The United States Navy’s Military Sealift Command and Ocean Ships Inc. have entered into an agreement to man the latest expeditionary sea base, USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB 7) bringing more new jobs to members of American Maritime Officers.
The USS Simanek was delivered to the Navy in September and recently left General Dynamics NASSCO’s shipyard in San Diego for its new home berth. ESBs are optimized to support a variety of maritime based missions, including Special Operations Forces, Airborne Mine Counter Measures, Crisis Response Force Sea Basing, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Unmanned Aviation Systems. The ESBs, which include a four spot V-22 sized flight deck, mission deck and hangar, are designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and command and control assets.
The ship is named for Private First Class Robert Ernest Simanek, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for shielding fellow Marines from a grenade at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Korean War.
The two original ships in the class were built in 2012 and called mobile landing platforms – the John Glenn and Montford Point. Both ships are currently manned by AMO. The Navy reclassified the next five ships ESBs. The previous four ESBs are manned by a combination of enlisted military and contract civilian mariners, but as MSC recently revealed plans to lay up 17 vessels to address its manning shortage, the USS Simanek will be manned in all licensed positions for the foreseeable future by AMO. A sixth ESB, the USS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8) is currently under construction at NASSCO shipyard in California.
“American Maritime Officers is proud to work with our partner, Ocean Ships Inc. on this important assignment. Our officers are well trained and suited to carry out this task,” AMO National President Willie Barrere said. “We look forward to continuing our relationship and assistance with Military Sealift Command and the U.S. Navy in the future.”
AMO members aboard the USS Simanek in December included (front row) Third Mate Colin Adler, Captain Carrie Stewart, Second Assistant Engineer Brandon Joest, Third A.E. Zachary Nicholas and Chief Engineer Gregg Daley, (back row) Second Mate James Deckert, Third A.E. Hamid Meghed, Third A.E. Shane Sterling, Chief Mate Andrew Wellman, Electronics Officer William Staton and First A.E. Robert Mussler.
AMO members on the USS Simanek included Third Engineer Hamid Megahed, First Engineer Brandon Joest, Chief Engineer Robert Mussler and Captain Ron Bunch.
AMO officers and crew aboard the USS Robert E. Simanek successfully navigated the ship from NASSCO, San Diego to Vigor in Portland, Oregon for Military Sealift Command this December.