Independence crewmembers had the chance to show several Afloat Training Group members what they were made of yesterday evening as they fought fires and participated in a multi-hour General Quarters.
This GQ marked the conclusion of the fourth and final session of ATG’s training and evaluation, which tests the knowledge and skills of Indy’s Sailors during critical underway evolution’s.
During ATGs six day visit, they took the opportunity to observe a man overboard drill, underway replenishments, quick draw drills, medical emergency scenarios, mass casualty drills, and of course, several GQs.
"Doing good on this evaluation is important because it shows the quality of training we are giving to the troops," said Cmdr. Juno Jamison, Integrated Training Team Administrator and a native of Little Rock, Ark.
Although this GQ marked the conclusion of the evaluation process, testing actually began while Indy was underway in March with the combat-ready training (CART) I and II, engineering certifications (ECERT), Total Ship’s Training Assessment or TSTA I.
"During this period, ATG began their evaluation with simple fires," said Jamison. "As time progressed, they increased the difficulty of the scenarios."
The heat was turned up on the crew last month as 37 members of ATG conducted TSTA II with a focus on damage control, specifically chemical, biological, and radiation (CBR) warfare, mass casualty damage drills, as well as communication, navigation, and underway replenishments.
"The goal of TSTA III (which began on Oct. 20) is to prepare for the final evaluation period which tests the crews knowledge in one final event." According to Jamison, this will be the last time Independence participates in this evaluation because of her decommissioning next year.
Photo Captions:
AT3 John Russon (top) dons his oxygen breathing apparatus and AT3 Jeff Fickling (bottom) prepares for any possible fire casualities during TSTA III. Photos by JOSN Jason Moore.