xfleetguy
08-01-2008, 12:24 PM
Seal support: the team
All Hands, August, 2004 by Antoine Themistocleous
TO BE SUCCESSFUL, a SEAL must bring his entire focus to the mission before him. He thinks. He moves. His equipment responds. When free-falling from 15,000 feet, he doesn't have time think about who packed his parachute. When underwater, he can't wonder if his equipment will allow him to breathe or not. While he concentrates on the mission, a separate team of mission specialists has his back.
For Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Groups in the Little Creek, Va., area, those specialists are called Logistics Support Units (LOGSU). LOGSU staff are the teammates SEALs can't leave home without.
LOGSU's eight departments provide communicators, Seabees, engineers, parachute riggers, supply personnel, medical staff, divers and ordnancemen in support of SEAL Teams 2, 4, 8 and 10-the Navy's Special Warfare East Coast teams. LOGSU San Diego supports SEAL teams 1, 3, 5 and 7. Although they don't complete the arduous SEAL training courses, their support and expertise are critical to a successful mission.
LOGSU's Seabees make sure SEALs have a place to stay in the field. Thanks to the transportation and construction capabilities of the Seabee teams, mobile quarters offer SPECWAR teams the flexibility to take their stealth and their talents to any of the world's environments.
Not only do the Seabees build a camp, they also climate control it--a seeming luxury--but a necessary environment for the technical communication aspect of a field tactical center the teams pack with them. A second benefit this environment offers is the ability to recuperate and re-supply if the mission requires it. A protected environment dose to the mission area and a hot meal prepared by a culinary specialist mean a SEAL can be sharper, stay longer and be more effective.
"We make sure that we have planning facilities, and that they can go in and take the time to plan their missions, and get out there and complete them," said Chief Storekeeper (SW) James Patterson. "And gym facilities. Those guys need to continue with their physical fitness when they are out there for a long period of time--like two or three months. We feel that we are really impacting their mission by providing them the best facilities possible."
Operating in hostile, unfamiliar terrain, often under cover of darkness, a SEAL team relies on its ability to communicate quickly. The mobile communication detachment is there to make sure that happens. A SEAL team is blind without good "comms," and whether securing a remote communications station or rescuing a downed pilot, they rely heavily on a wide array of radios, satellite lines and computers to keep them connected with each other and the outside world.
"If you can't communicate, you can't operate," said Electronics Technician 2nd Class (SW) Michael Shaw.
Shaw, who served previously on carrier duty, said the demands of a SEAL team means he has to be the expert in his field.
"To work alone at LOGSU as a communicator, you have to pull from within yourself and meet the needs of your platoon," said Shaw. "Unlike in the carrier, where it's more of a team effort, you are pretty much alone or with one other person. A lot of times, there aren't two people. It's just you, and you are solely responsible for that platoon. You have to know your material before you go out the door."
For SEALs, air operations adds the "air" capability to their Sea, Air, Land name. Air ops makes sure SEALs can have absolute faith in their parachute. Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class (AW/FPG) Brian Munos and the other nine parachute riggers who work with him understand the importance of their job. The lives of their teammates are literally in their hands as they pack chutes.
"All the riggers here know our role is crucial," said Munos. "The SEALs have a job to do, and that is to accomplish any mission placed in front of them. It's important to have the gear they might need ready, fully capable and fully loaded out for them to do whatever they have to do."
Like the air operations team, the underwater diving department shares similar responsibilities for life support equipment--just in a different environment.
Supporting six platoons--each platoon loaded with 18 sets of diving rigs, dive team members have their work cut out for them. The equipment includes sets of scuba gear with high-pressure compressors oxygen charging stations and low-pressure compressors for running oxygen-charging pumps. That the complex equipment has to work in extreme conditions and "under pressure" describes not only the submerged environment for the SEALS and the equipment, but also the need for the support techs to flawlessly prep, maintain and repair this equipment.
"We take care of anything to do with diving for all the SEAL teams," said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (DV) Michael Bailey, the diving department leading petty officer.
