NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Florida (March, 27 2021) The U.S. Navy held a decommissioning ceremony for the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), March 27, 2021. The ship’s decommissioning ceremony for took place at Naval Station Mayport on March 27, 2021. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Austin Collins/Released)
Transcript
Good morning. Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen and crew of the USS Fort McHenry. I am Commander Jason Knocks, the ship’s executive officer and today’s master of ceremonies. On behalf of the commanding officer, I welcome you to the Decommissioning ceremony for the money worship Fort McHenry on this beautiful but foggy Florida day ship’s company here. Mhm. Well, guess, Please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the presentation of colors and singing the national anthem and invocation. Fort McHenry arriving. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Captain. United States Navy retired. Arriving. Mhm, Mhm, amphibious. 406 Arriving. Mhm, Mhm. Mhm the ruffles. Mhm to see me. Yeah! Expeditionary strike group to arriving. Mhm! Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mm. Color guard parade the colors. Okay. What detailed hand salute. Perfect. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm Ship’s company and salute balls. Yeah. See, by the dawn’s the eyes. I was so proud. Lovely. We hailed at the Twilight’s last week. Who’s drugs? Yes. Bright stars through the pair. Cause high for the right. Some parts we watched were so urged. The yeah and the rockets reckless, the bombs bursting in and April through the night. Right. That’s our flag was still there. Oh, say, does that stores fat gold? I know. Yes, way or the like. The free and the home of the of a rave. What? Ready to post the color over what she has. Somebody will reign. Rest, Ladies and gentlemen, Ship’s chaplain, Lieutenant Jackson, will now deliver the implication. Let us pray. Eternal Father. We come to you this morning to celebrate the history and achievement of the ship on which we stand. For 33 years, the USS Fort McHenry has faithfully served her nation in every capacity she was called to. Through her time in our nation’s history, she has carried her heritage proudly forward, giving proper justice to her namesake. It is our hope in her last days here to give her the respect she has earned from her sailors Internation. And so we request today, Father, as we continue that you bless our ship as we seek to honor her legacy and place among the great ships of the finest navy in the world. All these things we pray this morning, all men Mhm! Big jacks. Side boys host. What Right. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Mhm. We’re here today celebration of the time honored naval suggestion. A Decommissioning of shape from active service. It is my privilege to introduce Commander Michel Fabrizio, commanding officer of the USS Fort McHenry. Thank you, XO. Good morning for McHenry. Crew, family and friends, past shipmates and guests. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to today’s honored guests. Joining me on the stage. Real cats, Common collusion. Cameron Meyer. Captain Rhodes. Captain Canfield. They go over taking time out of your busy schedules and for some of you for traveling long distances to be here today to witness the ceremonial end of Fort McHenry. 33 years of commission service in U. S. Navy. We are honored this morning to welcome to the podium our first guest speaker. Our guest speaker this morning. Captain George Rhodes, I think, remembered finally by the plank owners, Captain Rhodes was the first commanding officer of USS Fort McHenry, who, along with his group of plank owners, brought this worship to life. It’s not my pleasure to welcome Captain Rhodes, so All right. Yeah. Good morning, Admiral. Cats, Commodore Delusion, Captain Fabrizio. And more importantly, to quote master Chief, Boatswain’s mate just Holloway. Good morning, Fort McHenry sailors both past and present. I apologize in advance because most of what I have to say will be focused on the commissioning crew of Fort McHenry. These men were my shipmates, and the finest crew with which I ever served today is truly a bittersweet occasion for which we gather together. The gathering is the sweet part. The better part is that we will say goodbye to 16,000 tons of beautiful steel and throbbing diesels that we brought to life almost 34 years ago. She’s been a great ship. Ships are generally generally referred to by the feminine pronoun. There are several anecdotes about why this is. I ran these by some of my more progressive friends, and I was advised not to go there. So, following the principle of discretion over valor, I will not inevitably and regrettably, all of us have lost friends from the commissioning crew. We hope to welcome the family of DNC Derrick Williams with a family emergency, force them to skip the trip, but all those are in our minds. Fort McHenry served as well and set the standard for a new construction ship, joining the fleet in 1987 first, a little background on why we had such a hectic schedule from commissioning to deployment. A week after commissioning, I received a personal letter from Vice Admiral Davis, who was commander Surf Pack. In that letter, he complimented the crew on a superb ceremony and mentioned that he was thinking of folding us into a June 1988 deployment. According to our chain of command, that would be 10 months ahead of schedule. We went. I went to see the Commodore and told him about the plan and he said No way can that happen. Then