CARR was born in the waters of the Pacific and gets one last taste.

CARR Families and Friends,

We have entered the back half of deployment; however, we still have lots to do before we get home. In the next few weeks we will be pierside for a few days to support some mid-deployment maintenance – including both preventive and corrective.

I have found out why the approval for the Tiger Cruise has been delayed and should be able to get that process moving again – I expect to get approval in the next couple of weeks.

Day 94 – Sunday, September 2nd
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Underway from Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Panama and our first full day of steaming in the Pacific. CARR was born in the waters of the Pacific and gets one last taste. The good news for us all is that it is much cooler over here.

Great job to our Helicopter Detachment upon completing their maintenance phase and successfully completing their functional check flight to return our helicopter to operation. Specific thanks to AD1 Jared Melton, AD2 Scott Stearns, and AD3 Ethan Wallis – they removed, conducted maintenance, and reinstalled the entire tail rotor assembly.

AM3 Quinton McDonald replaced the main rotor head damper. AM2 Christopher Geiger and AM3 Kyle Eyer checked the main landing gear assemblies to ensure they were within specification. Also great job to

AT3 Jak Lopez and AT1 Eduardo Diaz who assisted in troubleshooting the radar

Day 95 – Monday, September 3rd (Labor Day)
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Today we held a belated half-way day celebration/Labor Day cookout with a steel beach picnic hosted by the Chief’s Mess. Today’s Captain’s Cup event was tug of war. Three personnel from each division competed in a tug of war on the flight deck (in order to minimize the chance of people getting scraped up, we put down gym mats…as a result nobody sustained injury). The LEDET muscled their way through and were the winners despite some tough competition from Deck and S1 Division. S1 took 2nd place and Deck third.

After twelve Captain’s Cup events, the standings are as follows:
1st Place: S2 Division, LEDET (25 pts)
3rd Place: OI Division (22 pts)

Thank you to the Family Readiness Group! After the halfway party, the crew hung up a sheet decorated by the spouses and children. It’s always great knowing how much our Sailors are missed!

Day 96 – Tuesday, September 4th
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There is much more commercial fishing in the Pacific compared to what we observed in the Caribbean (and it is also much cooler over here). The increased fishing traffic has made it much more difficult to sort out the legitimate fisherman from the smugglers. Although we got within 45 miles of the equator, I don’t think we will be able to cross – if we get the chance we will do it.

Day 97 – Wednesday, September 5th
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Today we were sent to search for a specific fishing vessel – no easy task in an ocean cluttered with fishing vessels. Thanks to the work by

OS2 William Parker, OS3 Caleb Bryant, and OSSN Joseph Casias in our Combat Information Center, we were able to correlate information and find the vessel. This is the first time we have found a suspect vessel without using an airborne asset.

Day 98 – Thursday, September 6th
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Today we boarded a suspect fishing vessel; however, they dumped their load before we were able to get on board. Although we didn’t get the bust, we still get credit for a disruption…the drugs did not get delivered.

During our boarding operations there are many Sailors working to support the Coast Guard LEDET, including those in Deck Division, Engineers, CIC, and Supply. Great job to CS3 Willie Martinez who responded to calls around the clock to ensure that our LEDET and Boat crew had a constant supply of food and water during the boarding.

Day 99 – Friday, September 7th
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Friday is our usual training day and today we focused on Damage Control Readiness. This focus will continue throughout the weekend as some of our senior people will inspect each space on the ship to ensure we meet all damage control requirements. Members of our Damage Control Training Team, LTJG James Peluso, DCC Justin Jones, HTC(Select) Josh Linton, and DC1 Jeremiah Robertson conducted training for the repair locker personnel on the various items in the repair kits and their practical application.

GMSN Steven Joyce was a huge asset for CG division this week because of all the space preservation he helped with. Preservation is important at this stage in CARR’s life, because all spaces must be adequately preserved before we can decommission the ship. Hard work now will result in less work the crew has to do when we get back in port!

On Friday evening we experienced a loss of chill water; chill water is what cools both our equipment and our spaces. CARR got hot very quickly! Our lead Air Conditioning Technician, EN3 Elvin Lugo, was on it immediately – both he and EMC David Boulter immediately identified the source of the problem and led a ship wide effort to restore the system. As they led efforts, A-Division provided support, including EN2 Hezekiah Crandall, EN3 Joseph Kruse, EN3 Joshua Young, and EN1 Andrew Moye. Nice job by all.

Great job to ET2 Corey Mink who secured our vital electronic systems to prevent damage as a result of a loss of cooling and to our Communications Division which acted quickly to shut down non essential communications systems. IT1 Richard Freese and IT1 Kevin Bultman took care of the computer networks while IT2 Tuan Gross, IT3 Edward Szwarc, and ITSN Christopher Noonan handled the radio transmitters and receivers. Great job!

Congratulations to our latest round of Sailors to complete their Enlisted Surface Warfare Qualification: CS3 Jonathan Brown, BM2 Matthew Mudderman and ET3 David Zyats. That makes 13 Sailors who have earned this qualification during our deployment…hoping to see many more before we return to Norfolk.

Day 100 – Saturday, September 8th
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BZ to DC2 Andy Fernandez and DC3 Andrew Webb who spent the day repairing a leak on one of our Fire Pumps – Well Done!

Great job to LS2 Lawrence Stubblefield who took charge of processing

$200,000 in repair parts and supplies this week. We are nearing the end of our fiscal year, and making sure we make a strategic investment with our remaining funds to get us through the end of deployment and prepare to place equipment in layup upon our return to Norfolk.

As is tradition, we enjoyed a pizza and wings for dinner. So far this deployment the crew has consumed 4,200 pizzas and 18,000 hot wings.

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Jessica Meissner OMBUDSMAN
April Linton Co-OMBUDSMAN
Jackie Lease FRG President
Please join CARR along with our OMBUDSMAN and Family Readiness Group:
CARR
https://www.facebook.com/FFG52
OMBUDSMAN
http://www.facebook.com/pages/USS-CARR-
ombudsman/219688138070847?sk=wall
CARR Family Readiness Group
www.facebook.com/USSCARRFRG
Sailors Name
Department/Division
USS CARR (FFG 52)
FPO AE 09566-1506
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Until next Sunday, stay safe CARR Family and Friends!

CDR Patrick Kulakowski
Commanding Officer
USS CARR (FFG 52)
“Courage, Will, Determination!