 For hundreds of years, men have been putting to sea in ships. In all that time, many things have changed. The ships, most of all, and the weapons they carry. Sailors, of course, have changed too. But the mariner who scrambled up the rigging and set his course by starlight and knew the hardships and excitement of life under sail would find much in common with the seafarers of today's Navy. The submarine below and the airplane above have brought new dimensions to naval warfare, each with its own breed of dedicated men. But the surface sailor still knows what it means to feel salt spray over the folks all as he meets the special challenges known only to those who pursue life on the sea. Today's surface sailor, whether he's on watch in the fire room or in command on the bridge, can take pride in this nautical heritage. The surface forces have been brought together from the former cruiser destroyer, service, mine warfare, and amphibious type commands to do a big job. As I visit in the fleet and talk with the Navy people who are the backbone of the new Atlantic and Pacific surface force commands, it's gratifying to see how well we're working together with the air and submarine warfare elements as a team to carry out the missions of our one Navy. This film takes a look at our role on the surface of the world's oceans through the eyes of the proud professionals of the surface warfare community. For most surface sailors, going to sea is one of life's realities. As in any worthwhile pursuit, there are positive aspects and some that can be very trying. A lot depends on the individual. By and large, today's surface sailor takes a professional approach to what he does at sea. For some, it's an exciting labor of life. For others, the separation from family is difficult and the long hour is exhausting. But there is, through it all, the satisfaction of real accomplishment, the stimulating challenge of meeting the sea on its own terms, and the pride felt by all patriots for their role in defense of country. After being on six ships over a ten-year period, I remember the one common thing we did is replenish at sea. You know, there's kind of a thrill when you get up on the bridge and you start maneuvering to get it in position in a waiting station, and then your final burst into station alongside. The thrill of replenishment is seeing the whole ship operate as a team. It's the one evolution that every man on the ship gets involved in in order to get the job done, and they have to be a finally home trained team that knows each other's job and depends on each other to get it done in order to have a successful evolution. After all the important things like fuel oil and bullets, groceries have been transferred. We always manage to have a few minutes to trade ten movies and get a couple of bags of mail off and, you know, it just kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile. I grew up near a seaport and all this sort of has in the back of my mind going to sea, and I guess that's an essential element of the Navy, really, is people going to sea in ships, and that's really what it's all about. It's not the ordinary nine-to-five job, and at the same time it's quite a challenge to be able to meet the demands and just stay up with it in general. Basically it's the man and the job. All the other factors, the port visits, the liberty time, the number of sections of a board ship, have an effect, but not nearly as great as effective job satisfaction. When you send a recommendation up to the bridge to avoid a contact, that when you look at it, you're saving somebody's life and it gives you a feeling of gratification, and there's a big responsibility. How many guys are 30 years old or have a high before? Going to sea is the name of the game. I enjoy going to sea. There's a lot of responsibility. There's a lot of, in the present Navy, there's a lot of just pure, boring drudgery. On the other hand, singling up, getting on your way, kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile. I think short duty takes some of that thrill away. You got to keep remembering it, bringing it back, telling sea stories to remind yourself of it. I have always liked that biggest thrill to me in the Navy, and that's, remember back as a seamen when I came in, it was an old Fletcher class tin can, it was my first ship. And it gave me a great thrill to stand on the main deck of the ship and just making a high speed run through the waters in the Caribbean. It's just fantastic, the ship that's sitting there and you're standing on the deck and it's just vibrating like mad. You can feel yourself part of the ship and you're almost like you're cutting through the water yourself. And I find that very exciting. There are other times, however, doing paperwork, running around trying to make sure everything is squared away and everybody's where he's supposed to be, then that's more drudgery. That's not excitement, that's just work. Even my wife, of course, she doesn't like seven month deployments, but if you can spend three weeks at home and two weeks at sea, I really kind of think that makes her happier too. Gets me out