I showed him the letter and he said, Well, maybe we need to think about this So we went and talked to Admiral Donovan, who was our group commander and he was very supportive and we were off to the races. We knew full well the many wickets we had to go through to be ready to deploy that we knew that we did not have time to fail just one and require a do over. We’re not going to reach our home port until the end of September. The engineers earned a certificate certification for propulsion plant operations and we were underway for the first time with our crew on board on September 8th. That was an exciting day. None of us had ever seen any of our shipmates underway. So everyone was watching everyone else with possibly some skepticism. Still, it turned out that everyone was pretty dog gone good. And while the learning curve was steep, it all worked out. We went to Vancouver for report. Visit them to San Francisco for a training availability of Treasure Island we moored in San Diego on September 30th. Over the next eight months, the crew successfully completed the aviation assists visit combined shakedown refresher training in three weeks, which is two weeks less than scheduled, with outstanding grades in all categories. Final contract trials and federal pressure training. Post shakedown availability, Colonel Usher, Workups and We Deployed in June with three L. CAC’s. The crew had been out of home port for over 60% of the time prior to deployment. The deployment went extremely well. The crew had plenty of spirit. They were good. Sailors seem to be proud of their ship. There was that piece of artwork left on a wall of a bar in Subic that had a ship looking like Fort McHenry title. The Great Pig from hell, Yeah, but I think that was merely coincidental. Only one sadness during deployment was a serious traffic accident while on liberty involving Seaman Tom Wheaton, who lost the use of his legs after being struck by a passing automobile. The good news is that today Tom is the national treasure of the paralyzed veterans of America. We did have an exciting transit through the Taiwan Straits, going from Hong Kong to Tucson. Depending weather necessitated that we leave Hong Kong a day early and we encountered wind speeds above 65 knots and seas above 35 ft in the Straits. Fort McHenry had no problem with the condition, but an LST and our squadron struggled mightily and had some superstructure cracks developing. We were assigned to the LSD. I had no idea what we would do if we had to recover sailors out of the water from the LST. The weather was just too severe. I don’t know how we could have done it. The challenge there was that we could not maintain a slow enough speed to stay with the LST and still maintain steerage we had to increase speed to a few knots above the speed of the LST. And when we got too far ahead to 180 degree course change to head down wind and down see until we could regain station a couple of miles astern of the LST. Each time we turn and put the seas and wind on our beam, we wallowed and took very heavy rolls. We balanced it down to reduce our sail area and to lower our center of gravity. So the situation became manageable. This is an exceedingly difficult transit, probably the longest night I’ve ever spent at sea in 32 years. But everyone on both ships made it through safely going back A bit shift ship was built in Seattle, the last ship built by Lockheed Shipbuilding Corporation. During construction, Lockheed had some significant labor disputes. We had to go through picket lines to get to the ship in the morning. Most of the final work was done by supervisory personnel sits Lockheed that locked out all the union workers. Lockheed also had lost out on the bid for the DDG 51 decided they would be getting out of the ship building business after Fort McHenry was delivered. I’ve become good friends with the president of Lockheed, Mr Joe Santos Wasow, and he was very unhappy with Lockheed’s decision and invited us to tour all his shops and warehouses and take everything we wanted for our ship. We were like kids in a candy store. We took advantage of his generosity. The biggest challenge was finding space for proper storage of the material we took. As you know, shortly after we returned from employment, we were ordered up to Alaska to assist in the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup. We needed as many landing craft as as we could take up to support the mission. But by the time most of the MIC AIDS and Mike six is that were available were in bad shape none of the votes out of working radio. Four days into the transit to Alaska, the E. M o. Kevin Costello came up to the bridge to tell me that all the boats had working radios. I was shocked, and I asked Casey, How in the world did you do that? He said, Well, that day we were walking around Lockheed. I picked up 40 v. R C 46 is, and they came in handy on the way back from Alaska. We were contacted by the Canadian Coast Guard and asked to assist a sailboat in distress with the help of a Canadian P three. Locate the sailboat under the guidance of opposing English is truly superb deck department, and we sent a prize crew out via Zodiac and took her under tow. The master of the sailboat was delirious from dehydration and fatigue and surely would have perished if we’ve not been able to get him on board for medical attention. We told the sailboat in the Prince Rupert Sound where it was taken in by a local tugboat. I’m still proud to this day that Fort McHenry was awarded the Battle E during his first year of eligibility, we had a stellar crew. I’m not able to mention all 400 of them, but especially