The USS CARR celebrates its 27th and last “birthday”

CARR Families and Friends,

As we prepare for our upcoming port visit, I am meeting with all pay grades to discuss the importance of our conduct ashore – including the responsible use of alcohol and watching out for our shipmates. The latest Navy buzz phrase is, “liberty as a mission.” Although the phrase is new, the concept isn’t. As representatives of our great country, we need to ensure that our behavior reflects favorably on our nation. As they did last deployment, I am confident that everyone on board will conduct themselves properly and represent their families and friends well.

As a result of the heavy seas in the Caribbean, this was another slow week conducting our Countering Transnational Organized Crime (C-TOC) mission. Although the C-TOC mission has been slow, we are all still very busy maintaining our ship and working on advanced qualifications.

Our satellite television system is working well and many of our Sailors are taking the opportunity during meals and their off time to watch the Olympics.

Day 52 – Sunday, July 22nd
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Although we didn’t hold a steel beach picnic this week, our Culinary

Specialists did treat us to a Mongolian BBQ that included beef, chicken and shrimp with fresh vegetables we received yesterday. Great job to CS2 Harrold Edge, CS2 Timothy Faulkner, CSSN Timothy Keith, and CS3 Aaron Kinchen.

Today’s Captain’s Cup event was a home run derby on the flight deck using a ball made from paper and tape. Two people from each division attempted to hit as many home runs as possible before recording five outs. Teammates pitched to each other to avoid any arguments. After each team had a turn to bat, four teams were tied with two home runs – Air Det, LEDET, S1 and NAV/Admin. The competition proved to be a little more challenging than we anticipated. We made 200 balls and thought they would be flying off the flight deck, but that was not the case. The next round had Air Det and NAV/Admin each hit two more home runs and remain tied for first. The LEDET team of ME3 Josue Infante-Gil and ME3 Chad Scher hit one home run and finished a respectable third place. During the next round, XO and PSSR Matthew Dherckers cranked out five homeruns to lift NAV/Admin Division to first place and tie them overall for second place.

After seven Captain’s Cup events, the standings are as follows:
1st Place: OT Division & CE Division
2nd Place: EA Division, S2 Division, NAV/Admin

Day 53 – Monday, July 23rd
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Congratulations to Ensign Joshua Stewart upon earning his Officer of the Deck Qualification! He is the last Surface Warfare Officer to receive his OOD Qualification on board CARR. Well done!!

Day 54- Tuesday, July 24th
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BZ to EM2 Jereme Fuller who earned his Engineering Officer of the Watch Qualification…well done!

Day 55 – Wednesday, July 25th
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Although we announced last week that ET2 Corey Mink and ET3 Matthew Darby had earned their Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist qualification, we finally did the pinning this afternoon on the mess decks. I expect many more of our Sailors to achieve this important career milestone during deployment – our goal is to get everyone eligible qualified.

Day 56 – Thursday, July 26th
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At reveille this morning after the initial two seconds of the Boatswain’s Pipe, our shipboard shipboard announcing system (1MC) went down. This system is essential to ensure that we can synchronize our Sailors efforts in the event of a casualty. Our ET’s immediately took action to assess the cause of the casualty and determine if repairs could be conducted. Although a group effort, ET3 Matthew Darby took the lead on the repairs. Once the problem was found we discovered that we didn’t have the parts on board to fix it. Our ET’s used their resourcefulness to use a power supply from an unused system to provide the correct signal to the 1MC, restoring our capability to make ship-wide announcements. They demonstrated tenacity and superb technical knowledge.

As you can tell, we have been very busy with qualifications. Congrats to GSM2 Jesus Santana and GSM2 Kevin Barrientos upon earning their Engineering Officer of the Watch qualification today.

Day 57 – Friday, July 27th
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Today we celebrated CARR’s 27th birthday. Back on 27 July, 1985 our ship was commissioned at the Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle, Washington.

In the early afternoon we held an awards ceremony on the forecastle to recognize our Sailors who performed exceptionally during our pre-deployment training cycle events and inspection by the Board of Inspection and Survey; those earning their Good Conduct Award; and Sailors of the Quarter. Well done to the following Sailors:

Navy Achievement Medals:
GSMFN Kadeem Anderson STG2 David Botel
BM3 Melvin Cooks GSM3 Mark Craddock
EN3 Ryan Dahl ET3 Matthew Darby
ET1 Carl Denker ET3 Gregory Dyson
GSE2 Boubaker Fofana FC2 Gary Freas
EM2 Jereme Fuller FC2 Justin Gunderson
IC1 Derek Hotop GSM2 Robert Kirkman
FC1 Cody Koch EN2 Joseph Lawhorn
EN3 Elvin Lugo ET2 Michael McCullick
ET2 Corey Mink GSE2 Dale Robinson
GSM2 Jesus Santana LS1 Daniel Shelton
GSM3 Tyler Smith FC2 Stephen Stout
GSM3 Michael Vaughn ET3 David Zyats

Good Conducts Awards:
GSMFN Kadeem Anderson CTT2 Matthew Brown
BM3 Joshua Fidler HT1 Joshua Linton
OS2 Sean Malin ET2 Corey Mink
SHSN John Wild

Letters of Commendation:
DC3 Andrew Webb SN Brett Sapp
Sailors of the Quarter for April – June 2012:
Senior Sailor of the Quarter: LS1 Daniel Shelton
Junior Sailor of the Quarter: FC2 Justin Gunderson
Blue Jacket of the Quarter: YN3 Scott Hunt

Following the awards ceremony, we gathered on the mess decks to celebrate CARR’s birthday. The Petty Officer First Class Mess organized the event and presented history about Paul Henry Carr and a synopsis of CARR’s employment from 1985 through 2012. Thank you to the following who put the program together and presented it: IT1 LaMarcus Brown, LTJG Philip Chayka, CS2 Timothy Faulkner. IC1 Derek Hotop, OS2 Quinton McDonald, LS2 Dominique Sherrod, LS1 Larry Stephens, OS2 George Walker, and SH1 Jason Zarcone.

Great job to our Culinary Specialists for making two cakes to celebrate the occasion. Upon conclusion of the ceremony, our youngest Sailor, SN Okello Niles, joined me in cutting and serving cake to our crew.

Day 58 – Saturday, July 28th
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Although we have not had a significant opportunity to exercise our Sonar System and our Sonar Team, our Sonar Technicians were busy this week conducting preventive maintenance to our Active Sonar cooling system in order to ensure it remains ready for operation. After hours of cleaning out heat exchangers, replacing gaskets, lubricating pumps, and countless other tasks, they put the system back online. Great job to STG3 John Wilkinson and STG3 Larry Whitehead for getting their hands dirty and accomplishing some grueling maintenance!

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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”