Like every other LOGSU support department, Bailey and his team are responsible for packing all the gear the SEALs need. More than 100 pallets of gear are deployed with a single team.
While radios, weapons, diving equipment and their parachutes are packed and checked by their respective support departments, a SEAL team's bag can't be packed without the coordination of the supply department.
"Without the supply department, the ship doesn't get tinder way, especially for NSW. We are the essential issue point for "all their gear," explained LT Frank Johnson, the LOGSU stores officer.
Johnson and his supply staff run the warehouse, purchase gear and keep tabs on more than 1,000 line items as they are received and issued to the SEAL teams, LOGSU and SPECWAR detachments overseas.
Although the supply department still performs the regular supply duties of furnishing pens and staples for administration, Johnson said a key part of his team's duties have to do with uniform issue. As might be guessed, uniform requirements for these warriors are somewhat more specialized than those Sailors who receive a standard sea bag. Consider ship-boarding gear, winter warfare gear, mountaineering gear and numerous others. Johnson said all those items are specially purchased and secured before being issued to SEAL operators.
The specialized nature of equipping the SEAL Teams' warriors makes supply duties a challenge, according to Storekeeper 2nd Class Fred**** Brown.
"The hardest thing about my job is dealing with all the different equipment we have," said Brown. "Depending on where these guys have to go and what their mission is, they need a lot of things, and it is my job to make sure that they have everything they need."
If there's an ongoing theme between the LOGSU departments, it is customer service. The engineering staff feels a keen customer service responsibility. Ordinarily a shop that is responsible for small craft maintenance and repair wouldn't deal much with customer service. Their focus would he on the equipment, and how to troubleshoot and repair boats or engines. With the SEAL team, however, these techs feel much closer to their customers.
"I know that every time they go out, they are carrying my boat with them," said Machinist's Mate 1st Class (AW) Joseph Moore, "and I do my job to fix the boats so they can go out and do their jobs."
It's engineering's job to make sure all the boats and their engines stay in working order. With an inventory of about 200 of each type of engine, they are constantly in a test and repair mode, verifying that each unit works before it goes back to the field. Once the engines are returned to the SEALs, the teams themselves care for and maintain them. For serious problems, the teams will send the engines back to engineering for repair.
When it comes to weapons, the ordnance specialists do business the same way. "Once the weapons are issued, it becomes the SEALs' responsibility to take care of them," said Gunner's Mate 1st Class Demp Harper. "They are as thoroughly trained on those weapons as we are, so they know how to take care of them. They will come to us when they need to, and if we can't fix the problem, we will simply replace the weapon and send the other one out."
Even after SEALs receive everything they need to accomplish a mission, they depend on medical personnel to stay operational. Even though a SEAL corpsman deploys with every squadron, LOGSU's medical department provides additional support, such as rehabilitation clinics for any injured SEALs.
"[Knowing] that our population is considerably healthier, we can rehab them a lot quicker," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Anderson Strickland, LOGSU's physical therapy technician. Strickland, who sees about 30 patients a day, also said that SEALs are more motivated to get better and get back out there, and that motivation helps his patients complete the rehabilitation process.
In the end, LOGSU doesn't work for the SEALs; they work with them. They share a common attitude of being ready to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. The SEAL depends on his training and equipment to complete the mission and to come home alive. SEALs know and appreciate what the men and women at LOGSU do to ensure they get the best tools possible to get the job done.
"I didn't think of them much before I came here," said Harper, who recalled working with SEALs during a tour aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).
"We had some SEALs that came on, and they would disappear, and we just knew they were taking care of business, so I always thought they were outstanding--the best part of the Navy."
Harper now has a deeper insight into what being a member of the Special Warfare community means.
"Now I see exactly how much sacrifice they have to make," he said, "because they come back from deployment and have to go right back out. I think they are even more outstanding and sacrificial than any other aspect of the Navy. They don't get to spend much time with their families. And they're all volunteers, so basically they put the Navy first all the time."
