USS CARR Families and Friends –
Congratulations to the winners of the First Kiss/First Hug Drawing –
First Kiss – IC1 Derek Hotop and his wife Emily
First Hug – OSC Chris Van and his wife Kathy
Also, for those new dads who did not get a chance to get home to see their newborn during deployment, they will be allowed to depart as soon as the brow is across and the first kiss and first hug are done. I hope to see many of you on Tuesday morning!
Day 146 – Sunday, November 6th
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Great job to HT1 Joshua Linton who masterfully fabricated a temporary welding repair for number one Ship’s Service Diesel Generator (SSDG) air intake flapper valve. The flapper valve is an essential piece of safety equipment used to shut down the diesel engine in the event of an emergency; however, if the flapper doesn’t stay open the engine can’t get air to run. His repairs proved to be critical – the very next day we needed to use number one SSDG during our inbound trip into Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), Cuba.
EM3 Jereme Fuller continued to demonstrate unrelenting drive and keen troubleshot skill as he continued his efforts to investigate our flight deck lighting system. He traced the wiring hand over hand and located a hidden junction box, re-wired it, and corrected the light outage, thus fully restoring Carr’s flight deck lighting. Once again, EM3 Fuller demonstrated he is a master at electrical work.
Day 147 – Monday, November 7th (Arrived Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
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Congratulations to the following upon earning their Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist qualification: EN3 Elvin Lugo, IS2 Jason Hirsch, and BM3 Melvin Cooks. Well done!
Today we arrived in Guantanamo Bay….A little background courtesy Wikipedia:
The bay was called Guantánamo by its original inhabitants, the Taínos; however, Christopher Columbus landed in 1494 and renamed it Puerto Grande (big port…very original). When Spanish settlers took control of Cuba, the bay became a vital harbor on the south side of the island. The bay was then briefly known as Cumberland Bay when the British seized it in 1741.
The naval base, nicknamed “GTMO” or “Gitmo”, covers about 45 square miles on the western and eastern banks of the bay. It was established in 1898, when the United States took control of Cuba from Spain following the Spanish-American War. A perpetual lease for the area around Guantánamo Bay was offered February 23, 1903, from Tomás Estrada Palma, the first President of Cuba. The newly formed American protectorate incorporated the Platt Amendment (Mr. Hand mad a reference to this in Fast Times at Ridgemont High for those keeping score) in the Cuban Constitution. The Cuban-American Treaty held, among other things, that the United States, for the purposes of operating coaling and naval stations, has “complete jurisdiction and control” of the Guantánamo Bay, while the Republic of Cuba is recognized to retain ultimate sovereignty.
In 1934 the Avery Porko treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and its trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in U.S. gold coins per year to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 in U.S. dollars, and made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it or until the U.S. abandoned the base property. After the Cuban Revolution, President Dwight Eisenhower insisted the status of the base remained unchanged, despite Fidel Castro‘s objections. Since then, the Cuban government has cashed only one of the rent checks from the U.S. government, and even then only because of “confusion” in the early days of the leftist revolution, according to Castro. The remaining uncashed checks made out to “Treasurer General of the Republic” (a title that ceased to exist after the revolution) are kept in Castro’s office stuffed into a desk drawer. The United States argues that the cashing of the single check signifies Havana’s ratification of the lease — and that ratification by the new government renders moot any questions about violations of sovereignty and illegal military occupation
Day 148 – Tuesday, November 8th (In Port Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
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Bravo Zulu to GSM3 Robert Kirkman for his attention to detail. While standing watch he discovered a pinhole leak on a salt water strainer in Auxiliary Machinery Room 2, which if left undetected could have caused flooding and significant damage to equipment. HT1 Joshua Linton and HT3 Tony Oliveri snapped into action and worked tirelessly to conduct welding repairs to nearly three-decade old six-inch section of seawater piping. They dedicated more than eight hours of work and sacrificed well earned liberty in Cuba to stop the leak.
Awesome job by MR2 Kevin Smith who conducted lengthy repairs to the starboard SPS-49 Air Search RADAR overboard cooling water discharge cover at the expense of liberty while in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This discharge cover plate was removed while we were up at NYC Fleet Week because several of the bolts had worked their way out. The purpose of the cover plate is to deflect water down the side of the hull to permit pilot boats and tugs to come alongside; without the cover plate we could easily swamp one of these vessels with water. His efforts have not only made these evolutions safer, but assisted in making our starboard side look more aesthetically pleasing (it’ll matter when you see the ship returning home!)
Day 149 – Wednesday, November 9th (Departed Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
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Great job to EM2 Quang Duong who installed a new control panel for the small pulper, a machine that processes waste food, paper, and cardboard materials into a fine slurry for overboard discharge.
Bravo Zulu to ET3 Gregory Dyson for conducting emergency repairs to Carr’s radar display on the bridge, contributing to Carr’s safe navigation detail out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also quickly responded to a separate Combat Systems casualty by restoring radar inputs to the ship’s weapons systems. As always, he demonstrated suburb technical skill!
Congratulations to LSSN DeWayne Gilkes and his wife upon the birth of Keymora Gilkes, born at 1915 at 6lb, 10oz. Mother and baby are both doing well at DePaul Hospital.
Day 150 – Thursday, November 10th
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Great job to EN3 Elvin Lugo who spent the better part of today working to install the Wardroom Reefer –a job that sounds much easier than it was to do. Appreciate his hard work!!
Day 151 – Friday, November 11th
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Today our helicopter flew off and headed back to Mayport. Our Helicopter Firefighting Team did a super job throughout our time down in the Caribbean – they worked some late hours ensuring we would be ready if disaster struck. Thanks go out to DCC Justin Jones, HT1 Joshua Linton, DC1 Raul Beltran, EN3 Blake Petenbrink, HT3 Tony Oliveri, HT3 Isaac Boston, DCFN Dylan Graf, and EM3 Jereme Fuller.
Today we held our end of cruise awards ceremony; awarding a significant number of personnel who exemplified our motto of “Courage, Will, and Determination!” Although I couldn’t give awards to everyone, the majority of our crew did a tremendous job throughout deployment. Thanks to admin department who ensured our awards were ready to go, ensuring they were presented prior to arriving back in Norfolk! BZ to NC1 Brandon Giddens, YN2 Edward Williams, YNSN Timothy Crowell, and YNSN Nestor Noyolaruiz.
Day 152 – Saturday, November 12th (Brief stop for fuel – Mayport, Florida)
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Today we welcomed our new Command Senior Chief on board – AECS Jacob Bristow. The billet has been gapped since May, although BMCS Feagin and LSCS Padilla did a brilliant job filling in. It will be good to have some stability at the Command Senior Chief Position. Welcome aboard to him and his wife Cindy.
Congratulations today to our latest round of personnel who earned their Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist qualification: HM2 Eric Nobriga, STG2 David Botel, CSSN Willie Martinez, AG2 Kristian Shelley, and OS3 William Parker.
We also received our Blue Nose Certificates today (earned for crossing North of the Arctic Circle). I have signed them all, and those eligible will be receiving them on Sunday and Monday.
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I look forward to seeing many of you on the pier on Tuesday, stay safe Carr Family and Friends!
CDR Patrick Kulakowski
Commanding Officer
USS CARR (FFG 52)
“Courage, Will, Determination”
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