JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
As daylight subsided and night slowly took over, the large U.S. Army Logistics Support Vessel CW3 Harold C. Clinger inched its way into dock at Third Port, Aug. 29, 2020. The 31 crewmembers of the LSV-2 finished their 45-day voyage from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
The LSV-2 set sail out of JBPHH and is the first of three to arrive to fulfill the Maritime and Intermodal Training Division’s training mission.
“[The LSV-2] is coming here to eventually be assigned to Training and Doctrine Command,” said U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Abdelkador Hosni, MITD senior instructor. “This will be the first time that TRADOC has an organic asset within MITD to train Soldiers on maritime operations, so we don’t have to rely on United States Army Forces Command for training support.”
The Soldiers of MITD will continue learning the operator and engineer side of Army watercrafts while now having their own legacy vessel to conduct training on.
“Since its existence, TRADOC relied on MITD for its training and MITD relied on FORSCOM for the training support,” said Hosni. “But now that FORSCOM is going through a transformation with modernization and re-alignment of mission and assets, they will not be able to support TRADOC and conduct their mission at the same time.”
According to Hosni, manning this watercraft with an active crew allows for the Army to request the vessel to conduct missions in an operational environment.
The legacy LSV-2 has played a vital role in military operations including providing humanitarian support to Haiti in 2010.
“This vessel plays a role in what we call the last nautical mile,” said Hosni. “When the Navy comes in somewhere and they need access to a beach or the Military Sealift Command comes in and they need to discharge a large vessel with hundreds of containers, that’s where this vessel comes in and provides that linkage. It provides that strategic lift and moves it all the way to the beach so the Army, military or Joint Forces can access that point.”
The LSV-2 is capable of traveling distances up to 10,000 nautical miles across oceans carrying about 2,000 tons of cargo. The vessel is able to beach or access unimproved ports and does not require an established pier or port.
In the upcoming years, Third Port will start looking much busier with the arrival of two more LSV-2s and the replacement of the Landing Craft Mechanized (Mike Boats) with the Maneuver Support Vessel Light.
According to Hosni, Third Port will have the most Army watercraft in a single location since the early 2000’s.