Commanding Officer’s Family Gram 18 August 2011 Good morning Blue Ridge families from Busan Korea, Now that the “new” has worn off from being the new Commanding Officer, one of the things I have wanted to start is to post an occasional Family Gram (usually when we are underway) to let you all know the tremendous things your Sailors are doing as we traverse the Pacific Ocean on patrol. I hope you find it, at least, somewhat useful as I try to relay the dedicated service your Sailors perform, the great work they have completed and the many experiences they have enjoyed in the past couple of weeks, some of which we have been able to show you on our Face Book page. On Saturday 23 July we conducted a “Damage Control Olympics”, a safe, fun and educational event on the main deck. The crew was divided into their respective damage control repair lockers; in addition we had Chiefs’ Mess and Wardroom teams. Each group competed while participating in several activities related to damage control, and was graded on proficiency. They completed pipe-patching, de-watering with a P-100 pump, fire hose and hose team tactics, smoke removal operations and a tug-of-war as the final event building on the crew’s camaraderie. We all had a good time, learned from the events and got a little wet! For safety reasons our arrival into Cairns, Australia was delayed until the 27 th of July. During our port visit in Cairns some of you were able to come down and spend time with your Sailor; I hope each of you enjoyed the visit. For those of you that were not able to come to the land down under, let me tell you that crew of Blue Ridge completed four community service projects which served to help clean up and restore areas damaged by flooding early this year, and visited patients at a local hospital providing some needed company to hurting folks and many smiles. We also conducted a “Big Top” reception onboard Blue Ridge as SEVENTH FLEET hosted our Australian allies with a Seventh Fleet Band performance, appetizers and beverages. Many of the crewmembers enjoyed the sightseeing opportunities, coordinated tours, great food and drinks of Australia and some well deserved rest and relaxation. We set sail and bid farewell to Cairns the morning of 2 August, and completed a very busy and successful day. After safely navigating Blue Ridge from pier side Cairns back into the open ocean, we conducted an underway replenishment where we received food, mail, supplies and more than 250,000 gallons of fuel from the U.S. Navy supply ship USNS John Ericsson. Saturday the 6th of August we cleansed the ship of slimy pollywogs. Davey Jones, Neptunus Rex and the Royal Court embarked USS Blue Ridge and saw to it that the Trusty Shellbacks of Blue Ridge tested the mental and physical fortitude of the pollywogs and ensured they were worthy to become trusty shellbacks. The spirit of the crew was great with smiles everywhere and we now have 377 more Trusty Shellbacks in our Navy, great job everyone! We followed up the Shellback ceremony with a steel beach picnic and stopped the ship for a swim call where about 300 Blue Ridge and Seventh Fleet Sailors took the opportunity to paddle in the waters next to the Equator. I’m happy to report everyone had fun and no sharks came to visit or spoil the fun. We pulled into Busan Korea on the 13th and are now heavily involved in Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), a very important exercise we do with the Republic of Korea and your Sailors are performing superbly. We also continue to complete qualifications, conduct damage control, anti terrorism / force protection, seamanship and engineering training. While busy, we try to not
make it all work and your Sailors have had the opportunity to get out on some good liberty, we have run a 5K race to celebrate ROK independence day, played soccer, basketball and softball with some of the local teams and enjoyed a barbecue. It has been a terrific opportunity to get to know our ROK allies better. A couple great items to relay; During our summer patrol thus far, we have had twenty one Sailors earn their Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) pins which is critical to future promotion and have quite a few more who are ready to take their test, had six 1 st Class Petty Officers select to the rank of Chief Petty Officer and they will pin on their new rank mid September. Also, we had IT3 (SW) Brantley selected to be the Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN Blue Jacket of the Quarter. It has been a well executed patrol due to your Sailor’s professionalism and dedication and while we are not done yet, everyone is looking forward to our eventual return to Yokosuka to see family and friends again. Until the next Family Gram, please keep an eye on USS Blue Ridge’s Facebook page for photos and stories of your Sailor’s contributions…and thank you to the Families that so diligently take care of home and support your Sailors aboard Blue Ridge so that we can do our jobs out here every day. Sincerely, Captain Grieco