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For many Americans, weekends provide a time of respite from the responsibilities of the workweek. For the Navy’s selected reservists, however, weekends bring a new set of responsibilities—as the author has discovered while commanding the USS Esteem (MSO-438), one of the 23 Naval Reserve Force minesweepers now in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Each ship’s crew includes about 40 citizen-sailors who join her active duty personnel on a regular basis to participate in mine countermeasures exercises.
The Naval Reserve Force MSOs rely heavily on the knowledge and experience of the selected reservists for several reasons. The reduced active duty manning of the minesweepers dictates that all reserve personnel be particularly proficient in their specialties. The continuity supplied by the selected reservists qualified in mine countermeasures operations provides a contrast to the continuous cycle of reassignments of active duty personnel.
Maintenance of that proficiency is the purpose of life on board the minesweepers. In the Puget Sound, the Esteem and two sister ships, the Conquest (MSO- 488) and Implicit (MSO-455) are the vehicles for qualifying as minecountermeasures specialists men who occupy civilian positions such as restaurant chefs, construction workers, machinists, and aircraft design engineers. These citizen-sailors must be professionally current in their ratings and be qualified to direct
or contribute to the physical deploying of mine countermeasures equipment and/or to the coordinated maneuvering of minesweepers. One weekend each month and a two-week annual active duty for training (ACDUTRA) period afford the opportunity for intensive training.
Each ship typically takes aboard the reservists Friday evening, and they drill until Sunday evening. The Friday evening drill period is most frequently used in final preparation for a scheduled exercise. We spend Saturday and Sunday under way. The vagaries of weather, particularly in the Puget Sound area, complicate the training exercises which have to be completed within a short time. The ships must often wind through fleets of pleasure craft or creep through dense fog to operating areas coordinated with local authorities. Effective operating time and exercise completion are the objectives.
The internal routine of the ships is identical to active Navy routine. Engineering casualty control ex-
A large portion of the U. S. mine countermeasures capability is to he found in the Naval Reserve Force ships. Not only do these ships perform a useful mission in training reservists for possible minesweeping duty, but the ships themselves are useful assets as planners prepare to meet future contingencies. In the weekend drill periods, the ships’ crews get valuable experience working together as teams; there are also opportunities for individual training, such as that received by the two NROTC midshipmen in khakis, seen talking with Commander Daly.
ercises are conducted below deck, meal preparation continues in the galley, and a myriad of administrative duties is completed throughout the ship. Each minesweeper’s executive officer is a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. The operations and weapons officer billets are usually filled by reserve lieutenants. The mine countermeasures officer, engineer officer, and damage control assistant are active duty ensigns and lieutenants (junior grade). The commanding officer is normally an active duty lieutenant commander. The crew is comprised of 60% active duty and 40% selected reserve personnel.
A key person in the fusing of active duty and reserve officers and sailors is the mine division commander. He is a selected reservist who exercises tactical command of the MSOs in his geographic area during weekend training periods. The division commander ensures that tactical maneuvering proficiency is maintained as the MSOs proceed with coordinated operations. Approximately 15 hours on a given
A key to successful training is multiship operations, under a Naval Reserve mine division commander. Although the wooden-hulled minesweepers are hand-me-downs from the active forces, they offer their crews, regular and reserve, a sense of fleet operations by having them work together during all-too-hrief training periods. The ships have another useful function as well—extending the Navy’s message to the communities where they are homeported. Roth family members and the general public thus feel a closer connection with the Naval Reserve and its people.
weekend are available for streaming and recovery of equipment. Time is obviously of the essence.
On completion of the weekend training, the selected reservists resume their civilian occupations. An identity change, however, does not accompany the uniform shift. The selected reservist remains a citizen-sailor and is able to carry the Navy’s message into his community. He is able to inform his associates about the value of community support for a strong Navy and about the nature of mine countermeasures operations.
The reservists’ active duty counterparts continue their service throughout the month. Between reserve training periods, the active duty crew is involved in a daily routine similar to that for fleet ships which regularly deploy to various parts of the world. Cyclic and annual inspections, maintenance availabilities, refresher training, and fleet exercise preparation are familiar terms to the active duty crew.
Technology has fostered many advances in warfare
at sea. Fortunately the dedication of Navy personnel has kept pace. Technology has not outstripped the need for time-tested methods of warfare such as mine warfare and for personnel qualified to wage it. Largely unknown, the Naval Reserve Force minesweepers rendezvous in the straits and harbors of the United States to maintain a national capability and ensure that the integration of active duty personnel and selected reservists is an effective reality.
Commander Daly, a 1968 Naval Academy graduate, served at sea in the USS Rowan (DD- 782), USS Wiltsie (DD-716), and USS Roark (FF-1053) before taking command of the USS Esteem (MSO-438) in January 1979. He served as flag lieutenant on the staff of Cruiser-Destroyer __ _ > Flotilla 1 l/Cruiser Destroyer Group 3 and has at
tended Destroyer School, the Defense Language Institute at Monterey, and the German Command and Staff College in Hamburg.