Nine months into a four-month deployment to Singapore, relief is on the way for marooned LCS crew

[nitpicker]

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/9-months-into-a-4-month-deployment-to-singapore-relief-is-on-the-way-for-marooned-lcs-crew

Nine months into a four-month deployment to Singapore, relief is on the way for marooned LCS crew

By: David B. Larter, March 28, 2017


The embarked crew of the forward-deployed littoral combat ship Coronado deployed in June, headed toward Singapore and was supposed to be back around Thanksgiving. Now, one week into spring, Crew 204 is finally getting some relief. Crew 203 is en route to Singapore to relieve 204, which will be thrilled to leave the Coronado in their rear view and get back to their families.

Over the past months, Crew 203 has been working up in an LCS simulator, but the underway portion of their pre-deployment training was delayed because all the available trimaran LCS hulls were in maintenance. But as delays mounted, family members of the crew who spoke to Navy Times said the crew became increasingly demoralized. That seems to be coming to a much-needed end, according to a release from Naval Surface Force Pacific. Crew 203 departed Naval Air Station North Island Tuesday morning, which should allow 204 to head back by mid-April.
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Navy Times first reported that Crew 204 was stuck in December, and then again in February. Part of the delay in getting 203 out to Singapore was reorganizing the program and shifting training standards after a string of mechanical failures on LCS ships, some of which were caused by crew error. A program review carried out after recommendation by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson uncovered the need to increase on-hull training that was previously done in the simulator, SURFPAC officials said.
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