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CSBR-1 ORE of SBU-XI 1991 San Diego Final Exercise |
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Sometime in the spring of
1991 not long after DESERT STORM was over we received word that BOATRON
ONE wanted to do an “Operational Readiness Evaluation” (ORE) of our PBR
Det. At that time we had our usual “Ready Det” of Active Duty guys who
knew if any real-world tasking came up they would be the first ones to go
and pretty much spent their time training. Since we’d been waiting to
deploy for the biggest war seen in those days, the Dets had been training
hard. The
current Ready Det was Bob Young’s which included a bunch of the guys I’d
had in my first PBR Det before I got Shanghai’d as interim XO. We’d mobilized a bunch of
our Reservists under DESERT SHIELD/ DESERT STORM and they were still on
orders; training up for the call that would now probably never come. When
talking to the Commodore - CAPT Jon Wright - about the ORE our CO, CDR
Doug Hatfield, offered up one of the Reserve Dets for the ORE in addition
to Bob’s. In the course of the conversation about “Ready Dets” the
question came up in the form of “Well,
how many do you have?”
The
answer was apparently three;
“Active, Reserve and ‘Contingency’” (meaning experienced guys working
other jobs who could stand up quickly and deploy if needed). Anyone who
knows CAPT Wright can attest that you don’t report anything you’re
not ready to have tested. Subsequent to this call those of us who would
become the “Contingency Det” were informed about the concept and our
participation in same – in two follow-on sentences. Fortunately for me I
got some amazing guys (with one glaring exception); EN1 Mark Freid from
the Engine Shop and QM1 Ed Bearden from Ops became my Boat Captains; I got
three guys from the Armory (Doug Cullison, Goodenbouer and Dan – jeez Dan,
I’m drawing a blank on your last name!); the Snipes gave up DC2 Raoul
Sanchez and EN3 Nikki Markert – all great guys! Raoul Sanchez came up with
the Det name – “Los Chingones”. We had a couple-three weeks to train up
but we shook down into a pretty good bunch – tribute to the guys far more
than any “leadership” from me. Our underway training was also greatly
aided by having intercom systems (salvaged from armored vehicles) recently
installed the boats. What seemed to be most of SBU-XI (including six
PBR’s) loaded up and got trucked down to San Diego where we set up camp
near the Degaussing Station on Ballast Point. Those of us in the Dets were soon underway doing
individual evals of Damage Control with some training patrols thrown in.
One of the explanations I heard for bringing us down to San Diego was to
not test us in the sloughs of our “own backyard”. Well, it was a thought;
but all three of the Det OIC’s had served on ships homeported in San
Diego.
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The original extract site was to be in Mission Bay.
We quickly nixed that owing to the requirement to transit out of San Diego
Bay through the extensive kelp beds (really a bad idea for pump-driven
boats) at Point Loma. We set the extract site at one of the public fishing
areas pretty far down in south bay. We knew there was a good site at the
end of “J” Street in National City . To my immense relief, the extract
site was approved. Since we had everything and everybody that had been
brought down from Mare Island at our disposal we’d use one of our OpFor
craft (a Whaler with twin outboards) as the pickup boat and include our
two enlisted SEALS (BMC Golden Bear and EN2 Goldilocks) in the pickup
party. The planning went quickly and I don’t remember any
issues at the briefback. The plan was to put Joe Cameras two boats across
the bay to the west-southwest (just south of Coronado Cays) as on-call
illum from one of our 60mm Mortars (this was “notional” of course we
weren’t ever gonna get permission to shoot illum there for real), Bob
Young’s Det (The “Lost Boys”) was going to screen to the north and we’d go
in close with the pickup boat. Doug Hatfield rode along with me but did
such a good job at staying in the background I barely realized he was
there. The BoatRon Training
Officer LT E.L “Jack” Spratt had press-ganged some ROTC Midshipmen as our
“Embassy Personnel” as much for their willingness to be taking a boat ride
in the wee hours of the morning as anything else. All was going well with
the pickup boat at the extract site and BMC Golden Bear doing the
processing … until … one of the Mids either didn’t know or had forgotten
his “role”. Our information was that we had the “Ambassador”, three other
“State Department” personnel and four Marines from the Security Det to
pick up. As BMC Golden Bear got to the fifth Mid, the kid didn’t ID
himself properly and as a result found Golden Bear’s SIG pressed into his
forehead as the Chief growled “Mr. Ambassador,
where are your Marines?”
Jack intervened before the kid fainted
away and the rest of the embark proceeded without injury. As soon as we
saw the Whaler underway we called in Joe’s Det.
and
started motoring northward with the Whaler between us. Once we linked up
with Bob we put the Whaler in the middle of the formation and continued to
clear the area; once we’d moved far enough north we slowed and split the
refugees among the PBR’s leaving the Whaler in the middle as a potential
decoy. As soon as we neared Ballast Point Doug Hatfield sidled up to me and said “That went exactly as you briefed it. That’s as good as it gets.” Author: Lt Rob Gale, Detachment Alpha OIC |
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