Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Ingleside ships sent to Bahrain

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Thursday, July 20, 2000

Ingleside ships sent to Bahrain
USS Raven, Cardinal assigned to Mideast
By Deborah Martínez
Caller-Times
Three gulfs, one ocean and three seas from now, Naval Station Ingleside's USS Raven and USS Cardinal will say hello to their new home in the Persian Gulf.
   Trailing close behind the coastal mine hunters to Bahrain are 104 crew members, families, pets and scattered memories of South Texas. But first, the crews have to check their equipment, clear their passports and tug their boats onto a ship.
   The motor vessel Blue Marlin, one of the world's largest semi-submersible heavy lift ships, will piggy back the Raven and Cardinal nearly 10,000 miles, across the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, Red and Arabian Seas, the Gulf of Oman, and finally into the Persian Gulf.
   Crews will spend today and Friday getting the two ships aboard the Blue Marlin. The Norwegian motor vessel will be partially sunk into the waters off Naval Station Ingleside's shore so the Raven and Cardinal can board her.
   The transport will take 35 days and cost the Navy about $1 million, said Capt. Gary Belcher, commander of Mine Countermeasures Squadron Three, who oversees mine countermeasures operations in the Persian Gulf. If the Raven and Cardinal would sail on their own, it would take about 80 days each and cost more as well, he said.
   "What we're doing out there is creating a presence," Belcher said. "The ships act as a deterrent. We're creating stability in the region based on friendship and respect."
   The Bahraini government gave the go-ahead last year for the U.S. Navy to send four permanent crews to live in its country and serve aboard ships deployed there. The other two ships, the USS Ardent and USS Dextrous, have been there since 1996 and crews have taken turns serving on them.
   Scared and excited
   In Ingleside Wednesday, sailors aboard the Raven and Cardinal said they were a little nervous, kind of scared, but really excited. Eighteen-year-old Jeremy Bennett, a seaman apprentice aboard the Raven, said he looked forward to expanding his horizons beyond Texas and his native Tennessee.
   Petty Officer Luke Holt was a little anxious about how the Bahraini people would receive him. Even if it is exciting to learn foreign customs, Holt said, the region's Muslim culture would be difficult to get used to. And so would settling into an environment that could become volatile at any moment, he said.
   "My parents are really nervous about me leaving," said the 19-year-old sailor assigned to the Cardinal. "It can make anybody nervous. But we're more than capable to handle any situation."
   'That's a war zone!'
   Then there's Chief Petty Officer Bob Betts. He and his wife, Sandi, are in a whirlwind, trying to get their daughters, Arielle, 10, and Kayla, 8, ready to live in a region many Americans consider violent.
   Regardless, the Bettses bubbled with anticipation Wednesday. Bob Betts, assigned to the Raven, said he is thrilled his daughters will go to school with children from places such as Australia, Great Britain and Bahrain. The son of the Bahraini prince will be one of Arielle and Kayla's classmates, he said.
   The family arrives in Bahrain in late August.
   "I'm excited and I'm scared," said Sandi Betts. "You hear different stories and it's usually bad, from people who haven't been exposed to any of it. I tell people where we're going and they say, 'What? That's a war zone!' It's going to be really different. But we're so excited to give this opportunity to our children."
   A caretaker crew made up of 19 men will sail with the Raven and Cardinal to Bahrain, aboard the Blue Marlin. The crew will sleep on their ships and eat with the Blue Marlin crew. Cmdr. Tony Swain, commanding officer of the Raven, will be in charge of both ships during the voyage. Cmdr. Peter K. Dallman, skipper of the Cardinal, will stay behind and help the remaining crew and their families move to their new home.
   The ships will reach their new home in August, but it won't be until November when they have their first exercise.
   "If I can get all the families comfortable there and back to normal Navy life, I'll be OK," Swain said. "When you have (104) crew members, families, pets and other odds and ends, it's a challenge."


Staff writer Deborah Martínez can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail at _martinezd@caller.com

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