grateful to captain Terry Labrecque, the XO commander Greg Trojan to SAPO captain Jim Bird, the engineer Lieutenant Larry Sharpe, the CIA, who’s here today, Chief Warrant Officer English and ships posing RM cm Figueroa, who was quite a character. You walk into his communication spaces and the first thing he’d say was Welcome to the finest radio Central in the Pacific Fleet, and then he would show you around. And senior chief Bowden Moses, Late Supreme and Master chief Miller career counts for many others. A lot of them are here today, and it’s really gratifying to see this many crew members still together. Special thanks and respect Go to GNC, Dave Letterman and Ian to Michael Yost for the enormous amount of work they put into organizing. The attendance of blank owners for today’s event that was a large endeavor in their performance is flawless to Captain Fabrizio from personal experience. I know what a difficult and thankless task preparing a ship for Decommissioning and inactivation could be. I salute you and your fine crew for their efforts and the positive attitude that they maintain a couple of plank owners have observed that is very special and very unusual for one to be part of a commissioning crew of the ship and also to be able to attend the decommissioned. The crew of Fort McHenry has always been very special, and I’m incredibly proud to be one of you. Thank you. Mhm. Thank you. cam arose. That’s impressive achievements for ships so new in her service life. Those among you who have long served on amphibious ships may well remember a command called an amphibious group or fib group. Over time. While the missions of those commands remains the same, the name has changed. Now we call them Expeditionary Strike Groups or SGS surface warfare. Officer by trade, Red male cats has commanded afloat on multiple occasions and served in key staff positions ashore as Commander Expeditionary Strike Group to he is in charge of all amphibious ships on the East Coast, much like our ship he has served at sea around the world. Please welcome me in welcoming to the podium. Admiral Cats, Thanks again. Okay. Yeah. And welcome to a covid environment. So I don’t have the defogger on my glasses. I got to take the mask off, But first, uh, you know what an honor, Captain Rhodes. Thank you so much. This is just such a rare opportunity where you got the, you know, the guy that commissioned the ship to actually speak at the Decommissioning, You know, it’s an age thing, so But you look great. So thank you for doing this for us. All right, So good morning. Family, friends, guests, shipmates old and new. And good morning to USS Fort McHenry. I’m humbled to be with you on this bittersweet day as we gather here on the flight deck to commemorate the ship’s 33rd year of commission service In a covid conscious event which charged the life of Fort McHenry from commissioning crew to Decommissioning crew. I’m honored to preside over these proceedings today. We are joined by Captain Dave Delusion, Commodore of Amphibious Squadron six, as well as several ships former commanding officers, including Captain Dusty Rhodes, the commissioning CEO. Destiny was with the ship through August of 1989. It is truly an honor Begay honor to have him with us today, along with some of the other plank owner crew to book in the ship’s life. We’re also president, of course, commander Michel Fabrizio, Fort McHenry’s final commanding officer, who will speak with us before we decommission the ship and prepare it for its final journey to Philadelphia. Later this morning you will hear an essay written by Ranger Shannon McLucas from the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, which recounts how our Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment were manifested during a 25 hour bombardment during the Battle of Baltimore. The history of Fort McHenry lies within each of the ship sailors and is my hope this pride in their namesake is guided all who cross the quarterback and reported for duty. It’s an honor to preside over this event. Thank you for the invitation. I would like to thank those who are here present and also think those who are watching on Facebook. I know many things I know many family, friends and relatives who would have adjusted their priorities to be here in person. But we maintain our focus on keeping folks safe. I would like to mention for McHenry’s first deployment as captain, Rhodes talked about a Westpac cruise, which took place not too long after ship’s commissioning on August 8th, 1987 at Lockheed Shipyard in Seattle, Washington. Desi told us more about the crew and how they were up for the challenge when the Navy came calling, but it’s worth noting of the five ships that deployed with Amphibious Squadron three and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Fort McHenry is the last remaining commission service. Those ships have sailed with you that day. USS New Orleans, USS Mobile, USS Ogden, USS Fresno. They’re no longer in ship service. Michael, Thank you for the invitation. You first served as the ship’s executive officer and then took command in November 2019. Your leadership has brought this ship through the twilight of its life. De commissioning ceremonies closed the story of a ship just as his commissioning began his life. So to the Fort McHenry mission crew, Remember this morning events. You know, you have been each invaluable part of the ship’s history. So in closing, I thank you all for being here today. We’re watching from afar. I offer my sincere thanks for all you do and the fleet and at home. Let’s put the ship looks great. Good job. So right. