MSC Reservists Support RIMPAC 2022 on Land, Sea

Photo By Elisha Smith | 220715-N-MR124-1030 PEARL HARBOR (July 15, 2022) Gas Turbine System Technician Mechanical 1st Class Kelly Novesteras, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, assigned to the Cargo Afloat Rig Team aboard Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS Pecos (T-AO 197) signals Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) for a replenishment-at-sea during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, July 15. Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Elisha Smith)  

UNITED STATES

07.22.2022

Story by Sarah Cannon 

Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet           

Navy Reservists from Military Sealift Command (MSC) are on station in Hawaii, providing support to the Navy’s biennial, multinational maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) 2022 in the waters around Hawaii.

Eight members of Military Sealift Command Pacific’s (MSCPAC) Headquarters Unit are serving as watch standers, providing maritime logistics support to Commander, Task Group 173, at the Pacific Warfighting Center on Ford Island. These reservists, alongside their Australian, Canadian, French, and New Zealand teammates are providing comprehensive planning and coordination for each replenishment-at-sea conducted during the exercise, including arranging and coordinating rendezvous locations and times for three MSC Combat Logistic Force ships, one Australian logistics ship, one New Zealand logistics ship, and two MSC chartered tankers. In addition, the Reservists are coordinating towing operations with the MSC rescue and salvage ship USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51).

At sea, MSC Cargo Afloat Rig Team (CART) Sailors from East Coast Team One are at the center of at-sea logistics operations in support of the exercise. Nineteen CART members are on the decks of MSC’s fleet replenishment oilers USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187) and USNS Pecos (T-AO 197), training and working hand-in-hand with the civil service mariner crews in order to meet the huge underway replenishment demands of keeping the ships of the 28 participating nations supplied and moving.

As the world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships, and this is front and center for the MSC Reservists, who are working closely with the foreign navies.

“In participating in RIMPAC, we get to learn a lot about the foreign navies we are working with, seeing how they do things, and their navies’ similarities to ours,” said Lt. Kayla Mullins, MSCPAC HQ Unit’s Officer-in-Charge of the advance echelon to RIMPAC. “One of the best things about RIMPAC is getting to attend the foreign navies receptions, where we get to interact with them and to be exposed to their country’s food and customs.”

MSC Reservists will continue to support RIMPAC to the conclusion of the exercise in early August.

Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, three submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29- Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

• Date Taken: 07.22.2022
• Date Posted: 07.23.2022 21:20
• Story ID: 425586
• Location: US