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I recently had the opportunity to sail with the Royal Canadian
Navy (RCN) for Operation Limpid, which is an annual patrol of the
Arctic Ocean and Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The group of
ships I deployed with was comprised of several marine coastal
defense vessels from the eastern and western coasts of Canada. I
joined the Kingston-class coastal defense vessel HMCS Yellowknife
(MM 706) ship, commanded by RCN Lt. Cmdr. Donald Thompson-Greiff, in
Nome, Alaska on Sept. 22, 2017.
I wasn’t the only foreign
crewmember aboard the ship. Yellowknife also embarked two other U.S.
Navy Sailors and a sailor from the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
“I will take every opportunity to sail with a joint crew,”
Thompson-Greiff said. “I think there is no better learning
experience for these kind of missions than to sail with foreign
navies aboard.”
RNZN Able Seaman Karaitiana Maxwell from
Opotiki, New Zealand, and Electrician’s Mate 2nd class Aron Yelton
from Ardmore, Oklahoma, were engineers and joined the Yellowknife’s
engineering department. Quartermaster 1st class Daniel Wilson, from
Jacksonville, Florida, joined the ship’s navigation watch team, and
the ship’s deck officer became Wilson’s mentor and trained him as an
officer of the watch. As a mass communication specialist, I became a
part of naval combat information operations (NCIOPS) department.
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September 2017 - From left: Royal Canadian Navy Master Seaman Douglas Klassen,
U.S. Navy Sailors Quartermaster 1st Class Daniel Wilson and
Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Aron Yelton, Royal Canadian Navy
sailors Able Seaman Jacob Barrett and Able Seaman Jiu Jiu Chen, and
Royal New Zealand Navy Able Marine Technician Karaitiana Maxwell,
assigned to the Kingston-class minesweeper HMCS Yellowknife (MM
706), stand for a group photo in the town of Ulukhaktuk, Canadian
Northwest Territory. Yellowknife is deployed in support of Operation
Limpid, a routine domestic surveillance and presence operation in
Canada's maritime and land domains. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass
Communications Specialist 2nd Class Travis Litke)
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With such a small crew, most of the jobs normally found on U.S.
ships were integrated into much broader categories. The engineers
aboard did the jobs of machinist mates, electrician’s mates, and
damage controlmen. My department, NCIOPS, performed duties that
would be split between operations specialists, intelligence
specialists, aerographer’s mates and sonar technicians in the U.S.
Navy. Our watches consisted of monitoring radar, photographing
surface and air contacts, and taking weather and sea state data.
The routine was not unlike what I experienced on my last ship.
Every day began at 7 a.m. with a pipe played over the ship’s public
address system, informally referred to as “wakey wakey.” The
boatswain of the watch piped and announced “hands to breakfast.”
Then, the officer of the watch began the day’s schedule with a “good
morning, Yellowknife.” Those of us who didn’t have the midwatch the
night before rolled out of bed and made our way to the galley at the
center of the ship. Every morning, without fail, our cooks put fresh
fruit, smoothies and some kind of baked goodies out for the crew.
Royal Canadian Army (RCA) Cpl. Mikhail Grizhanov, one of the
cooks on board, greeted everybody the same cheerfully polite way,
every morning.
“Good morning, Mr. Litke, what can I make for
you?”
After grabbing a plate of whatever Grizhanov had served
up and a cup from the line at the galley, we’d make our way into the
crew mess. There were three on board; one for the junior ranks (JR’s
Mess), one for the petty officers and chiefs (POs and CPOs Mess),
and one for the officers (wardroom).
It turns out that no
matter their nationality, every Sailor will spend a solid chunk of
their career cleaning their ship. Right after breakfast, around 8
a.m., the boatswain of the watch piped “hands to cleaning stations.”
