USS Nitze completes port visit in Bahrain

Petty Officer 2nd Class Austin Hudson, assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94), repairs a flow switch on a fire control transmitter. Hudson serves aboard Nitze as a fire controlman and helps deploy and maintain weapons systems.

CASEY J. HOPKINS/U.S. NAVY PHOTO

By COURTNEY MABEUS | The Virginian-Pilot (Tribune News Service) | Published: November 19, 2016

The guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze has completed mid-deployment repairs during a port call in Bahrain after spending more than 50 days at sea, 12 of which involved sustained combat operations, the Navy said Friday.

The Norfolk-based Nitze was one of several vessels the Navy said was harassed this summer by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boats. In October, the Nitze again made news after it launched five cruise missiles, destroying three radar sites in Houthi-held territory near Yemen's Red Sea coast that the U.S. believed were used to target the Norfolk-based USS Mason.

The Nitze arrived in port Oct. 29 and stayed through Nov. 7, Carrier Strike Group 10 spokeswoman Lt. Kristi Fontenot said. During that visit, visit sailors completed maintenance in engineering, operations, weapons and other departments required to ready the ship for the rest of its deployment, the Navy said in a news release. They also had the chance to take a break.

"The crew has worked very hard under arduous conditions, and I could not be more proud of them," Master Chief Petty Officer Sean Brown, Nitze's command master chief, said in a statement Friday.

The Nitze left Norfolk on June 1 as part of a seven-month deployment with the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. It is currently operating in the Navy's 5th Fleet area, which includes the Middle East.

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