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A movie projector repair shop, at sea? A graphics department? Watch and typewriter repair?Īs the crew is quick to point out during a morning's tour of the ship, much of its work revolves around the peculiarities of Navy equipment. Along with the usual departments - a huge machine shop, carpenters, a foundry - the ship has some touches of the unexpected. Eleven of 43 officers are female, as are 200 of 1,300 enlisted personnel.Īcadia does indeed have a dental clinic large enough to make Georgetown Dental Associates in Washington envious. It is also one of the few ships in the Navy to include women in its crew. It is a spacious ship, far roomier inside than a cruiser, for instance. While abroad, the crew enjoys such experiences as spending two days lashed to a loaded ammunition ship with lifeless engines, in a gale.īut for the most part Acadia's service to the Navy takes place right here in the harbor, lending a hand to frigates and destroyers with nagging maintenance problems. ``The worldwide operational capability of the US uld not exist without the services of the hard-working auxiliary ships,'' concludes a recent Congressional Budget Office report on the requirements of a 600-ship fleet.Įvery 18 months or so the crew takes the Acadia to sea for a cruise to the Indian Ocean or some overseas destination. More than one-third of the ships bought during the Reagan defense spend-up of 1982 through 1985 were auxiliaries. While the public may sometimes feel the entire Navy consists of ``Top Gun'' actor Tom Cruise and a refurbished battleship, US warships would have only a few days of fight in them if it weren't for this logistics chain. Besides tenders, a typical carrier task force would have in its wake an underway replenishment group of oilers, ammunitions ships, and combat store ships. Other logistics ships would accompany the fleet. The ship would anchor on the edge of the battle zone, most likely in the shelter of a nearby bay, though on the open ocean if no protection were available. The public address system is blaring the water temperature and the direction and number of kilometers to the closest landfall - while the pier is in fact all of 10 feet away.īut on a mission during fleet operations the Acadia would be out there with the battle group. On the day of a reporter's visit, the ship is in the middle of what the Navy calls a ``fast cruise,'' and what a layman might term ``pretending to be at sea.''Ĭrew members are wearing flotation vests and hard hats and rushing about to lifeboat stations. The Acadia doesn't cruise out of its berth at the San Diego Navy Yard very often. ``We can even do repairs on nuclear propulsion plants,'' says Capt.
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But in a pinch it could provide anything from hull patches to podiums for all types of Navy ships. Launched in 1979, the Acadia is designed primarily to service Spruance-class destroyers. He says his ship also has ``one of the finest dental departments afloat.'' Francis Harness, United States Naval Reserve, boasts not of firepower but of lube-oil carrying capacity. The Acadia is a destroyer tender, a floating repair yard that is perhaps as crucial to fleet strength as its more glamorous warship colleagues.Īcadia's commander, Capt. Welcome to the world of the rolled-up-sleeves Navy. Its beam is wide where others' are sleek. Tied up amid the cruisers and destroyers of the Pacific Fleet, the USS Acadia looks like a workhorse among thoroughbreds.