USS Oak Hill, GTMO Weapons Department Conduct Ammo On-Load

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Justin Ailes Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (NNS) -- USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) visited Naval Station (NS) Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to assist the installation's Weapons department with an ammunition on-load, April 14-15.

The Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship provided a landing craft utility (LCU) vessel as transport to bring aboard 172 pallets of mortars. The ordnance is set to be off-loaded in Earle, New Jersey, and utilized as training aides for U.S. Marines.

"The importance was geared towards Marines having the opportunity to use live ordnance in training before using it in combat," said Lt. Timothy Proctor, NS Guantanamo Bay weapons officer. "This was the first time in over 20 years that NS Guantanamo Bay has conducted this scale of an on-load to a ship. The efforts of the Weapons Department personnel contributed significantly to completing the on-load in a safe and efficient manner."

The installation's Weapons department conducted the on-load, with the Operations department assisting with coordination, the Security department providing escorts for all transports, and the Safety department ensuring proper operational risk management (ORM) was observed.

"We follow instructions and directives," said Joseph Perfetto, NS Guantanamo Bay safety manager and explosive safety officer. "We have a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) for what will be accomplished. The evolution took more than 70 days to plan. ORM was conducted every day for a week to ensure that everyone knew what was going on. The ammunition move went without a hitch."