Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Lewis | 190411-N-TR141-0134 NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (April 11, 2019) Engineman 2nd Class...... read more read more
A busy place by nature, Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota, Spain, Port Operations Department, is not your typical Navy shore duty billet. With the amount of ship traffic that comes through the base harbor, this department’s Sailors and civilians work 24/7 in support of the fleet and fighter. Join me on this small glimpse into a busy and important world of what happens day-to-day with the Sailors and civilians keeping port operations running smoothly.
NAVSTA Rota Port Operations provides port infrastructure, services, as well as Command, Control, and Communications (C3) in order to support the onward movement and integration of vessels, cargo, and munitions of U.S. and allied missions. They support operational readiness in the 6th Fleet Area of Responsibility, providing facilities and services to enable mission accomplishment.
Before coming to Rota, Engineman (EN) First Class Reynald Salazar, leading petty officer of NAVSTA Rota Port Operations Department, had been the leading petty officer of the Avenger class mine countermeasures ship USS Chief’s (MCM 14) main propulsion division, obtaining the highest engineering qualification, Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) qualification as a second class petty officer. Now he says his job is “100% different.” Salazar said that now he performs duties typically done by Sailors of other rates such as boatswain’s mates, personnel specialists, yeomen, and machinist’s mates.
Port Operations handles docking, undocking, installing the oil boom containment for transferring fuel, oil, or oily waste for supply and NATO ships, and Navy warships. They provide harbor pilot services, and have a strong hazardous spill response capability. They also maintain six harbor security boats to support NAVSTA Rota’s harbor patrol unit and five utility boats for their oil spill response mission, and support all homeported and visiting assets with port services. Port Operations is also a critical part of the installation’s intermodal operations. Intermodal operations leverage multiple modes of transportation to reduce cargo handling, improve security, minimize damage and allow quicker freight transportation.
Still following? Good! Because this broad overview is just the beginning.
“The most stressful part of the job is the constant changes to our schedule,” said Salazar. “It could vary 48 hours prior to less than 12 hours prior.” He adds that his favorite part of the job is “getting my department the liberty that they deserve after all their tasks for the day are completed.”
Port operations is 24/7, and one of those many Sailors working long days and nights is Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Kathryn Rivera, a port operations control dispatcher and small boat coxswain.
“Whether it be communicating between the small boats and ships during evolutions, or even the small day-to-day seamanship tasks like repairing anchor lines and maintaining oil response booms, it’s really easy to see how all of the minuscule tasks we accomplish every day add up to the bigger picture,” said Rivera.
Robert Hedrick, NAVSTA Rota’s port services officer, marine transport specialist, has a long history with port operations, having been active duty Navy stationed here from 1986 to 1989 and 1995 to 1999. He retired from the Navy in 2009 and began his current job in early 2017.
Hedrick schedules arrivals and departures of all home-ported and visiting ships for Rota’s harbor. There’s only one U.S. owned pier and two U.S. designated berths so he assigns the ship’s berthing arrangements in coordination with and approval from the Spanish Port Captain. His favorite part of the job is living in Spain with his family and being able to work with service members to provide customer service to the fleet, “as well as working with my Spanish national dock workers, many whom I have known and worked with since 1986,” he added.
Engineman 2nd Class Lucas Jocewicz is primarily Port Operation’s pilot coxswain and shore installation management basic boat coxswain (SIMBBC) instructor.
“I like all the new skills I’ve learned since I’ve been there [Port Operations], and everyday brings new challenges for us to solve,” said Jocewicz. “It’s nice working in a place knowing that what we do there has a pretty big impact on operations in the region.”
There are plenty of challenges for Jocewicz and the team. Challenges that Keith McDowell, Rota’s U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) representative, is a part of solving. He retired from the Navy in 2000 and began his current job in 2016. He supports all MSC missions and ships calling on Rota and other ports in Spain, and serves as the local subject matter expert and point of contact for all MSC related issues. This includes coordinating husbanding services, tracking shipments, arranging base access and providing escorts for deliveries, visiting ships in port, assisting crew needs and attending every MSC sponsored ships’ arrival and departure.
McDowell says one of the most challenging parts of the job is “ships always have short or no notice requirements for supplies, provisions, personnel, or repairs. Arranging short notice base access for contractors, technical representatives, or regulatory body inspectors is challenging.”
Rivera said that, at times, these different challenges can become overwhelming.
“When we come in early and stay late for days on end, even through holidays and days off. But every now and then we get to wave people off or witness families reunited pier-side and huge smiles as people pull in for the first time in months. For me, those little moments, seeing people at their best, doing the job civilians see us do on TV with a proud smile and incredibly accurate symphony like precision and coordination—that makes it feel like I’m doing something bigger than feeding a line around a bollard or towing 600 feet of gear through the ocean from point A to point B.”
When you run into someone who works in Port Operations, they may have played a role in getting your ship the services it needed to get back to homeport or made it possible for your shop to get the supplies they need. Give them a high-five (or whatever appropriate greeting you prefer), maybe a cup of coffee, or just a ‘thanks.’
| Date Taken: | 04.25.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.30.2019 04:57 |
| Story ID: | 320023 |
| Location: | ROTA, ES |
| Web Views: | 258 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Gateway to the Mediterranean: Rota Port Operations, by PO1 Benjamin Lewis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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