'Sabah best port visit so far'
Published on: Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: These are men and women trained for war, who traverse the seas for sometimes months on end, ready to be deployed for any eventuality.But tough as they are, the crew of USS Comstock (LSD45), which is currently here on a port visit until Wednesday, grew a little weak in their knees when they faced up to what Sabah has to offer. It was the beauty and colourful culture in Sabah that got them.
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Commanding Officer Cdr Scott Tasin said by far, this has been the best port visit during their deployment. "I think we have had great tour experiences which include hiking up Mount Kinabalu and white water rafting, the food was great, the culture is great and you have probably the most friendly group of people that we have come to port visits," he said when met during the tour. "The crew in general were really excited to come here, it is a different port visit than we had in the past, especially coming from Singapore, it is more of an outdoor experience for the crew.
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"I have a very good crew that worked very hard for the last five months, so it is good to see them go out and enjoy some liberty and relax here," he added. Officers and personnel from the Sepanggar Naval Base as well as local media representatives had the opportunity to go on a tour on the first US Navy amphibious dock landing ship on Monday.
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The ship based in San Diego, is the first in the Navy to have a fully integrated crew of male and female sailors from the US Navy and Marine Corps.Tasin said the ship which has approximately 400 sailors and 400 marines transports marines and their equipment around the world."We are an amphibious assault ship and that is something unique to our navy, when we deploy, we marry up with the marine corps and execute a series of missions to include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, while the marines will do security operations," he said. "We have done bilateral exercises in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and various other countries where we are deployed to, but we have not been involved in any humanitarian assistance mission in South East Asia but if we are called upon to help we will send our small landing craft to assist with vehicle supplies and relief supplies," he said. The ship which will be 25 years old come Feb 3, was also involved in anti-piracy operations in its last deployment with two landing craft utility vehicle and a variety of marine corps vehicles. "It takes a lot to have a 25-year-old ship transit, the amount of nautical miles we have transited, there is a lot of hard work that the crew has done and really put in. "We do not look like a 25-year-old ship, we try to have a steady strength on maintenance and it is something we are really proud of," he said. Media representatives also had a glimpse of the weapons on board with a guided tour by Weapon Division Second Class Petty Officer Gabrielle South who was among the few 100 female sailors on board the ship. "When I first got to the ship it was really hard because I had to constantly prove myself, I hurt myself during the first few months because we have to carry 100 pounds of boxes filled with ammunitions, but I just sucked it up and now I can carry those 100 pounds of boxes like nothing," she said. "The training is really long and it is very intensive, you have to learn all the different weapon systems in the military, and you have to pick your specialty and learn everything there is to learn and if it breaks I have to fix it," said South who was the only female out of 17 men in charge of the weapons division. "They treat me as equal and I think that is how it should be, we should all be equal," she said. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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