By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Paul Honnick, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West, Det. Hawaii
PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for an independent deployment to the 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility in the western Pacific June 1.
During its four-and-a-half month deployment, Chung-Hoon will perform maritime interdiction operations and provide support for anti-insurgency operations in the Sulu Sea. The ship and its crew will also be working with the forward deployed naval forces conducting freedom of navigation operations.
Additionally, the Hawaii-based warship will participate in the annual Cooperative Afloat Readiness and Training exercise with the Republic of Singapore Navy for the second consecutive year.
"We've got a fantastic crew. We've got 283 Sailors onboard and each one of them is fully trained and ready to do the mission and they're excited to go," said Cmdr. Scott Erb, commanding officer of Chung-Hoon.
Erb that from the time the ship returned from its last deployment in July 2009, the crew has been training hard for the next one.
"Since then we've had a selective restrictive availability, a maintenance availability to help make our ship a better ship materially, we've done quite a bit of training for the crew and we've had the big INSURV inspection this spring which helped prep us both materially and for training," said Erb.
Erb feels his crew is ready for the challenges ahead.
"I am very proud of the crew and the hard work they've put in since we came back from our last deployment." said Erb. "Their professionalism and commitment to [doing] business means we will be ready to accomplish any missions we receive."
Chung-Hoon has embarked Light Helicopter Squadron 37's Detachment 4 as its air department. They will provide aerial support with a SH-60B helicopter.
Guided-missile destroyers are multimission anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare surface combatants. They operate independently for support of carrier and expeditionary strike groups and surface strike groups
