Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit

by Tom Clancy

  The bridge of the USS Wasp (LHD-1). From this position, the ship is maneuvered and Operated. JOHN D. GRESHAM

  By now you are probably getting warm out on the flight deck, so let's go inside. When you enter the island, a blast of cold air hits you immediately. The LHDs were designed to protect their crews against the possibility of chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare. A Collective Protection System (CPS) creates an environmental "citadel" inside the island and forward part of the ship. This sealed citadel provides clean, filtered air, allowing the crew to work in a shirt-sleeve environment. It also gives Wasp and her sisters the finest air conditioning in the fleet. Wasp was built with only five of her six planned chiller units, and she is almost too cold! The cool interior enables the crew and Marines to cope with the heat of tropical places; it also extends the life and reliability of the electronic equipment packed inside Wasp's slab-sided hull. The CPS system does not extend to the hangar, cargo, vehicle, or well-deck areas. Thus, you have to get used to the CPS "zone" hatches and airlocks, each of which must be opened, closed, and dogged as you pass through.

  The island structure is filled with steep ladders, and your leg muscles get a workout as you move around Wasp. To reach the bridge, you go up five levels and pass through a cipher lock and several more hatches. The bridge has exceptional visibility through green-tinted windows. Navigational instruments, map tables, and communications equipment are laid out neatly and logically. Spacious and comfortable, Wasp's bridge is a model of functional design. Even the Captain's chair and day cabin are designed for comfort and ease of access. A wing bridge, protruding from the starboard side of the island, lets the bridge crew conn the ship during Underway Refueling and Provisioning (UNREP) and docking. In some seven years of operations, only one design problem affected the bridge: Some of the thick windows cracked during a 1994 winter operation in Norway, due to the intense difference between internal and external temperatures.

  Exiting the bridge and heading aft, we find the "debark control" used by a Marine commander to monitor operation of amphibious vehicles. There also is a weather office which would be the envy of any large airport. Amphibious operations are extremely sensitive to weather conditions, and the Navy has invested heavily to make sure that the Wasp can keep an eye on what Mother Nature is up to. In fact, the crew regards the weather forecasters as a branch of the intelligence department. Heading up through several more ladders and cipher-locked doors, we enter Primary Flight, or "Pri-Fly," the ship's control tower for air operations, and home of the Air Boss. The Air Boss is a virtual god of the air and deck space around the ARG. Usually, the Air Boss is a commander (O-5) who has completed a squadron command tour. The Air Boss is assisted by various Landing Signals Officers (LSOs) who "wave aboard" the aircrews based aboard the Wasp. Big-deck aircraft carriers have a special platform at deck level for LSOs: but LHDs and other helicopter ships place their LSOs inside Pri-Fly. When aircraft are landing vertically, the best place to watch is above and to the side of the action. Each component of the Air Combat Element (based around a reinforced HMM) has one or two LSOs among its pilots, and one is always on duty whenever that kind of aircraft is flying.

  Heading down from the island (as tough on the ankles as going up), we arrive in the Wasp's main living and work areas. Down on the 02 Level (just below the flight deck) are the officers' berthing and mess areas, as well as most of the command and control spaces for the embarked Marines. The center of this activity is the officers' wardroom, which functions as restaurant, theater, town hall, and conference room at various times of the day. Four times a day, the Wasp's mess specialists lay out meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and "mid-rats" at 11:00 P.M./2300 hours) for the Navy and Marine officers. Between meals, the wardroom is used for meetings, training, and final briefings prior to launch. Forward of the wardroom is the junior officer berthing area, composed of four- and six-man staterooms. Each officer has a comfortable bunk, stowage for personal gear, and a fold-down desk. A little personal space makes a six-or-seven-month cruise (normal for ARG ships these days) a lot more bearable. There is a certain etiquette in using the dormitory-style showers and head facilities. As a matter of basic hygiene, everyone wears shower slippers while bathing, to prevent the spread of foot infections which could devastate the marching ability of the embarked Marines! At the forward end of the 02 Level is the most popular area on the ship, Wasp's fitness center. This is a beehive of activity around the clock for the sailors and Marines trying to to stay fit and work off some of the nervous tension and stress of shipboard life. You generally have to wait to get onto one of the machines or weight benches jammed into the space. Officers told me that this one room did more for crew morale than anything except food and the CNN satellite feed!

  Heading aft past the wardroom takes you through "Officers Country," the berthing areas for senior Navy and Marine officers. Usually these are one- or two-man staterooms, with an attached head and shower. Don't envy these officers' comforts; very few get to spend much time in their racks. A department head or unit commander aboard an amphib often works a sixteen-to-twenty-hour day. You are lucky to get four to six hours of sleep (not always at night!). The Captain has his sea cabin on the 02 Level, and a day cabin on the bridge, but rarely gets to rest in either of them! Also located here is "Flag Country," berthing spaces for embarked admirals and their staff. The Wasp is big enough to accommodate such a staff without disrupting the ship's routine.

  Continuing aft, you enter a series of darkened command and control spaces. As noted above, these were relocated from the island structure to protect their vital personnel and equipment. These spaces include: * Combat Information Center (CIC)--The nerve center of the ship, with displays for all of the ship's sensors, as well as information acquired from data links and national sources (the DOD euphemism for "spy satellites"). Filled with consoles, terminals, and big-screen displays, this battle management center has separate zones for anti-sub, anti-air, and anti-surface warfare, communications, damage control, and other functions. Officers learn to assess fast-developing situations and act quickly. In World War II a good captain fought his ship from the bridge, but today's Burke or Vian would be found at a glowing console in a dimly lit CIC.

  * Landing Force Operations Center (LFOC)--The LFOC is a mission control center for amphibious operations. Each embarked Marine unit has a console, with the MEU (SOC)'s console in the center at the rear with a clear view of the large-screen displays at the front of the compartment. Everything is tied into a computer, the Integrated Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System (ITAWDS), linking the commander to embarked Marine units. At the rear of the LFOC is a conference area for the MEU (SOC) staff. Like the ship's captain, the embarked Marine commander usually fights his battle from here.

  * Flag Plot--This is where the ARG commander and staff reside during operations. It is generally similar to CIC and the LFOC, and there are numerous repeaters for the various sensors and displays.

  * Ships Signals Exploitation Space (SSES)--This small sealed space adjacent to the CIC is for secret stuff: "exploitation of enemy signals and electronic emissions." Equipped with data links to national and theater-level intelligence systems, the SSES can provide decision makers with up-to-date information on enemy intentions and activities. Only specially cleared intelligence and communications technicians are allowed inside.

  * Joint Intelligence Center--The Joint Intelligence Center is a clearing-house for information required by the ship, the ARG, and embarked Marine components. Analysts in the JIC can draw from vast databases of Defense Mapping Agency maps, satellite photography, and anything else the intelligence community provides. Even better, they can probably tell you what it means. The staff is a "rainbow" organization from every unit involved.

  * Tactical Logistics Group Center (TACLOG)--Crammed with computers, phones, and people, TACLOG controls the logistics battle. Everything from the layout of vehicles in the stowage areas to the embarkation of troops by the ship's combat cargo staff is controlled
from here.

  * Tactical Air Control Center (TACC)--The air traffic control center for the ship and the ARG, the TACC monitors the airspace around the ARG, and generates the daily air tasking order (ATO).

  An enlisted berthing area aboard the USS Wasp (LHD-1). The bunks are stacked three-high, and are much more comfortable than those aboard nuclear submarines and older vessels.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  When an operation or exercise is underway, these spaces resemble a beehive without the buzz, on the job, around the clock, until it is finished.

  One deck down (the 03 Level) is the LHD's medical department. One of the more chilling features of the original LHA was the provision for a large hospital facility (about 375 beds). It was almost doubled in size when the LHDs were being designed. In fact, when the Wasp is at home in Norfolk, Virginia, she is listed in the Virginia State disaster plan as the fourth-largest hospital in the state, with some 600 beds! Marines know how fast amphibious warfare can generate casualties when things go wrong. Except for the hospital ships, Mercy (T-AH-19) and Comfort (T-AH- 20), these are the most capable medical facilities afloat. In addition to a large triage area, there are six operating theaters, eighteen post-operative/intensive-care beds, 6 isolation ward beds, and 36 primary-care beds. Using berthing space from disembarked Marines allows up to 536 additional bed cases. There are also oversized radiology and dental departments.

  Below the Medical Department, on the 04 Level, are maintenance shops for mechanical equipment, electronics, and hydraulic systems. Further forward are accommodations for enlisted and non-commissioned (NCO) sailors and Marines--over two thousand berths, divided into many compartments. The chiefs and Marine NCOs live in "Goat Lockers" with about a dozen bunks (in two high racks) and recreational areas with tables and televisions. Enlisted personnel have racks stacked three-high, and you might find as many as sixty or seventy personnel in one such berthing space. While dense, the accommodations are much more comfortable than those we have seen previously on older vessels. Each sailor or Marine has an individual berth, and there is no "hot bunking" as aboard submarines. In addition to personal stowage, Marines also have armories for their weapons and combat equipment, so that they can rapidly assemble their gear in an emergency. These berths are located just forward of the Medical Department, and can become hospital beds if necessary.

  Dining facilities for NCO and enlisted personnel look just like shore-based mess halls. The food is good and the service fast. It has to be when you consider that they serve almost twelve thousand meals every day. Sharing the same food and ship has a way of bonding everyone, no matter what their rank, as "shipmates." Admirals and generals walk the same passageways and share the same dangers with PFCs and chiefs. It makes for a unique shipboard society. I like it. It says good things about the Navy, the Marine Corps, and America. It says that when the work starts, we all work, and we all share.

  The Wasp is a virtual city-at-sea, with all the needs of a city. One of the biggest is communications, both within the ship and to "the world." Communications systems include FM/HF/UHF/VHF radios, UHF/VHF/EHF satellite systems, video teleconferencing, and other command and control systems. For communications around the ship, there is a phone system, as well as the ever-present public-address system known as the 1 MC. There are moves to bring the Wasp (and the Navy on the whole) into the computer network era as well. The Wasp is wired for a wide-area network (WAN) divided into departmental local-area networks (LANs). These in turn are being tied into the Navy's department-wide telecommunications system. Desktop and laptop computers are everywhere. You see young sailors in their bunks using them to tap out letters home, or officers creating briefing viewgraphs for the next landing exercise.

  A ship-based cable television system broadcasts news and movies to every compartment. You see many small personal televisions (hooked to the ship's cable network), VCRs, and stereo systems used by crew and Marines for entertainment during the rare off-hours. A stabilized satellite television dish was recently fitted on the Wasp's island structure. Officially, this allows intelligence specialists to monitor CNN and other twenty-four-hour news services, but it also brings the crew news and sports from home without the delay of videocassettes. Soon, it will be standard equipment on all Navy vessels. Other amenities for the crew include a well-stocked ship's store, a post office, and an efficient laundry service. All of these features make life more livable for over 2,500 people during Wasp's six- or seven-month cruises.

  A ship is nothing but a cold hulk unless it can generate power. We'll finish our tour of the Wasp in the heart of the ship--engineering and propulsion. You have to go into the very bowels of the ship, below the vehicle and cargo decks, to enter the "land of the snipes," the nickname for boiler and engineering technicians. Rather than the gas turbines or marine diesels that drive most modern warships, LHDs continue the tradition of oil-fired steam plants. The Wasp is powered by a pair of 2,600-PSI/41.7-kg-per-cm Combustion Engineering boilers, which generate steam for the two Westinghouse turbines, for a total of 70,000 horsepower to the twin shafts. This translates to a cruising speed of around 22 kt/40.25 kph, and a maximum speed of approximately 24 kt/43.9 kph. While it may not quite match the 30+ kt/55 kph of a supercarrier or destroyer, it is adequate for the job. With a full load of fuel, steaming at approximately 20 kt/36.6 kph, the Wasp has an unrefueled range of approximately 9,500 nm/17,600 km, which means that it can transit to most potential trouble spots with a bare minimum of support shipping.

  The Wasp's vast electrical requirements are met by a series of motor generators supplying different types of power (220 V and 110 V AC, 12 V and 15 V DC, etc.). The freshwater distillation plant produces enough water for every member of the crew to take a "Hollywood" shower every day. Distilled water is quite soft and pure, without the chlorine taste prevalent in city tap water. The "snipes" of the Engineering Division also manage Wasp's fuel and fluid systems, including hydraulics, jet fuel, and diesel for the vehicles of the embarked Marines. They play a key role in damage control effort, since without power, Wasp would quickly succumb to damage from missiles, bombs, torpedoes, or even accidental fire. Warships are collections of combustible, flammable, and explosive stuff; all of these demand intense vigilance. Damage control is something of an obsession with Navy captains and crews. Our experience in the Persian Gulf and that of the British in the Falklands in 1982 emphasized the survival value of damage control. As noted in Submarine, the Navy has worked hard to deploy improved fire fighting systems like Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire extinguishers and improved emergency breathing apparatus. Everywhere on Wasp you see Day-Glo orange containers with emergency breathing masks for survival in the smoke of a fire.

  Not just a packing crate for Marines and their equipment, Wasp is a platform capable of many different missions, from amphibious raids and assaults, to sea control (escorting convoys and protecting sea lanes). It is perhaps for this reason that the Wasp (LHD-1) and her sister ships, Essex (LHD-2), Kearsarge (LHD-3), and Boxer (LHD-4), have become the most sought-after ships in the Navy. When the next three LHDs, Bataan (LHD-5), Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), and the still unnamed seventh unit of the class, join the fleet in a few years, it will give all twelve ARGs a big-deck aviation ship. The final three ships have significant improvements over the earlier LHDs. The Ex-31 RAM launchers and 25mm Bushmaster cannon mounts will be built in from the start, along with smaller superstructures, more aviation fuel capacity, and improved communications, damage control, and medical capabilities. There will also be accommodations for female personnel, under the "Women at Sea" program (see the LPD-17 below for more on this). These features will be retrofitted to earlier units during their first major overhauls. The Wasp and her sister ships represent the core of America's forced-entry capability, and will be so for decades to come.

  USS Whidby Island (LSD-41)

  At almost $1.25 billion dollars each, Wasp-class LHDs are hardly the most economical solution for every amphibious task. Sometimes, you need a ship
that does just one or two things well. So the Landing Ship Dock (LSD) was created. The LSD is a transport and service platform for landing craft. At first, they were simple ships with well decks and minimal stowage or troop capacity. They could "flood down" to launch landing craft. Later, LSDs evolved into general-purpose vessels, with long-term accommodations for embarked troops and equipment, and limited helicopter capability. The design of the Anchorage (LSD-36) class, constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasized carrying large numbers of landing craft. These five ships served effectively in ARGs for almost three decades. But they are at the end of their service lives. The Whidbey Island (LSD-41) class will replace them.

  The USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41) leaves Cadiz, Spain, on February 16th, 1996, headed home from her 1995/96 Mediterranean cruise.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  The Whidbey Island class supplements the capabilities of the big-deck aviation ships of an ARG. In the event of a need to "split" an ARG, the LSD always accompanies the LHD, LHA, or LPD. This lets the ARG commander retain a forced-entry capability, due to the numerous landing craft the two ships carry. While the LSDs lack the command and control capabilities of the LHDs and LHAs, and the cargo capacity of the LPDs, they serve a vital role as amphibious delivery systems. Let's get to know Whidbey Island a bit better.

  In the early 1980s, planners at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) began to think about the mix of ships they wanted for the ARGs of the 1990s and beyond. Even before the decision to build Wasp-class LHDs, they knew that standoff from the enemy shore would dominate future amphibious ship design. While the old Anchorage-class LSDs could carry and operate the new air cushioned landing craft, it was clear that more LCACs would be needed in an ARG to replace the slower, more vulnerable LCUs. NAVSEA set about designing a new ship, known as the LSD-41, and selecting a contractor. The first three ships went to Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle, Washington. Whidbey Island was laid down on August 4th, 1981, launched on June 10th, 1983, and commissioned two years later on February 9th, 1985, with further units at one-year intervals. When Lockheed decided to leave the ship construction industry in the 1980s, the rest of the class was awarded to Avondale Industries of New Orleans, Louisiana. Avondale, an old Navy contractor, built the Knox-class (FF-1052) ASW frigates in the 1960s and 1970s. Set on the banks of the Mississippi, the yard uses more conventional technology than Litton Ingalls. Avondale's old-style slipways and serial assembly methods may suffer in head-to-head price comparisons with foreign competitors, but they do build quality ships.