of the house and out from underfoot. As a bachelor for some 13 years in Navy, I would not really understand how the married people felt during the family separation. And now I also am experiencing this. And I think that this is probably the single biggest negative factor that I have ever experienced in the Navy. You know, I guess there is a lot of negative aspects to Navy life. If you look at them as negative aspects, I don't really look at them as negative aspects. I think most career Navy men don't look at them. I think they look at them as challenging situations. Clearly, the call of the sea is not for every man to answer. It takes a particular outlook and determination to be the kind of surface sailor who really enjoys doing what he does to the best of his ability. Over the years, these special people have thought of themselves as destroyer men, or minesweep sailors, or gators. The skills of surface warfare are best sharpened at sea. But the basics can be learned in the classroom. Most of the officers and men receive extensive training ashore before they become surface sailors. Many go back from time to time, building the considerable body of knowledge that a modern surface warfare force must maintain. Surface warfare officer school is producing a really, truly professional officer, the kind of officer who lets you sleep well at night when you're in a task force with ships close around you. The basic mission of SWAS is to put a usable ensign into the fleet. As our ships are getting more and more complex, we have to have a higher quality input. We need to have people with current knowledge, and we have to give specialized training just before people enter into the business of driving a ship. Not many, but a few of the guys coming out of here are going to be admirals in 30 years. Whether the community is good, bad, or indifferent depends to a large measure on how well we do our jobs, and I think it's exciting. Me personally, I was kind of scared to death when I found out that I was going to the surface fleet because my background is basically engineering. I feel that I'm a much more rounded individual because of attending SWAS than I would have benefitted and been sent directly to the ship. I think traditionally when you said you were going into the surface community, you were looked on as a second class citizen. Gee, it's too bad. Why couldn't you get into aviation or why couldn't you get into subs? I think now the surface community is beginning to be looked upon as a viable, essential part of the Navy team effort. I'm often asked about the changing nature of the U.S. blue jacket. How is he different from when you first joined the Navy? He's very different and very much the same. He is older, more married, better educated, more curious, and more likely to make helpful, critical recommendations for improving operations. And I like those changes, but he's just the same. Just like he was when I joined the Navy in World War II in terms of interest, love of the sea, and the capability to perform as a member of the ship's company. He's a lot less likely to admit it than he was then, but he's no less capable. As important as willing and qualified people are, it takes ships, modern ships with effective weapon systems to maintain a surface force that is ready and able to carry out its missions. These ships are a complex blending of awesome firepower, sophisticated electronic systems, the most modern oil and nuclear-powered propulsion plants, and concern for the habitation of the men who must make it all work. The Spruance class destroyer is one of the new classes of ships now joining the fleet. This class is being built in Pascagoula, Mississippi. There are a total of 30 ships in the program, and a number are already at sea. We expect great things from this highly capable destroyer. Another new class of ships is the Amphibious Assault Ship, the LHA. I recently inspected the Tarawa LHA-1, the first ship of the class, from stem to stern. I was tremendously impressed with her capabilities. She is a splendid addition to the Navy Marine Corps team. The Oliver Hazard Perry, first to the FFG-7 class, has been launched at Bath, Maine. This is a relatively small ship by today's standards, but the Perry is almost twice the tonnage of World War II destroyers. And is, of course, a much more capable, hard-hitting ship. We are adding a new nuclear-powered class of cruisers, the Virginia, to those nuclear-powered cruisers already in the fleet. These are fine, high-endurance ships that can operate either with a nuclear-powered carrier or independently. Four of the Virginia class have already been authorized. Nuclear power means to us an ability to operate for days at a time, either with a Nimitz that's off our starboard side right now or with other ships, without having to rely on support ashore. In addition to the nuclear propulsion plants we have on our surface ships today, most of our combatants are powered by the dependable 1,200-pound propulsion system. And, of course, our amphibious ships have the diesel propulsion plant, which gives us tremendous economy, and those plants are also very