All Hands, August, 2004 by Antoine Themistocleous
TO BE SUCCESSFUL, a SEAL must bring his entire focus to the mission before him. He thinks. He moves. His equipment responds. When free-falling from 15,000 feet, he doesn't have time think about who packed his parachute. When underwater, he can't wonder if his equipment will allow him to breathe or not. While he concentrates on the mission, a separate team of mission specialists has his back.
For Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Groups in the Little Creek, Va., area, those specialists are called Logistics Support Units (LOGSU). LOGSU staff are the teammates SEALs can't leave home without.
LOGSU's eight departments provide communicators, Seabees, engineers, parachute riggers, supply personnel, medical staff, divers and ordnancemen in support of SEAL Teams 2, 4, 8 and 10-the Navy's Special Warfare East Coast teams. LOGSU San Diego supports SEAL teams 1, 3, 5 and 7. Although they don't complete the arduous SEAL training courses, their support and expertise are critical to a successful mission.
LOGSU's Seabees make sure SEALs have a place to stay in the field. Thanks to the transportation and construction capabilities of the Seabee teams, mobile quarters offer SPECWAR teams the flexibility to take their stealth and their talents to any of the world's environments.
Not only do the Seabees build a camp, they also climate control it--a seeming luxury--but a necessary environment for the technical communication aspect of a field tactical center the teams pack with them. A second benefit this environment offers is the ability to recuperate and re-supply if the mission requires it. A protected environment dose to the mission area and a hot meal prepared by a culinary specialist mean a SEAL can be sharper, stay longer and be more effective.
"We make sure that we have planning facilities, and that they can go in and take the time to plan their missions, and get out there and complete them," said Chief Storekeeper (SW) James Patterson. "And gym facilities. Those guys need to continue with their physical fitness when they are out there for a long period of time--like two or three months. We feel that we are really impacting their mission by providing them the best facilities possible."
Operating in hostile, unfamiliar terrain, often under cover of darkness, a SEAL team relies on its ability to communicate quickly. The mobile communication detachment is there to make sure that happens. A SEAL team is blind without good "comms," and whether securing a remote communications station or rescuing a downed pilot, they rely heavily on a wide array of radios, satellite lines and computers to keep them connected with each other and the outside world.
"If you can't communicate, you can't operate," said Electronics Technician 2nd Class (SW) Michael Shaw.
Shaw, who served previously on carrier duty, said the demands of a SEAL team means he has to be the expert in his field.
"To work alone at LOGSU as a communicator, you have to pull from within yourself and meet the needs of your platoon," said Shaw. "Unlike in the carrier, where it's more of a team effort, you are pretty much alone or with one other person. A lot of times, there aren't two people. It's just you, and you are solely responsible for that platoon. You have to know your material before you go out the door."
For SEALs, air operations adds the "air" capability to their Sea, Air, Land name. Air ops makes sure SEALs can have absolute faith in their parachute. Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class (AW/FPG) Brian Munos and the other nine parachute riggers who work with him understand the importance of their job. The lives of their teammates are literally in their hands as they pack chutes.
"All the riggers here know our role is crucial," said Munos. "The SEALs have a job to do, and that is to accomplish any mission placed in front of them. It's important to have the gear they might need ready, fully capable and fully loaded out for them to do whatever they have to do."
Like the air operations team, the underwater diving department shares similar responsibilities for life support equipment--just in a different environment.
Supporting six platoons--each platoon loaded with 18 sets of diving rigs, dive team members have their work cut out for them. The equipment includes sets of scuba gear with high-pressure compressors oxygen charging stations and low-pressure compressors for running oxygen-charging pumps. That the complex equipment has to work in extreme conditions and "under pressure" describes not only the submerged environment for the SEALS and the equipment, but also the need for the support techs to flawlessly prep, maintain and repair this equipment.
"We take care of anything to do with diving for all the SEAL teams," said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (DV) Michael Bailey, the diving department leading petty officer.
