New home for Defender, Avenger: Sasebo
Two minesweepers that lost their home port, then languished in a gray zone called “extended deployment” while Navy officials decided where to put them, found out Dec. 16 they’ll be joining the Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Sasebo, Japan.The mine countermeasures ships Avenger and Defender, which were sent to Sasebo this summer, will join the mine countermeasures ships Patriot and Guardian, which are already stationed there.Like the other Japan minesweepers, Avenger and Defender will take on single, permanent crews, as opposed to the rotating crews used in the Persian Gulf, Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. John Perkins said.The formal assignment to Sasebo ends a period of bureaucratic limbo for Avenger and Defender, during which its crew members and families did not know where the ships would end up.That meant they couldn’t plan where to move their families, many of whom relocated across the U.S. when the ships left their former base at Naval Station Ingleside, Texas.The home port news seemed likely to please those family members.Avenger’s ombudsman, Marla Perez, told Navy Times that the crew had heard the Navy would not make a final decision until January.That meant that crew members going home on Christmas leave would be unable to use the time with their families to plan for moves to Japan or San Diego, if necessary.But with the home port announcement coming a week before Christmas, the crews at least will be able to go on leave knowing where to tell their families they will end up.Perkins said the Navy could begin moving the first families to Sasebo within a year, and that the Navy would pay for the moves.
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New home for Defender, Avenger: Sasebo
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