In the News: Swift in DR

Southern Partnership Station in Dominican Republic

Release Date: 2/27/2009
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Ball, Southern Partnership Station Public Affairs

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (NNS) -- High speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) arrived in Dominican Republic Feb. 25 for a ten-day training mission during Southern Partnership Station (SPS). Southern Partnership Station is an annual deployment of various specialty platforms to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of focus in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission goal is primarily information sharing with navies, coast guards, and civilian services throughout the region. SPS is comprised of Navy training and support teams, Marine Corps training teams, foreign naval officers and civilian contract mariners on a Military Sealift Command platform.

Training teams from Navy Expeditionary Training Command (ETC), Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group began their courses today with students from the Dominican Republic Navy and Marines. The courses provide instruction in small boat maintenance and repair, small boat coxswain, port security and martial arts.

The first mission of the day was to do a complete turnover of ETC and Swift military support team personnel. Swift has two military crews, blue and gold, that rotate duty aboard the ship every four months. After all the new members of the SPS team were settled in, an opening ceremony was conducted and training began in classrooms set up on Swift and at local military facilities.

"The mission has been outstanding, we've trained hundreds and hundreds of students, learned a great deal about our partner nations and their militaries, and we have forged strong relationships that will last well into the future." said Cmdr. Chris Barnes, SPS mission commander. "I think it's important to change out the training teams from time to time as it allows us to bring in fresh instructors with new excitement about their opportunities to train and learn from our partner nations."

The Dominican Republic training evolution comes after the first SPS stop to Nicaragua. During a weeklong visit to El Bluff, Nicaragua the SPS team trained with Nicaraguan sailors in port security, waterborne operations, martial arts, small boat repair and maritime interdiction. They also enjoyed a visit and question and answer session with Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter and U.S. Southern Command Deputy Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Glenn Spears.

The Dominican Republic is the eighth stop for SPS. Afterwards SPS is scheduled to visit Barbados, Colombia, Nicaragua and Jamaica.

The mission is coordinated through U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet (NAVSO/ 4th Fleet) with partner nations to meet their specific training requests. As the naval component command of SOUTHCOM, NAVSO's mission is to direct U.S. Naval Forces operating in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment.

Various operations include counter-illicit trafficking, theater security cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training.Fourth Fleet is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO, exercising operational control of assigned forces in the SOUTHCOM area of focus.