When USS Sioux City (LCS 11) was tapped to be the first littoral combat ship sent to Europe and the Middle East, the people at Logistics Support Team (LST) Mayport wanted to ensure the maximum likelihood of success for the historic deployment.
But with an up to seven-hour difference between Florida and the U.S. Fifth and Sixth Fleets, the logistics chain would be stretched to the maximum. So the team, which is part of Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Jacksonville, decided to take big steps.
Lt. Cmdr. Jonah Petrinovic was dispatched overseas for four months as an embedded liaison officer with operational commanders in Bahrain and Rota, Spain, to support the ship’s needs this spring and summer.
The Mayport team also changed its work hours, with two people starting at 4 a.m. to accommodate the time difference and later switching to a Sunday through Thursday schedule as a nod to the Middle East work week.
The big lesson learned was that team’s existing procedures work – it has successfully supported LCS deployments to South America over the past three years. But small tweaks like the employee shift changes matter. Also, with the distance, timely communication from the ship is a must.
“We celebrate the unique nature of this deployment and stellar support of the team, but I am not surprised by the well-oiled machine of the LST,” said Capt. Jim Strauss, FLC Jacksonville commanding officer. “The ship went to a new spot – 5th and 6th Fleet – but for the LST, it’s just business as usual.”
With littoral ships being minimally manned by design, the ship has only two designated logistics crew members – a chief petty officer and a 1st class petty officer – to handle the ship’s resupply needs. LST Mayport is a 40-person organization of civilians and service members tasked with handling supply for the soon-to-be 10 littoral ships stationed at Naval Station Mayport.
When a ship deploys, other U.S. Navy Fleet Logistics Centers around the world assist, but LST Mayport remains the primary logistics contact – really serving as the supply department for the crew.
“When you do all of the logistics from ashore, they have to be frequent and clear with their requirements. I don’t know how much fuel to order in Djibouti if they don’t tell me,” said Jim Smart, director of LST Mayport.
The addition of European and the Middle Eastern procedures and time zones were new complications to master.
“Ordering food and fuel in Ecuador is very different from ordering food and fuel in Egypt, for example,” Smart said. “Also, shipping parts to Guantanamo Bay versus Bahrain.”
LST Mayport ordered more than 2,800 line items and over $100,000 in provisions for Sioux City between April and October, including over 100 parts needed for mission-critical repairs known as CASREPs, as part of a $3.4 million budget. At refueling stops, an estimated 1.38 million gallons of fuel was delivered.
Petrinovic, who is deputy director of LST Mayport, said it was invaluable to have a liaison officer on the ground for this first deployment to a new theater. But, when two more littoral combat ships deploy this spring to the same area, no liaison officer will be sent. The Mayport team will have to use the lessons learned with Sioux City, Petrinovic said.
“There was a lot of goodness and easy wins by having the liaison officer team,” he said. For the future, “It can all be summed up in being as aggressive as possible and getting information out to people when it is needed.”
NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville is one of eight Fleet Logistics Centers under the NAVSUP command. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, NAVSUP employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor and family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.