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Rear Admiral Cats were not present. Committed to Brescia with his individual award. Can’t grab my bad. Yeah. The president of the United States States pleasure in presenting the Meritorious Service medal to Commander Michael J. Fabrizio, United States Navy. Her service set forth and following Citation for outstanding meritorious service while serving as executive officer from June 2018 to September 2019. The commanding officer for USS Fort McHenry from November 2019 to April 2021. With dynamic and positive leadership, he left the ship and crew to achieve an unmatched record of mission accomplishment and operational success. He got into ship the rigorous basic and advanced space training that saw the crew achieve high levels of efficiency and integration with the embarked Marines and the rest of the Amphibious ready group on deployment. His focus efforts led the successful engagement with the Romanian Navy safe and professional interaction with the Russian military forces while operating in the Black Sea. Highly operational period. The U. S. 56 weeks that culminated in the successful participation in exercise Baltic operations for the ship demonstrated interrupt building partner nation forces. Additionally, he leads drew along most deployment sustainment period for the ship, maintained the high level of material and training readiness through the covid 19 and did it which culminated in the ship being the first successful East Coast dock landing ship to serve as a ready defense support of civil authorities. Asset in a covid free button by his exceptional professionalism, ability, personal initiative and total devotion to duty Commander for easier to put the great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service for the president Signed rd Cats, Rear Admiral, United States Navy. Yeah, Mhm Admiral cast Thank you for those kind words and the award for the plank owners. But I’d like to tell you today is the work that this crew has done. You know, I hear Captain Roses speech and his comments about what you achieved. These guys have done their level best. The crews standing around you, these men and women, these sailors with men, Fort McHenry to maintain that tradition that you set for us. So I thank you for setting it for us. I just want you to know what this crew has done. But that rich heritage that you said for us, it stretches farther back. The heritage of Fort McHenry stretches all the way back to the late 17 hundreds. This morning we memorialize for history and achievement. As previously mentioned, this historical essay was sent by a volunteer guards of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, and it was accompanied by the flag that you currently see flying on the shipyard arm. If you look as you depart, you’ll see that flying there. During the War of 18 12, the Chesapeake region in Baltimore, then the third largest city in the United States, were threatened by British forces. The war fought to protect free trade and sailors Rights arrived in the Chesapeake Bay in 18 13. The blockade of the Atlantic coast and the raids on communities by the Royal Navy prompted Baltimore to expand defenses throughout the city and to improve and expand the garrison. At Fort McHenry. In August 18, 14 squadrons under the command of Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane landed an expedition of soldiers and sailors who defeated hastily assembled defenders at the Battle of Bladensburg. They then moved on to burn the capital city of Washington, D. C. The last Americans blocking the British advance were navy sailors under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney. Two weeks later, the British arrived in the Patapsco River, and on September 12th, 5000 British troops marched towards Baltimore. They met heavy resistance from the Americans at the Battle of North Point, during which the British forces took several casualties, including their commander, Major General Robert Ross, taking command of his troops, Colonel Arthur Brooke pressed on towards the city at the eastern edge of town, Brooke waited where he was outmatched by a joint force of 15,000 American soldiers, sailors, militia and Marines in fortified positions. Holding his position, he requested the help of the Royal Navy. The next day, the strength of the forts defenses in the middle of the city’s defenders would be put to the test. During a 25 hour bombardment, the brave defenders who served during the Battle of Baltimore inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem The Defence of Fort McHenry, better known as The Star Spangled Banner. Beneath the skylight, with the red glare of rockets, soldiers and sailors stood there, posting to garrison and on the water batteries. In 18 14, a group of defenders came together to protect one of the largest in cities and ports in the United States, militiamen fought alongside regular army artillery and infantry men. Merchant sailors fought alongside Navy men and marines. They all came from all walks of life, but they marched together, drilled together and against the might of the British navy, stood their ground together and man the guns at Fort McHenry. Yeah, honor, Courage, commitment. All of these were demonstrated by those serving at Fort McHenry in 18 14. Weather service and sacrifice has long been remembered in Key song. So, too, has it been honored in the service of the men and women who have crude USS Fort McHenry since its commissioning in 1987. But that service would not have been possible of the fort of many. Our long serving program manager, our port engineers, they