Sealift Logistics Command Europe News

The leadership of Sealift Logistics Command Europe and Commander, Task Force 63 changed hands at SEALOGEUR headquarters in Naples, Italy. Capt. James E. Tranoris assumed the dual command from outgoing commander, Capt. Nicholas H. Holman. SEALOGEUR, Military Sealift Command's arm in Europe and Africa, oversees at-sea movement of combat cargo for U.S. 6th Fleet. CTF-63 is responsible for the ships and aircraft that provide logistics support to 6th Fleet combatant ships. The commander's area of responsibility includes more than 20 million square nautical miles of ocean, 91 countries and 67 percent of the world's coastlines. It covers roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean, from the North Pole to Antarctica, as well as the Adriatic, Baltic, Barents, Black, Caspian, Mediterranean and North seas.

Kaleva, which was carrying nine passengers – including U.S. diplomatic courier Henry W. Antheil, Jr. – mysteriously exploded 10 minutes after taking off from Tallinn’s airport on the first day of the Soviet-blockade of Estonia during World War II. News of the blockade and of Kaleva’s crash was overshadowed by the Nazi occupation of Paris, which also occurred on June 14. To this day the wreckage of Kaleva and the remains of its nine passengers have never been found. Estonia’s Minister of Defense Jaak Aaviksoo requested the assistance of a U.S. Navy survey ship in searching for the downed airplane in a January 2008 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. “We are excited to collaborate with the Estonian military and to search for Kaleva,” said Capt. Nicholas H.

Military Sealift Command large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship USNS Gilliland loaded more than 150,000 square feet of U.S. Army equipment in Antwerp, Belgium, March 15-18. The equipment – trucks, trailers, tanks and other combat support equipment – belongs to the U.S. Army’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Gilliland is delivering the cargo to the to be used in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since , MSC ships have delivered more than 101 million square feet of equipment in support of operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. “Serving the men and women deployed to and by getting their equipment to them on time is one of our key missions here at Sealift Logistics Command Europe,” said Capt. Nicholas Holman, SEALOGEUR commander.

A Military Sealift Command-chartered ship, MV Tor Futura, arrived in Szczecin, Poland, on March 9 to off-load nearly 20,000 square feet of Slovakian army cargo. Slovakian troops served in Iraq until January. While in Szczecin, Tor Futura also loaded nearly 85,000 square feet of Polish army cargo including trucks, trailers and various containers of combat equipment. This cargo is bound for Afghanistan where Polish troops are serving on the front lines of the global war on terrorism. Military Sealift Command (MSC), the U.S. Navy’s sea transportation command, continues to support coalition troops engaged in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), MSC’s sister organization under U.S.

USNS Apache (T-ATF 172) responded to a shipboard fire aboard a commercial freighter while repairing the port of Monrovia, Liberia’s, damaged commercial pier and surveying the city’s harbor, Aug. 10. The engine room of Tahoma Reefer, an Estonian commercial freighter also paying a call on Monrovia’s port, burst into flames in the early hours of the day. Later that morning, just as smoke from the burning vessel was spotted from Apache’s bridge, the U.S. Embassy in Liberia phoned the ship and asked the crew to respond. Using the ship’s rigid hull inflatable (RHIB) boat, Apache Chief Mate Troy Bruemmer and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Pete Sharpe, officer-in-charge of the 12-member embarked Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 and three other crew members, rushed to the scene.