Like every other LOGSU support department, Bailey and his team are responsible for packing all the gear the SEALs need. More than 100 pallets of gear are deployed with a single team.
While radios, weapons, diving equipment and their parachutes are packed and checked by their respective support departments, a SEAL team's bag can't be packed without the coordination of the supply department.
"Without the supply department, the ship doesn't get tinder way, especially for NSW. We are the essential issue point for "all their gear," explained LT Frank Johnson, the LOGSU stores officer.
Johnson and his supply staff run the warehouse, purchase gear and keep tabs on more than 1,000 line items as they are received and issued to the SEAL teams, LOGSU and SPECWAR detachments overseas.
Although the supply department still performs the regular supply duties of furnishing pens and staples for administration, Johnson said a key part of his team's duties have to do with uniform issue. As might be guessed, uniform requirements for these warriors are somewhat more specialized than those Sailors who receive a standard sea bag. Consider ship-boarding gear, winter warfare gear, mountaineering gear and numerous others. Johnson said all those items are specially purchased and secured before being issued to SEAL operators.
The specialized nature of equipping the SEAL Teams' warriors makes supply duties a challenge, according to Storekeeper 2nd Class Fred**** Brown.
"The hardest thing about my job is dealing with all the different equipment we have," said Brown. "Depending on where these guys have to go and what their mission is, they need a lot of things, and it is my job to make sure that they have everything they need."
If there's an ongoing theme between the LOGSU departments, it is customer service. The engineering staff feels a keen customer service responsibility. Ordinarily a shop that is responsible for small craft maintenance and repair wouldn't deal much with customer service. Their focus would he on the equipment, and how to troubleshoot and repair boats or engines. With the SEAL team, however, these techs feel much closer to their customers.
"I know that every time they go out, they are carrying my boat with them," said Machinist's Mate 1st Class (AW) Joseph Moore, "and I do my job to fix the boats so they can go out and do their jobs."
It's engineering's job to make sure all the boats and their engines stay in working order. With an inventory of about 200 of each type of engine, they are constantly in a test and repair mode, verifying that each unit works before it goes back to the field. Once the engines are returned to the SEALs, the teams themselves care for and maintain them. For serious problems, the teams will send the engines back to engineering for repair.
When it comes to weapons, the ordnance specialists do business the same way. "Once the weapons are issued, it becomes the SEALs' responsibility to take care of them," said Gunner's Mate 1st Class Demp Harper. "They are as thoroughly trained on those weapons as we are, so they know how to take care of them. They will come to us when they need to, and if we can't fix the problem, we will simply replace the weapon and send the other one out."
Even after SEALs receive everything they need to accomplish a mission, they depend on medical personnel to stay operational. Even though a SEAL corpsman deploys with every squadron, LOGSU's medical department provides additional support, such as rehabilitation clinics for any injured SEALs.
"[Knowing] that our population is considerably healthier, we can rehab them a lot quicker," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Anderson Strickland, LOGSU's physical therapy technician. Strickland, who sees about 30 patients a day, also said that SEALs are more motivated to get better and get back out there, and that motivation helps his patients complete the rehabilitation process.
In the end, LOGSU doesn't work for the SEALs; they work with them. They share a common attitude of being ready to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. The SEAL depends on his training and equipment to complete the mission and to come home alive. SEALs know and appreciate what the men and women at LOGSU do to ensure they get the best tools possible to get the job done.
"I didn't think of them much before I came here," said Harper, who recalled working with SEALs during a tour aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).
"We had some SEALs that came on, and they would disappear, and we just knew they were taking care of business, so I always thought they were outstanding--the best part of the Navy."
Harper now has a deeper insight into what being a member of the Special Warfare community means.
"Now I see exactly how much sacrifice they have to make," he said, "because they come back from deployment and have to go right back out. I think they are even more outstanding and sacrificial than any other aspect of the Navy. They don't get to spend much time with their families. And they're all volunteers, so basically they put the Navy first all the time."