were critical to the ship’s life and repairs. Our representative from Fleet and Family Services, Chris Edmondson, has been a fixture in the Fort McHenry family for many years. She started this journey with us when the ship was home ported in Norfolk, Virginia, or Little Creek. And then she followed Fort McHenry down to Florida. When we homeport shifted to Mayport, she wrote the ship down and relocated her family as well. To our ombudsman, Alicia Lewis, who volunteered to continue even after her husband attached on the ship and who served on Fort McHenry herself when she was an active, too mhm to my wife, Joanna, whose patience and support were so critical on this tour as well as those that came of core. Finally, I’d like to thank the spouses of all of the Fort McHenry sailors who for 33 years supported their loved ones when the ship took those sailors. Far from out, there are countless others who have been so essential the Fort McHenry, and then have labeled us to accomplish all that we have. I think all of you thank you for your supports. I will now read the Decommissioning order. Mhm from Chief of Naval Operations, Washington D. C. To USS Fort McHenry. Subject. Decommissioned USS Fort McHenry, LSD 43 in accordance with the satnav ship inactivation schedule. Decommission USS Fort McHenry, LSD 43 placed into out of commission in reserve status. Effective date for USS Fort McHenry. LSD 43. Decommissioning is 16. April 2021 with immediate promulgation released 26 of January 2021 by Mr Andrew s Chipotle Director Navy staff, XO make preparations to decommission USS Fort McHenry. Former head support. We’ll secure about death running like two minutes breaking it down. The greater the stone. Sure. Very well. A priest. It was. You want it is a Despite certain? Yeah, to make music. Galley fires have been stoked toward the look. We’re going to feel very well, like money, right? I grew up lot. Falmouth? Yeah. Tell her like a. Hear what left. Captain USS Fort McHenry is ready to be decommissioned. Very well, Frankie Bells and haul down the colors. Details? Yeah, sure. Well, the guests please rise. Ship’s company too. Also the deck. Strike eight bills and hold down the colors. Detail about face Ship’s company. Hand salute. Salute two. Ready to ready to. Ladies and gentlemen, you may be seated. Ship’s company, Hungry Press. Edinson is the name given to an American flag, which has flown on every commissioned warship. The United Nations law to see convention treaties and customary international law laid down three criteria for a vessel to be considered a warship. First, it must be commanded by a commissioned officer. Traditionally, the officer had to be in physical possession of his commission. But this was later superseded by the requirement that is named here, a published register of such officers. And this is signified by the flying of a commissioning. Second, the crew must be under military discipline. That’s specifically rules out merchant ships commanded by reserve officers for the proof. Civilian merchants, as they typically do not have armament, it would be unable to defend themselves during an attack at sea. And third, it must bear the distinguishing marks of its nationality in the United States Navy, these distinguishing marks of the commission concluded. An officer eligible to command at sea in the midst read. Well, Cats is being presented with the last union Jack to be flown from Port Henry Alston. Commodore Collusion is being presented with a less instant flown aboard Fort McHenry. Hold on the commissioning pennant. Secure the watch, disembarked the crew for the final time. Hi, guys. Quartermaster Hall down the commissioning pennant Monster The Secure the launch, captain watching Security very well. Proof over Henry, too. But Group four But Henry Way ashore, it’s the commissioning. Pennant is a distinguishing mark of the commission horseshit. Pendant is a long streamer and some version of the national colors of the navy that flies in the American pen. It is blue and the hoist, and there are seven white stars. The rest of the pendant consists of a single longitudinal stripes of red and white the tenant has flown at all times as long as the ship is in commission status following naval tradition and custom command, Master Chief Jason Do for you will present the final commission flowed on board for McHenry to the commanding officer. Commander Fabrizio. Yeah, Yeah. Mhm camera. The watch has been secured. Ship is ready to the commission. I tend to relinquish command 16. April 2021. Parallel. The ship’s chaplain will now deliver the benediction, but is afraid. Fathers, We closed this afternoon. We were reminded the you have said in order to the world we are born and we pass in the same way. Our ships have the same beautiful fate from the day they are born to the day they are commissioned. They are here for only a short time. May the memories we have is her crew. Present and past remain in our hearts, whether sweet or difficult and made the memories of her sailors echo about her decks. We in respect pay homage to our ship and to the crews that sailed her fearlessly upon the sea. And as she sets forth to her place of rest, we are grateful for her years of service and those who have served with her. God bless the USS Fort McHenry. God bless her cruise past and present. God bless the United States Navy and God bless the United States of America before the camera crew will now carry out their respective orders. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our ceremony. Thank you for joining us today and have a fine Navy Day. Ship’s company has dismissed. Mhm. Yeah.