The crew finished up their food and coffee (or tea, as it turns out
was the most popular) and headed out to their areas of the ship to
wipe everything down and give the decks a wash. With such a small
ship, I assumed it to be much easier to clean, but the Yellowknife
ran their cleaning stations for 90 minutes. It wasn’t just the
junior sailors cleaning, either. I often found myself side-by-side
with the CO taking his trash out of the stateroom and sweeping up
the lavatory he shared with his executive officer.
From there, the daily routine was fairly straightforward. There
was often some kind of training lecture held in one of the messes,
mostly about damage control, engineering and mine warfare, since
Yellowknife is technically a minesweeper. Every available sailor
attended if they could, and it was impressive how knowledgeable the
crew was. RCN Leading Seaman Kyle Uligh gave tours of the ship’s
firemain and damage control systems once a week, with the same gusto
every time. He never hesitated to offer remedial training or further
explanations if one of us had trouble understanding.
“You have to know the fire system,” Uligh said. “It’s just the
few of us out here. Everybody needs to be ready to move if there’s
an emergency.”
Part of Yellowknife’s mission was doing
community outreach with villages in the Canadian Northwest
Territories. Every few days, the ship dropped anchor outside a
village, and the commanding officer, coxswain, and I would take a
small boat in to meet with the village elders, mayor, and the local
Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment. The villages were very
similar, but each had its own character. Tuktoyaktuk, our first
stop, was the largest town and also the quietest. There were very
few people out both times we stopped there. Our second stop,
Ulukhaktok, was about half the size but as soon as we were out onto
the beach locals started to swarm in to meet us and ask questions.
They rode out on all-terrain vehicles, two or three on each, and
parked down by the water to come and meet us and ask questions about
the ship. Ulukhaktok is also home to the world’s northernmost
nine-hole golf course.
Our third stop in Sachs Harbor was a
fair mix of the first two stops. It was a town of roughly 100
people, mostly fishermen and hunters. They had displays of seal skin
and musk ox wool clothing set up for us to look at and buy, as well
as freshly-fried donuts and baked cookies for the few of us who had
taken the rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) to shore. They were
extremely hospitable and happy to spend time with us drinking coffee
and talking about life in the harbor.
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September 2017 - U.S Navy Quartermaster 1st Class Daniel
Wilson (left 1st image) and Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Aron Yelton
(left 2nd image) receive a Bluenose card from Royal Canadian Navy
Lt. Cmdr. Douglas Thompson-Greiff, commanding officer of the
Kingston-class minesweeper HMCS Yellowknife (MM 706). Wilson and
Yelton received the card commemorating their first crossing of the
Arctic Circle Yellowknife, while deployed in support of Operation
Limpid, a routine domestic surveillance and presence operation in
Canada's maritime and land domains. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass
Communications Specialist 2nd Class Travis Litke)
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Our final stop before heading back to Point Barrow and
down into the Bering Sea was Herschel Island. This island is
an old whaling town which served as a base station for
sailors out hunting Bowhead whales in the Beaufort Sea. It
is still maintained by Canada and has a compliment of
rangers watching over it and giving tours. They get enough
visitors, in fact, that the island has a small dirt runway
running the length of it. Our time there included tours of
the buildings, a native Inuvialuit drum and dance
performance, and several crew members of our sister ship
HMCS Edmonton (MM 703) participated in a “polar bear swim”
diving into the water on the northern side of the island,
then running back into the sauna built on the beach.
After Herschel Island, we began our week-long sail back
around Point Barrow. The routine went back to normal, with
watches, training, and drills. With all of our stops being
only for a day or two, it was easy to fall back into our
underway routine.
After a month out at sea,
Yellowknife arrived in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the last stop
for Wilson and me. I believe my time on HMCS Yellowknife was
a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My month aboard was one of
the most exciting and educational experiences I’ve had
during my career in the U.S. Navy. I worked alongside some
of the hardiest and smartest sailors I’ve ever met: people I
would (and often did) trust with my life. Our sail through
the Arctic Ocean was cold and exhausting, but if I were told
to pack my bags and go back tomorrow, I absolutely would.
By U.S. Navy MCS2 Travis Litke
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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