September 9, 2009: The September 2009 edition of All Hands once again highlights what it is like to be aboard the USS Freedom.
Meet Culinary Specialist 1st Class Petty Officer Kevon Henry. He is with the USS Freedom at sea. If you look very carefully at the bottom right corner of the photo, you'll see the lower portion of a 240mm gun. MC2 Jhi Scott wrote, "...Kevon Henry comes onboard at 5 am to prep the galley for breakfast for the crew. Once that's done, he reports topside to prepare for sea and anchor detail where he line handles and mans the 240mm guns. He then secures from sea and anchor to prep the galley for lunch. Then, there's a casualty drill, so Henry secures the galley and reports to his repair locker. It's just a normal day underway in the life of Sailors aboard the USS Freedom (LCS-1).
July 3, 2009: The July 2009 edition of All Hands has a super article about the USS Freedom. There's good information there about the crew and its duties --- Freedom's crew consists of 40 Sailors made-up of eight officers, 15 chief petty officers, 15 first class petty officers and two second classes. We also get a few looks at ship operations.
CMC (SW/AW) Anthony Decker stands the JOOD Watch (Junior Officer of the Deck) on Freedom, helping to navigate the ship.
FC1 (SW/AW) Clifford Smith, the Senior Sailor of the Year aboard Freedom, stands watch in the MCC (Mission Control Center) as defensive systems operator in charge of all radar and weapons systems. Freedom has the ability to combat anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and mine warfare.
I commend the All Hands article to you so I won't show any more of its photos. I do want to say that one thing you quickly learn is that each crew member has to be able to perform a variety of different functions. And they're able to do it. No slacking here.
October 27, 2009: The USS Freedom will deploy in early 2010 to the Southern Command, two years ahead of schedule. Oddly, I think, the Navy is saying that Freedom is needed to support the warfighting commander. It is hard to envision Freedom in a fight in Latin and South America. My guess is the Navy wants to integrate her into the 4th Fleet and task her to participate with friendly nations in that region in combined exercises where she would go through battle scenarios. In any event, the Navy's confidence in Freedom is high, high enough to deploy her to a combatant commander some two years ahead of schedule. Good job Marinette Marine!
