Site Chinhae, comprised of 16 personnel, provided postal services, fleet support, advanced traceability and control (ATAC) services and contracting support to U.S. Navy units visiting in South Korea.
“We typically support up to 90 port visits per year,” said Lt. j.g. Jay Singer, NAVSUP FLC Yokosuka Site Chinhae site director. “It’s a significant demand on a smaller team and we work efficiently to support our mission partners.”
Dry cargo ships USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2), USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10) and USNS Alan Shepherd (T-AKE 3) requested husbanding services, delivery of mail and ATAC support from Site Chinhae. The primary mission of these ships is to provide logistic lift to deliver ammunition, food, limited quantities of fuel, repair parts and ships store items.
Before the ships arrived, Site Chinhae’s contracting and logistics support representative team had all logistics requests on standby and sent representatives to the ships upon their arrival to immediately deliver products and services.
Site Chinhae received and shipped over $1.75 million of depot level repairable materials between the three ships and certified multiple pieces of hazardous materials with zero mishaps. Five postal personnel delivered over a ton of mail across the three ships, one of which was in restriction of movement (ROM), meaning personnel had to remain on the ship to prevent the spread of COVID-19. To ensure postal support could continue, Site Chinhae Sailors and a South Korean civilian employee arranged the craning of mail to the crew in ROM from the pier, to make sure no contact was made to limit the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
“We also supported our mission partners by providing postal services such as sending out packages. Some customers were unfamiliar with the new United States Postal Service customs forms guidelines that went into effect last year,” said Logistics Specialist 1st Class Nickalos Shine, Chinhae Post Office leading petty officer. “My team and I are here to help, so we advised and assisted them on how to complete electronic customs forms for faster counter processing.”
Husbanding services coordinated by Site Chinhae and local husbanding service included pilot and tug boat support, potable water, shore power cable riggers, line handler services, mobile crane assistance, bus services, cell services and more.
“We are the boots on the ground to help facilitate the needs of the fleet while keeping the contractors that provide these critical services accountable,” said Harry Mayes, NAVSUP FLC Yokosuka Site Chinhae deputy site director. “This community has been very protective of visiting units during the pandemic, helping them to get rested and resupplied in a safe manner.”
NAVSUP FLC Yokosuka is one of eight FLCs under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter.