Pubdate: Tue, 27 Feb 2001
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206-0930
Fax: (425) 339-3435
Website: http://www.heraldnet.com/
Author: Jim Haley, Herald Writer

DAVIS JOINS DRUG WAR

Everett Ship Heads To South America To Intercept Narcotics

An Everett-based warship will join the war on drugs Thursday, heading to 
South and Central America to try and stem the smuggling of illegal substances.

The USS Rodney M. Davis, a Perry-class frigate, and a ship's crew of 200 
are scheduled to leave Naval Station Everett for five months to team up 
with the Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies as part of the ongoing attempt 
to put a crimp in the drug supply.

Everett's New Addition

The Defense Department has announced the name of a new destroyer that will 
be assigned to Everett. The USS Shoup, the newest Arleigh Burke-class 
guided missile destroyer, is scheduled to be commissioned in 2002 and move 
to Everett. The 509-foot destroyer was christened Saturday where it's being 
built in Pascagoula, Miss. It will be the 36th of 58 Arleigh Burke-class 
destroyers authorized by Congress.

While most Everett ships deploy to the Persian Gulf to enforce United 
Nations restrictions on Iraq, the Davis joins a succession of other local 
destroyers that have headed south instead of west.

"It's a great opportunity for us," said the Davis' commanding officer, 
Cmdr. Tuck Hord. "We're going to learn, we're going to train, and we're 
going to have fun."

For years the U.S. has committed warships to the drug battles as part of an 
overall attempt to keep illegal drugs out of this country.

In September 1997, Everett-based USS Callaghan engaged in a high-seas, 
high-speed chase of a fast boat off the coast of Colombia. The smugglers 
helped increase their speed by lightening the load -- 121 bales of cocaine 
worth about $80 million that was netted by the Callaghan.

There are no guarantees the Davis will be as successful, but Hord said the 
opportunity to conduct exercises and train will set a structure that will 
carry the ship through its next deployment to the Middle East in 2003, even 
with personnel changes in the meantime.

"We like to think we'll come back a better ship, better trained," he said.

During the last two months of the deployment, the Davis will conduct 
exercises with the navies of Peru and Chile. Last fall, it left Everett for 
two months for anti-drug activities off Mexico.

Tight security measures were in force Monday as the ship's crew went 
through heightened alerts to threats from land and sea. Armed guards 
patrolled the decks, and additional security checkpoints at the naval 
station were added to practice stiff security measures.

Last fall's terrorist attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 heightened 
preparations for the trip. Even though the Davis is going to a place 
generally thought to be safer than the Persian Gulf, "we're going to places 
that certainly have the possibility of being dangerous," Hord said.

The ship will travel as far south as Valparaiso, Chile, a city roughly as 
far south of the Equator as San Diego is north, Hord said.

The Davis also will take along a helicopter and the crew necessary to 
maintain and fly it, and a half-dozen Coast Guard personnel for boarding 
boats and ships that may be acting suspiciously. Those personnel will raise 
the number of crew members to 220, Hord said.

The crew frequently will have to lower and raise small boats from the 
frigate and deposit a Coast Guard boarding party on suspicious vessels.

"Mostly we will be patrolling areas where if you see a boat they're doing 
something nefarious," Hord said.
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