Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy embarked the ballistic missile defense (BMD) destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) June 24 for a four-week summer training experience.
The 17 embarked Midshipmen included three members of the Naval Academy Class of 2015, and 14 members of the Class of 2017. Due to Porter’s underway schedule, they embarked the ship while at sea via a small boat transfer from Virginia Beach.
Once aboard, the Midshipmen were greeted by Lt. j.g. Biancia Bell, Porter’s Damage Control Assistant and Midshipmen Training Officer.
Events scheduled during the almost month-long underway include a full-power demonstration with the engineering plant, multiple gun shoots, several underway replenishments and testing of almost every weapons system.
Porter recently completed a year-long maintenance availability for repairs and upgrades to combat systems that included the BMD installation. The ship is slated to homeport shift and forward deploy to Rota in 2015, joining USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) and USS Ross (DDG 71).
[mappress] Press Release, July 02, 2014; Image: Wikimedia