{"id":325618,"date":"2024-12-04T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=325618"},"modified":"2024-12-04T14:42:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T14:42:09","slug":"uss-carney-a-destroyer-at-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=325618","title":{"rendered":"USS Carney: a Destroyer at War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON – October 19, 2023, started out as a routine day underway for Sailors aboard USS Carney (DDG 64) as the ship steamed through the Red Sea on its scheduled deployment to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility. However, starting at around 4 p.m. local time, things abruptly changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in berthing and heard [an announcement over the ship\u2019s 1MC intercom system] \u2018clear the weatherdecks,\u2019 and I remember thinking, \u2018what does that mean? I\u2019ve never heard that before,\u2019\u201d recalled Fire Controlman (AEGIS) 2nd Class Justin Parker, a SPY radar technician assigned to Carney.
Immediately after hearing the announcement, Parker said he heard the unmistakable sound of missiles being fired off the ship, as well as the destroyer\u2019s main 5-inch gun being fired. With no scheduled live fire drills that day, he said he instantly realized something was wrong.
\u201cWe had never done anything like this before \u2013 we had only trained to it,\u201d said Gunner\u2019s Mate 1st Class Charles Currie, a Mk. 45 gun technician assigned to Carney. \u201cThere was a lot of adrenaline going on \u2013 this was real-world now.\u201d
By the end of what became a 10-hour standoff, Carney had shot down 15 drones and four land-attack cruise missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen, marking the most intense combat engagement by a U.S. Navy warship since WWII.
Carney departed for deployment Sept. 27, 2023, before the now-infamous Hamas terror attack on Israel Oct. 7. Looking back, crewmembers said they had no idea what was in store for them as they departed their homeport of Naval Station Mayport, Florida.
\u201cI\u2019ve only heard stories, but I expected to pull into ports and party a little bit,\u201d laughed Fire Controlman 2nd Class Kameron Miller, a Mk. 160 gun console technician onboard, for whom this would be his first deployment. \u201cThat was not quite the case.\u201d
On Oct. 7, after the deadly terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, crewmembers said they realized that the situation in the region would potentially be more complicated than they had anticipated, although the prospect of actual combat still wasn\u2019t on their minds.
\u201cThe XO told us flat out what the situation was, and what we could be facing,\u201d recalled Currie. \u201cAt that point the crew just started to get ready.\u201d
Following Israel\u2019s response to the Hamas attacks and its subsequent military operations in the Gaza strip aiming to free hostages and destroy the terror group responsible, the Iran-backed and Hamas-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen began a terror campaign against civilian mariners and cargo shipping in the Red Sea, aiming to disrupt international trade to leverage an end to the operation in Gaza. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the attacks \u201ca clear example of terrorism and a violation of international law\u201d and pledged that the U.S. and its allies would \u201cdo what we need to do to counter these threats and protect these ships.\u201d
After the initial combat engagement on Oct. 17, Carney spent much of the remainder of its deployment on high alert, closing out its time in the Red Sea with a total of 51 combat engagements.
\u201cThe entire crew definitely fell back on their training, starting from the very beginning,\u201d said Lt. j.g. Haven Vickers, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer assigned to Carney. \u201cEvery single training experience we did before deployment \u2013 that\u2019s what we fell back on.\u201d
Vickers said she credits the intensity of the crew\u2019s training along with the camaraderie shared among her shipmates with the success they experienced in combat. While many admitted to being nervous at first, she said as time went on, they fell into a rhythm and were able to effectively react to and defend the ship from threats.
\u201cAs nervous as you get, it\u2019s not about you,\u201d said Ens. William Hinckley, the Administrative\/Legal Officer onboard Carney. \u201cIt\u2019s about keeping everybody else safe. Thinking about everybody else and not just yourself is crucial.\u201d
Upon returning to their homeport following deployment May 10, 2024, the entire crew was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR), the first time a Navy crew has received the decoration since 1991 in the Gulf War.
\u201cI could not be more proud of what the Carney team has done since September,\u201d said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who attended the ship\u2019s homecoming. \u201cIt has been eye-watering to watch; you truly are America\u2019s Warfighting Navy in action.\u201d
For some of the crew, they said the impact of the deployment still hasn\u2019t fully set in.
\u201cIt\u2019s really neat to know that we made history,\u201d said OSC Noah Wicks, the Air Intercept Controller assigned to USS Carney (DDG 64). \u201cEven though we\u2019re a small ship, we had a very big impact on the world.\u201d
For the young crewmembers like Miller, who\u2019s expectations of a routine deployment were shattered, he said the experience was a stark reminder of why he joined the Navy in the first place.
\u201cIt was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I\u2019ll ever have in my entire life,\u201d said Miller. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just about traveling the world; it was about saving people\u2019s lives and getting a job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON – October 19, 2023, started out as a routine day underway for Sailors aboard USS Carney (DDG 64) as the ship steamed through the Red Sea on its scheduled deployment to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility. However, starting at around 4 p.m. local time, things abruptly changed. \u201cWe were in berthing and heard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":325620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325621,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325618\/revisions\/325621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}