More from the USS Independence

Aboard the USS Independence-- With a crew of just 40 sailors, everyone aboard the Littoral Combat Ship Independence -- the General Dynamics and Austal-made LCS, bidding against Lockheed Martin's USS Freedom for the ultimate Navy contract for 55 ships -- is expected to wear multiple hats.

Lieutenant Phil Garrow, the ship’s Main Propulsion Assistant, said last week while the ship was underway from Key West to Mayport that “everyone had to go to school to get out of their comfort zone,” of performing a few very specialized tasks prior to being able to staff the ship. Standing on the bridge of the ship, Garrow pointed to one of his engineers, who he described as his “resident expert on the MTU engines,” explaining that he in addition to that, “he gave me my flu shot this year. He’s also one of our range masters for gunnery, he’s one of our SAR [search and rescue] swimmers—every one of us had to go to a lot of force protection schools that I’d never gone to before. Me being the engineering officer, I’m also the auxiliaries officer, electrical officer, main propulsion system and the damage control assistant…the learning curve was significant.” 

Petty Officer 2^nd Class Katrina Williams agreed, saying that “rank has no privilege here. If my XO goes out and does sweepers, then everyone does sweepers.”

It was a refrain heard time and during the two days between Key West and Mayport, and the sailors aborad--all of whom volunteered for the assignment--were genuinely excited to finally be out at sea and putting the ship through its paces. “In some ways we’ve invented nothing, in some ways we’ve invented everything,” Captain Renshaw said at one point when talking about how the ship is different from other ships he has served on. “It’s almost like nothing, one for one, translates.” (One thing the Captain has invented is bringing several Roombas--robot vacuum cleaners--aboard to clean the carpeted bridge, so sailors wouldn't have to.)

Since the crew is so small, and each crewmember performs multiple tasks, “the concentration level has to be higher” Renshaw said. “Everyone has greater responsibility" on the LCS Operations Specialist (OS1) Willie Smith explained one day on the ship's mess deck. "We’re laying the groundwork as we go.”

(Pics by Paul McLeary)

Comments

[Mike]

So if an attack happened, one guy being killed can wipe out many area's of speciality.
I understand the crew is small and everyone needs to be cross trained, but the overall money being spent on the ships AND the training make me think its not worth the taxpayers money.