Monday, March 26, 2001

By Keith Boydston, Naples bureau

Keith Boydston / Stars and Stripes USS La Salle, the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet and Striking Forces Southern Europe command Ship, is shown  moored in its homeport of Gaeta, Italy, last week.

GAETA, Italy — USS LaSalle, the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship based in Gaeta, Italy, gets under way Monday for Malta, where it will undergo nearly $8 million in repairs and technological upgrades.

The commander of the 37-year-old warship, which also serves as a platform for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Striking Forces Southern Europe command, is confident that work in Malta will accomplish some much-needed improvements on the aging flagship.

"LaSalle is a very old ship," said Navy Capt. Charles Hautau, who took over as commanding officer in early March. "We’re going to address some significant problems and also add some of the newest information-technology equipment available today."

Slightly more than a year ago, the LaSalle completed an extensive eight-month overhaul period in Toulon, France, where it was "torn totally apart," Hautau said.

Still, some things were left unfinished.

Capt. Charles Hautau

"What they [workers in Malta] will also be doing is finishing up some work that wasn’t completed in Toulon," Hautau said. "We’re playing catch up, but we still want to give the operational commander the best equipment that he can possibly have."

In addition to technological upgrades, work will be done on the crew’s living quarters, the enlisted dining area and the ship’s ventilation system. Another improvement will be installing a new crane for the ship’s small boats.

"We’re also trying to make some quality-of-service improvements," Hautau said. "We want to give our sailors better tools and better equipment to work with."

Nearly 500 crewmembers will deploy with LaSalle to the shipyard near Valletta, Malta, but more than 200 6th Fleet staff members will remain in Gaeta. For them, it will be business as usual during the ship’s three months away.

"We’ll still be coordinating and scheduling operational plans for more than 15,000 sailors and Marines both ashore and afloat," said Cmdr. Bob Ross, a 6th Fleet spokesman. "The only difference being is that we won’t be making any port visits to foreign ports."

Prior to Monday’s departure, LaSalle had been away from its home base almost half the time since the first of the year — including a 26-day deployment to the western Mediterranean Sea in January and February.

And with the three-month shipyard period in Malta looming, Navy officials are monitoring the ship’s time away from home very closely.

"It’s an issue because we’re underway so much," Hautau said. "Our time away from home port is actually higher than the regular deployers. It’s just something that we have to try and manage."

Crewmembers have mixed feelings about the trip to Malta.

"Any time you go to sea or you’re away from home for any length of time it takes some getting used to," said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Chudy, assigned to the La Salle. "It’s especially difficult for us because we’re in and out constantly."

Despite the coming weeks of shipyard work and the time away from home, the La Salle’s new commander said the positives outweigh the negatives.

"Although we’re at sea a lot, it’s good and it’s challenging," Hautau said. "For the Navy sailor, it’s a sense of pride — the pride of being on a flagship and being able to show that off."

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