship in a safe and expeditious manner."

Planning for the evolution began more than a year ago before America's deployment began. To ensure an operation of this scale is executed successfully, safety must be the top priority of all involved.

"Our most important goal in any evolution, especially while transiting with ammunition, is safety," said McFadden. "We live by the three pillars of safety, leadership and mission, and we try to cover all those aspects to make a complete triangle to complete our task."

Although the ship's primary objective for this underway was to offload ordnance, America Sailors also conducted a burial-at-sea ceremony for the remains of 20 prior service members, March 4. The sacrifice of past Sailors' service is never forgotten. America's crew was eager to take part in a burial-at-sea to honor fellow Sailors with a traditional farewell.

"It was an honor to be part of the last stage of these heroes' lives," said Damage Controlman 1st Class Daniel Reveles. "I hope we honored them and their families well, and I hope they know we did our best to see them out."

America also hosted distinguished visitors aboard participating in one of Commander, Naval Surface Forces' programs known as "Leaders to Sea."

The program is designed for people who are active and influential in business, government or the community, as well as people who are active communicators and opinion leaders. Participants include presidents or chief executive officers of corporations and businesses; presidents/deans of colleges; influential civic and community leaders; government officials; news media owners/publishers; and leaders of significant, broad-based organizations who have not had prior exposure to naval surface operations.

"Everything about the USS America was interesting, especially for someone like me who has an appreciation for it, but not a ton of knowledge on the subject," said Salil Mehta, president of FOXNET. "My experience here personalized the Navy to me by getting to meet the Sailors on the ship, hear their stories and see their way of life and what they sacrifice for our country."

USS America is an aviation centric amphibious assault ship that provides forward presence and power projection as an integral part of joint interagency and multinational maritime expeditionary forces. It will support Marine aviation requirements, from small-scale contingency operations of an expeditionary strike group, to forcible entry missions in major theaters of war. America is currently underway conducting ammunition offload after completing a seven-month deployment to the 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation.

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