A sailor from the Sixth Fleet flagship USS La Salle prepares to fire a line Thursday across to USNS Patuxent during an under way replenishment in the Aegean Sea. The U.S. Sixth Fleet is participating in a series of naval exercises with forces from Turkey, Romania, the Ukraine and Bulgaria during November in the Black Sea. (Kurt Riggs / Courtesy of U.S. Navy)
The USS La Salle, based in Gaeta, Italy, and the Sixth Fleet staff are taking part in multinational exercises in the Black Sea this month.
The exercises will run about two weeks and include port visits to the Ukraine and Bulgaria for La Salle and its staff.
“We are truly excited about this opportunity to visit the Black Sea, and to participate in exercises with Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine,” Rear Adm. Robert Clark, the exercise’s senior Navy officer, said in a recent Navy news release.
Clark is the theater security cooperation commander for Naval Forces Europe and the Sixth Fleet.
As well as exchanging crewmembers between ships, the navies will conduct various shipboard and seamanship drills and hold maritime interception operation training, the release stated.
“The training and interaction we will share in the next two weeks is designed to combine our resources and refine our collective approach to some basic but crucial maritime missions,” Clark said in the release.
The La Salle and the Sixth Fleet last sailed to the Black Sea in August 2001, visiting Russia, the Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
