Bowen (FF 1079) - Naval Cruise Book

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On the mess decks, right, members of a working party remove cases of Pepsi from the flight deck conveyor. Below, supplies are removed from the flight deck by the working party shortly after they were delivered by helicopter. rilling Those Storerooms During the 1987 Medi- terranean cruise, many BOWEM sailors participated in more working parties tlnan they care to re- member. Working parties are gener- ally called away when a large quantity of stores must be loaded onto the ship. De- pending on the size of the working party, divisions are required to provide a certain number of people to assist. Occasionally, a working party may require the partici- pation of all crew members below a certain paygrade. One of the largest working parties mustered during the Mediterranean cruise occur- ed in mid-October when the ship was anchored in Augus- ta Bay, Sicily for battlegroup turnover. An E-5 and below working party was called away to move stores, deliv- ered by a CH-46 helicopter, from the flight deck to the mess decks and then into the ship ' s storerooms. Because of the enorfT:ous volume of supplies loaded onto the ship that day, only small onloads, mostly fresh foods, were required during the remaining month of the deployment. i t i •«» t. 36 Bowenlife

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The transfer of 60- 100,000 gallons of fuel between two ships separated by a dis- tance of just over 100 yards is no small matter. When the transfer involves not fuel but crew members, the matter becomes even more serious. During the Mediterranean cruise, BOWED transferred over 1.5 million gallons of fuel (and one sailor) without any spills, serious injuries or damage to equipment. Left, Bowen and USS Hewes (TF- 1078) conduct a highline transfer of an Egg McNuffln for training dur- ing the Atlantic transit in June. A dangerous business Underway replenishments are a dangerous business under the best of conditions. When the two ships are alongside each other, they are connected by a strong cable, called a span wire, which supports the fuel hose. Precise piloting is nec- essary to maintain the sepa- ration between the two ships at precisely the correct dis- tance, so that the cable does not part. Almost all crew members are assigned to an unrep station, whether on the bridge, in combat, in an engi- neering space, or on a top- side station, to assist in the transfer. f» Above, line handlers and phone talkers man station five. Left, LTJQ Mark Weber, CDR Robbins, Yni Tom Boer and LT Rich Fitzpatrick carefully monitor the distance between Bowen, the oiler and USS Saratoga (CV-60) during a refueling. Bowenlife 35

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Above, a CH-46 is guided over Bovi - ens flight deck to deliver supplies suspended from a strong cord be- low the helicopter. Although the helo is too large to land on the flight deck itself, it can hover overhead and then lower the supplies to the deck below. At left, a working party passes boxes of supplies from the flight deck to the mess decks via the starboard side of the 01 level and the main deck. The ship is anchored in Au- gusta Bay, Sicily for battlegroup turnover. Bowenlife 37