US Navy,
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va: The High Speed Vessel (HSV) 2 Swift departed Naval Amphibious Base (NAB) Little Creek Jan. 4, headed for the western coast of Africa to join the Navy's Global Fleet Station (GFS), Africa Partnership Station (APS) initiative.
Swift will team with the NAB Little Creek-based dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) and embarked Commander Task Group 60.4, from Naples, Italy, already on station, to take part in the first GFS APS initiative.
“In a nutshell, we'll be trying to develop stronger maritime security ties,” said Cmdr. Charles Rock, commanding officer of Swift's Ingleside, Texas crew. “We're loaded with humanitarian assistance, food and aid donated by non-governmental organizations, so we'll be delivering a lot of good will.”
APS is a U.S. Naval Forces Europe-led initiative, executed by a multi-national staff aboard Fort McHenry and Swift. Training teams from various U.S. and European military commands, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations will work together to enhance cooperative partnerships with regional maritime services in West and Central Africa and the Gulf during this deployment.
Swift will join Fort McHenry in the Gulf of Guinea, where it will transport students as well as trainers during visits to Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. Training teams will focus on a broad range of areas, including maritime domain awareness, leadership, seamanship and navigation, maritime law enforcement, search and rescue, civil engineering and logistics.
Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SW) Jason Shaeffer, an independent duty corpsman aboard Swift, said he's excited about the opportunity.
“(This deployment) is very cool,” said Shaeffer. “We get to place our image in a very different light, which is good for the Navy, our ship and the U.S. I really feel a personal satisfaction in community relations and meeting people from other countries. When you leave, and you get those handshakes, you really get the feeling that you're doing something good.”
APS is scheduled to support more than 20 humanitarian assistance projects in addition to hosting information exchanges and training with partner nations during its seven-month deployment.
This is not the first time Swift has served as an enabling platform for the GFS initiative. In 2007, Swift visited seven Latin American and Caribbean nations, teaching partner-nation counterparts everything from knot tying to maritime law enforcement.