dependable. The new gas turbine, which is going into many of our newer class ships, will give us an economy that we haven't had before, especially at higher speeds. I've had living conditions that were comparable, but that was on the Kitty Hawk carrier, also on an LKA brand new. Living conditions were about the same. Here, you can tell, there was thought put into it. As far as the heads, the showers, and the building department, it just seems to be a lot more space all the way around compared to the size of the ship and the general layout. The living conditions bore this ship from what I'm used to leave something to be desired. There's not too much room. These other guys think there is, but they can't remember what it was like at home. These splendid ships and men form a capable team, and a major part of the Navy's overall strength. The formerly separate communities, mine warfare, the cruisers and destroyers, the replenishment, repair, and amphibious ships, have now been unified into the forces of surface warfare. Well, I think the tender has really a very significant role in surface warfare in the Navy today. And of course, a primary mission of ours is our repair mission. I think we have to consider the role of the tender as really an advanced, mobile, floating naval base. And as such, we don't limit our role to surface warfare. We have tended and provided services to submarines, to aircraft carriers. However, predominantly, we service surface warfare ships. The mission of the mine warfare force is to ensure that we have the capability to keep our harbors open. We have really two sides to the problem. We want to keep the mines and close someone else's harbors, and we want to keep our own harbors open. Up until five years ago, the mine force consisted virtually entirely of surface vessels. In today's environment, the minesweeper works jointly with the air contingent to helicopters. Up and down both coasts, with the exception of three minesweepers, they're all reserve ships. And our capability in that force would be greatly diminished without their participation. Well, I don't believe that the creation of the surface warfare community has substantially altered the role of the surface forces. They still have the role of providing the mobile logistic support for the whole fleet, the carriers, as well as the surface forces. We still have our Marine Navy team working together in the amphibious role. And of course we still have our traditional cruiser destroyer role of doing almost anything on the surface from defending against air attack against submarine attack, or defending the amphibious forces or providing the screen for the mobile logistic support forces, or indeed supporting the amphibious landing with gunfire support. As it has always been, one of the rewards for the arduous work and hardship of the surface sailors' routine is the opportunity for travel, adventure, and new experiences and ports of call around the world. I like to travel. Well, I like to travel sometimes, but not as much as this ship does. Well, I've never been too thrilled about that either. I'm the type to like to go to sea, get the job done and come home. That's it. A part of what we do every day in the naval surface force is what I call fun and game. For the younger personnel, it's a chance to fulfill that old motto, join the Navy and see the world. All of these are strange and new experiences, part of the promise of life, part of what it means to be a sailor. But what it really means to be a sailor is to go to sea and enjoy the experience of being tested to prove that you can really do the things that you've dreamed about, to test yourself against the world. Our whole reason for being out here is combat, right? It's to fight that battle. And the only way you can do that is to sufficiently prepare for it in this constant train. Bridge combat. LAMP sea law reports radar sinker. Datum bears 269-895. The threat reaction time is so short that if it takes us two minutes to respond to a threat, we may have already been dead for one hour. Bogey 12, now bears 269-40 miles. It may be new in name, but the pride and spirit of its people reach far back in time. The ships are sleek and sophisticated now, but every seafarer who earlier sailed these same waters for his country would recognize a kinship with the surface sailor of today and would share his pride in answering the call of Blue Wolf. Set the normal underway watch. On deck, section two. As you can see, the surface forces play a major part in the Navy's worldwide missions. The ships and weapons they man are good and getting better. But the most important assets we have are the people who serve with pride and dedication. The challenges they face are always tough, and the rewards sometimes hard to appreciate. But our surface sailors stand with a reputation for performance in the highest naval traditions, and I'm proud of them. The next two CNO sit reps will tell the stories of aviation and submarine warfare. Although each of the three communities is unique in its warfare specialty, they all share the commitment to our nation's defense through sea power.