Sam Spade's San Francisco

From Coast Guard Compass, the official blog of the USCG

Written by PO3 Victoria Bonk, who also took the perfectly-timed photo of Mohawk's Mark 75 deck gun firing a 76mm 62-caliber bullet. PO3 Bonk has been doing a stellar job of reporting on this important international diplomatic mission undertaken by the Coast Guard. Here is her report:

This week, CGC Mohawk is steaming back to its homeport of Key West, Fla. Just like when we came across the Atlantic Ocean on our trip over, it’s going to take about two weeks, so the crew is staying busy with full workdays. We are up and out of our racks at 7 a.m. and work until evening chow.

There is a lot to do before we pull into port, including getting the ship ready. We are cleaning and fixing everything that needs attention. The deck department is hard at work sanding, priming and painting parts of the weather decks on the ship.

As the ship gets ready, we are also readying the new crew members for standing their in port duty. They are finishing up their damage control personal qualification standards, doing drills and taking tests.

“Since we have started our trip back the deck department quickly went to work chasing running rust and touching up paint and then began work on their preventive maintenance items to keep everything running like tops,” said Senior Chief Radford Hoffpauir, the master at arms aboard the Mohawk.

And for a little excitement, we have been doing gunnery exercises on the Mark 75, 76mm 62 caliber gun weapons system. These exercises are needed to train gun mount personnel in loading procedures and clearing miss-fire procedures.

“Communication is key every time we shoot the Mark 75. There is about 24 hours of preparation for 5 minutes of excitement so it is extremely important that combat, the gun mount team and bridge keep prefect communication throughout the shoot, said Petty Officer 1st Class John Harling, an electronics technician aboard the Mohawk. ” “This communication keeps everyone safe while doing their part during the exercise.”

The trip back isn’t quite as smooth as the trip to Africa was, as we are following behind Hurricane Igor and have Hurricane Julia coming up behind us. The boat is rocking a little more than most of us would like, but we are adjusting.

The crew couldn’t be more excited to be heading home, and we are counting the days till we see our families and friends on the pier for us in Key West.