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Page 16 text:
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The Sixth Fleet has no shore bases in the Mediterranean. It is a per- manently transient organization. It is completely mobile and self-sus- taining. About fifty percent of the time the fleet is eng aged in training exercises at sea, both U. S. and NATO. Ships reporting to the Fleet are expected to have developed certain basic skills, and while some exercise time is allocated for maintaining these skills, the primary emphasis in the Fleet must be on the development of advanced task force and fleet coordination, culminating periodically in combined operations with our NATO allies. Among the many skills continually exercised are those involved in air strikes, air defense, anti-submarine warfare, underway replenishment, mine warfare, and amphibious landings. The many exercises at sea are designed to keep all naval capabilities in offense and defense at a peak of readiness and efficiency. The ability to operate effectively without bases, which are subject to changing political winds in the host country and are obviously vulner- able to enemy attack, is one of the real strengths of the Sixth Fleet. Ca- pable of delivering in a single attack more destructive power than all of that unleashed by all of the air forces combined in World War II, the Sixth Fleet can shift their potential striking force from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. It is a long-legged, free ranging force, able to give renewed confidence to our iriends and pause to anv potential enemy. Bainbridge with its demonstrated advantages of mobility and endurance served to greatly enhance the effectiveness ol this force. 12
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Page 15 text:
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CHAPTER I SHIP IN READINESS What is the ship but for her men ? Without man ' s mind and heart the ship is a mere lifeless construction of steel possessing an armory of inef- fective weapons. Man is still the most important instrument to guarantee the control of the seas. To maintain its security, the Navy must know the nature of the enemy, his whereabouts, and his planned strategy. Just as important, the Navy must have the means of delivering the destructive power of its weapons against enemy targets. To guard against a change in the cold war temperature the Navy to- day keeps four fleets in deployment, the First, Second, SLxth, and Seventh. It is the responsibility of the Sixth Fleet to be ready for trouble in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea and to keep an eye also on the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea. On February 5, 1963, fully ready and fueled with enough uranium to circle the globe more than twenty times, Bainbridge stood out of Charles- ton Bay bound for her first fleet deployment — just four short, but busy months since her commissioning in Quincy, October 6, 1962. At sea off the coast of North Carolina on the afternoon of February 7, she joined another of her breed, the supercarrier Enterprise. These two nuclear powered surface ships combined their mutual capabilities for the first time in an historic nuclear power for peace . The rendezvous was part of some twenty-one ships of Task Force 25 transiting the Adantic to deploy- ment with the Sixth Fleet. The units of this group became a part of the Sixth Fleet on February 16, when they steamed into the Mediterranean passing the famous Rock of Gibraltar. In joining the Sixth Fleet Bainbridge became a part of a modern, well-balanced fleet that includes an attack aircraft carrier striking force, an amphibious landing force, and a variety of sustaining auxiliary ships which make it possible for the fleet to operate indefinitely at sea without shore bases in the Mediterranean. The SLxth Fleet is an instru- ment of national policy and power whose goals are peace, stability and good will gained by maintaining operational readiness and earning re- spect for the United States. Its aims are entirely friendly but it is always batde ready, capable of waging any kind of warfare; hot or cold, limited or general, atomic or conventional. The SLxth Fleet has not only national responsibilities but responsibilities under the North Adantic Treaty Organization ( NATO) as well. In the U. S. chain of command the Sixth Fleet is a subordinate operational com- mand of Commander in Chief, U. S. Naval Forces, Europe. When the Sixth Fleet operates in its NATO capacity, it is known as Naval Striking and Support Forces, Southern Europe, and the Fleet commander reports to the Commander in Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe. 11
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