JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An In-Service Repair (ISR) Field Team from Fleet Readiness Center Southeast returned home Feb. 27 after repairing a cracked helicopter aft transmission support beam aboard a guided-missile cruiser deployed on a six-month Mediterranean cruise.

Traveling 22 days through three continents and seven countries, it took Planner and Estimator Keith Presser, Examiner and Evaluator Jim Tronu and Sheet Metal Mechanic Toy White only 10 days to complete their repair mission on the USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) mostly while underway.

On Feb. 5, the ISR Field Team carrying aircraft parts and tools weighing more than 170 pounds flew to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete. They departed the following day on a Navy C-2 Greyhound logistics aircraft for the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) assigned to Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CCSG) 12. An hour later, the team flew by helicopter to the Leyte Gulf.

“We started the next day working with the squadron (Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 48) to remove the cracked aft beam on an SH-60B Seahawk,” said Presser. “They put in a lot of time before we got there. They removed the oil cooler and the main transmission for us to gain access to the aft beam.”

Berthing on the ship was limited. The team bunked with squadron personnel who gladly accepted them into their berthing area, essentially their home.

“The Sailors were very accommodating,” Presser said. “They shared whatever they had, and we really appreciated that. They were a good group of guys to work with. Morale was high.”

When the ship made a 3-day port call in Marmaris, Turkey, the team continued work. Their mission was a high priority for CCSG 12 and had high visibility all the way to the Chief of Naval Operations. Presser said the Leyte Gulf had only two SH-60B Seahawk Helicopters and with one down, they were at 50 percent capability.

“It is the bird with all the bells and whistles; it’s a shooter,” said Presser of the helicopter. “A lot of people were trying to get us out there. It was pretty intense.”

Next, the cruiser made its way through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea heading for Afghanistan.

“We had absolutely no idea when we were getting off the ship,” said Presser.

While in the Gulf of Aden, the ship changed course when Somali pirates hijacked a 54-foot yacht, the Quest, south of Oman and held four Americans hostage Feb. 18. The Leyte Gulf was one of several U.S. ships monitoring the situation. Pirates killed the hostages Feb. 22 when negotiations between U.S. Navy officials and the pirates broke down.

“We escorted the Quest back to Djibouti; that took us three days and our communications were down,” said Presser. “By this time, we were done with our job, but we continued to support the squadron with getting the aircraft back to a flyable status.”

Once again, the Leyte Gulf changed course and headed towards Libya where riots gripped the country.

On the morning of Feb. 25, the team departed the Leyte Gulf for the Enterprise in route to Bahrain, but instead they were diverted to Djibouti to wait for a flight. A Navy C-40 Clipper flew them back to Bahrain headed for Europe. After 36 hours of non-stop travel, the team finally arrived in Jacksonville Feb. 27.

“It is hard to get volunteers,” said Presser of the deployment. “I went because this was the first aft beam in an H-60 that had to be changed due to a crack. We have seen cracks in the right and left-hand beam before, but we knew why they cracked. We don’t know why this one cracked; it is a mystery.”

HSL-48 is mailing the cracked beam back to Mayport. The squadron will submit the component to the H-60 Fleet Support Team engineers who will inspect the structural damage and conduct an analysis to determine the cause.