The Ingleside Navy: inside the Navy's mine countermeasures community

All Hands, March, 2005 by James Pinsky

"When you can't go where you want to, when you want to, you haven't got command of the sea. Command of the sea is the bedrock for all our war plans."

--ADM FORREST SHERMAN, CNO KOREA MINE CRISIS, OCTOBER 1950

Don't rush Petty Officer Chiles while he works. The fate of your ship might someday depend on his patience.

"We hold everyone's lives in our hands," said Mineman 3rd Class Jonathan Chiles, of USS Devastator (MCM 6). "This is no job, it's life or death."

Cheap, stealthy and deadly, sea-borne mines have wreaked more havoc on American warships and account for more than 75 percent of all battle damage to those warships since World War II. "Mines ore the biggest threat to our vessels, and they're everywhere," said George Betz, operations department head, Naval Support Activity (NSA), Panama City, Fla.

The threat is so great that Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, (home of the Navy's Mine Warfare Command), has an entire fleet of specialized ships like Devastator, helicopters and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel dedicated to hunting, sweeping and eliminating mines. Known as the mine countermeasures (MCM) triad, these Sailors sail, fly and dive into the perils of the world's waters.

Sailing such treacherous seas demands a Sailor with the right attitude.

"Not everyone can do it You have to have the right personality," said Electronics Technician 3rd Class Jimmy Rush, of USS Devastator. "When people are first exposed to the "Ingleside Navy," it freaks them out. We're a lot like airline security--slow, meticulous and irritating. But, like them, if we don't take our time and do as good a job as we can, then we put the whole fleet in danger."

Sailors aboard USS Tripoli (LPH 10), USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) know those dangers all too well. All three ships were damaged by mines in recent times.

Though mine warfare's true beginnings are undocumented, Americans first used the sneaky, sea-lane booby traps during the Revolutionary War. Colonists used powder kegs with slow-burning fuses to attack aggressive British ships entering American harbors. Since then, debate has raged among modern war fighters as to the ethical basis for using such a weapon.

"Rogue nations are going to do what they think they need to do to inhibit an opposing force," said CDR Bob Findley, commanding officer, Naval Support Activity (NSA) Panama City, Fla.

Honorable or not, nations all over the world use mines because of their relative cheapness and ease of employment to persuade aggressive enemies to launch their attacks somewhere else. Once a mine is deployed, it doesn't need food, a paycheck or liberty calls. All it needs is a very unlucky ship to cross its path.

While a mine doesn't have to be high tech to work, searching for them does.

"A needle in a haystack is a lot easier to find than a mine," said Findley. "Three fourths of the earth's surface is water. Finding a mine is more like finding something the size of a speck of sand on the beach."

Since mines don't emit sounds, produce heat, make transient sounds or poke periscopes through the surface of the water to attack their prey, minemen like Chiles have to look for shapes.

One of the ways MCM Sailors do this is with a bottom mapping sonar system that can identify mine-like shapes as small as a tin can. The process is tedious, but effective. On occasion, mine searches can reward the steadfast, serious-minded hunters with light-hearted discoveries.

"We've found file cabinets, soda machines and downed airplanes," said Rush. "But the most interesting thing we found was a toilet, which I think is pretty neat because it's made entirely of porcelain."

Here's how a mine-like shape scenario might take place on an MCM like Devastator.

Once the Sailors in the combat information center (CIC) identify a mine-like object on sonar, the ship's commanding officer and the EOD detachment's officer-in-charge make a decision about the best way to visually verify the contact as a mine.

On Devastator, a remotely-piloted submersible vehicle, known to her crew simply as "Willy," and highly-trained EOD technicians are at the CO's disposal. "Willy," officially named the SLQ-48 Mine Neutralization Vehicle (MNV), carries video surveillance cameras that transmit real-time imagery to the MNV pilots back aboard Devastator. Robotic arms at the front of Willy allow the pilots to move, cut and search the shape to determine its real identity. "It's [basic] technology, but it works," said Rush.

Enlisted personnel are solely responsible for flying the sub-aquatic craft because of the complexity involved in mastering their flight.

"Officers usually only have a two-year tour aboard Devastator, so there's no time to become proficient," said Mineman 2nd Class (SW) Ralph Kersey, an SLQ-48 mine neutralization vehicle (MNV) pilot. "We're here for four and five years, so we get much better at it."

While finding mines is tough, it isn't the only challenge Sailors aboard Devastator have to face. At an operational cruising speed of between one and three knots, life aboard Devastator can be slow-real slow. And that suits her crew just fine.