Captain's Corner

SOUTHPAT (Southern Patrol) Newsletter

June 2011

Greetings family and friends of MELLON from the counter-drug fight off Central and South America. We have enjoyed more success since my last newsletter in keeping cocaine off the streets of America. At a future ceremony, we will add a new ‘snowflake’ to our bridge wing collection to mark a significant seizure by MELLON.

Places we visited since early May included a brief stop for fuel in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala on May 6, a port visit in Golfito, Costa Rica May 11-13 and a second visit to Balboa, Panama May 30-Jun 2.

In addition to disrupting narcotics trafficking, MELLON responded to a mayday call from the cargo vessel BULK TRADER. The BULK TRADER reported that her engine room was on fire and that she had no or propulsion and was on emergency battery power. Upon arriving on scene the fire was reported extinguished. MELLON sent DCC Doug Knight and LTJG Mike Prosser to ascertain the extent of the damage, the condition of the crew and to facilitate communications with the Greek master. Fortunately, all 24 crew members were OK but she was adrift with no hope of restoring propulsion. At night the BULK TRADER was vulnerable to collision because of her location in a heavily traveled shipping lane. MELLON lowered her risk when EM1 Hans Shaffer designed temporary ‘Not Under Command’ lighting while EM2 Phillip Nakoa rigged it on the BULK TRADER. MELLON then stood by the vessel until a commercial tug arrived to take her under tow.

In other operations, MELLON refueled at sea alongside Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship HMCS PROTECTEUR on June 7. It was a textbook evolution. ENS Jennifer Davidson did a fine job conning MELLON alongside and BM3 John Cavendish and SN Graham Gentry skillfully steered as Master Helmsmen. BM2 Dillon Smith led a superb deck force effort as Rig Captain.

Down in Main Control, the Engineer Officer of the Watch MKCS Justin Fitzpatrick teamed with MK1 Krista Beck and MK1 Nick Reiser on throttles to keep our speed in perfect step with PROTECTEUR. The refueling coincidently occurred just after game three of the Stanley Cup NHL championship between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. Our fueling stations exchanged friendly banter about the future Cup winner and we observed PROTECTEUR crew members proudly wearing their team’s jersey. Unfortunately for them the Bruins were eventually victorious, which prompted sympathy emails to PROTECTEUR from MELLON hockey fans.

We found time to unwind a bit at sea in between busy operations. Morale events included fish calls, a flight deck skeet shoot, casino night, spades card tournament and trivia nights. The highlight event was a swim call when over 70 crewmembers took advantage of sunny skies to jump into a Pacific Ocean that featured perfect water temperature and flat seas.