Since 04-04-03

From the Naval Submarine League Update for 04-03-03

By ROBERT A. HAMILTON

Day Staff Writer

Published on 3/24/2003

Aboard the USS Providence - The Providence took part in its first daylight strike into Iraq on Saturday morning, its fifth combat mission in the two days since the war began.  A salvo of Tomahawks sped into the clear blue sky over the Red Sea as faces in the crowded control room fixed on the large television monitors throughout the room. The missiles, which had been obscured by the fireball of the rocket motor in nighttime launches, could be easily distinguished in the full sun. 

"Looks different in daylight," observed the chief of the watch to the silent room.  Providence, which fired its first missiles on Thursday and then three salvos on Friday in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, continued its combat status Saturday. 

Among the crew, the chatter seemed to be as much about missing another "field day" - the dreaded weekly three-hour, top-to-bottom cleaning of the ship - as it was about the launches.  In the control room, everyone seems to have settled into a more comfortable routine than on the first launch. 

The captain, Cmdr. Jonathan H. Kan, who had moved from station to station on the first night offering words of encouragement to his men, spent most of Saturday morning in the center of the room, hands clasped behind his back, rarely speaking. Since the room snaps to attention whenever he talks, that allowed people to focus more on their jobs. 

A few minutes later the next missiles were on their way.  "This is the captain," he said over the ship's public address system in a terse telegram-like announcement. "Missiles away. Successful transition to cruise. Inbound Iraq. Carry on." 

Since the war began, crewmen on the Groton-based Providence have been setting a hectic pace.  At midmorning Saturday, just minutes after the executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Thad E. Nisbett, headed to his stateroom after manning the midnight watch, the broadcast system on Providence blared to life for the fifth time in 36 hours with the message: "Battle stations, strike." 

As Nisbett scrambled to the control center, bleary-eyed members of the emergency medical team scrambled to the wardroom, their assigned space.  Chief Electronics Technician Nikola Lohse rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. After the strikes of Friday night, he had gone right on duty as chief of the watch, and gotten to bed a short time before duty again called.  "I'm starting not to like this alarm clock," Lohse said. "It goes off even when I don't set it." 

Though the weather was clear, brisk winds had whipped up the waves to the point the whitecaps were breaking over the periscope. Though it's hard to gauge the weather outside when you're inside a 6,900-ton steel tube, even the Providence was being rocked by the weather.  Control buzzed with discussions between the battle stations crewmembers, who seem to be speaking just a little louder at each strike.

The navigator, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph A. Baldi, scanned the horizon for any ships that could delay the launch.  "Five minutes to time of launch," announced the "Chop," or supply officer, Lt. Carl Koch.  "Ship is ready," Baldi said.  "Mission is ready," Nisbett said.  "Weapon is ready," said the weapons officer, Lt. Eric Svensson. 

"Very well," the captain responded to each pronouncement. As the launch time arrived, there were announcements in a staccato fashion from various crewmen, leading to the final, "Launch ordered."  "Missile away," Baldi said, followed a few seconds later by, "transition to cruise."  Behind the periscopes, Lt. JG John Killila was monitoring the inter-ship "chat," a sort of Instant Messaging software on a secure computer network that allows

Providence to talk to other ships instantaneously.  Though it was installed on Providence prior to its 2001 deployment, when it got an advanced antenna and the data transmission capacity to support it, the crew is still in awe of it.  "Chat on a surface ship is one thing.

They've had it for a while," said Lt. JG Jeff Yackeren. "But chat on a submarine blows people's minds, because we've been independent units for so long."  The captain offered one observation during a short lull between the first and second set of launches in the Saturday morning barrage.  "Time does not move fast between shots," Kan said. "It's crawling." 

For others, the time seems to move very rapidly, particularly considering how quickly the new strike orders have been coming onto the boat.  But some of the crewmen noted that the tactical readiness inspection the crew had to undergo before deploying was even worse, because not only were they expected to perform multiple firing drills, the inspection team also threw ship casualties into the simulations. 

 "Getting ready to deploy is tougher than deploying," Kan acknowledged. "They test all the possibilities, so you're ready for them, which is good."