The International Fleet Review has given us an opportunity to interact with officers and personnel of other navies. We realise that end of the day we are all doing the same job, flags and national policies may be different but we are all naval officers doing our job the right way, Commanding Officer of USS Antietam Captain Michael A McCartney said.
“It has been a good outing for our sailors as they have been able to go around the city and enjoy its hospitality, it has been very hectic for commanding officers as we have been going from one event to another. But it has been an opportunity to get to interact and get introduced to officers from other countries,” he told The Hindu in an interaction on board the Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser off the coast of Visakhapatnam on Monday.
The exchange with Indian Navy has been good. “For us it has been easy to bond with the personnel of the Indian Navy as it is a professional Navy with men and officers trained the way we are,” Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Reeves Thurman said.
Most of the sailors have not been to India and the first interaction with a country that is so rich in culture and steeped-in tradition has really bowled them over, he said. The ship carries 340 enlisted men and 60 officers.
The ship is part of the Seventh Fleet and is based in Yokosuka in Japan. During a battle the cruiser is the last line of defence for an aircraft carrier and is also the command centre for the defence operations, he explained.
The 10,000 tonne USS Antietam is the biggest foreign ship participating in the IFR. The other ship from US Navy is USS McCampbell an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, based at Yokusuka in Japan. The destroyer was commissioned in 2002 and is presently commanded by Commander Edward Sundberg.
