Story By: JO2 Donald P. Rule
email: parule62@cv62.navy.mil
Date: January 28, 1998
Story By: JO2 Donald P. Rule
email: parule62@cv62.navy.mil
Date: January 28, 1998
With the upcoming decommissioning, USS Independence's crew has been slowly diminishing. Many departments have fallen below their normal manning requirements - a normal routine when a ship enters its final remaining months. However, Indy is a unique ship that performs operations uniquely.
"Our operational readiness depends on certain ratings," said Lt. Cmdr. Jim Oakes, Administrative Officer, and a native of Santa Maria, Calif.
Oakes explained that Indy was following an uncommon decommissioning process. Normally, a ship would return to the states for about nine months prior to its decommissioning, however, Independence is scheduled to stay forward-deployed until its scheduled turnover with USS Kitty Hawk in July. He added that because Indy is remaining in a deployed status, the ship is required to stay at a higher "deployment" manning level instead of downsizing the crew deeply in the states.
Unfortunately, there has been a lack of new personnel reporting on board (which is normal for decommissioning ships). The ship was still transferring or separating personnel as normal which created a major shortfall in the ship's manning levels.
"We started identifying deficiencies in mission requirement ratings back in August," Oakes added. In November, requests were made to receive 75 temporary attached duty (TAD) personnel, scheduled to arrive on January 30 - with Indy's deployment to the Arabian Gulf, the ship needed to speed up the process. As of last Friday, all TAD personnel reported.
These TAD personnel came from commands that were reported as having excess personnel and could afford to lose some of its Sailors for a few months.
Oakes added that the TAD personnel who came from shore commands will have their shore duty Planned Rotation Dates (PRD) adjusted to keep their actual shore duty time at normal time limits despite having to going to sea in the middle of their shore tour.
Caption 1: ICFN Richard S. Doescher, V-2 VLA, is TAD from USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). 75 Sailors are TAD from other commands to assist in Independence's mission.