New home for Defender, Avenger: Sasebo

[unhappycamper]

Crew members of the minesweepers Avenger (shown here) and Defender learned that their new home port will be in Sasebo, Japan.


New home for Defender, Avenger: Sasebo
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Dec 20, 2009 10:49:09 EST

Two minesweepers that lost their home port, then languished in a gray zone called “extended deployment” while Navy officials decided where to put them, found out Dec. 16 they’ll be joining the Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Sasebo, Japan.

The mine countermeasures ships Avenger and Defender, which were sent to Sasebo this summer, will join the mine countermeasures ships Patriot and Guardian, which are already stationed there.

Like the other Japan minesweepers, Avenger and Defender will take on single, permanent crews, as opposed to the rotating crews used in the Persian Gulf, Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. John Perkins said.

The formal assignment to Sasebo ends a period of bureaucratic limbo for Avenger and Defender, during which its crew members and families did not know where the ships would end up.

That meant they couldn’t plan where to move their families, many of whom relocated across the U.S. when the ships left their former base at Naval Station Ingleside, Texas.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/12/navy_minesweepers_122009w/