The crew of the USS Carney thought they were headed for a normal deployment, and by “normal,” at least some of the crew was thinking about fun off the boat. At least that’s what Fire Controlman 2nd Class Kameron Miller, a Mk. 160 gun console technician on his first deployment, was thinking.
“I’ve only heard stories, but I expected to pull into ports and party a little bit,” said Miller. “That was not quite the case.”
It was not.
Miller and the Carney left Naval Station Mayport, Florida on Sept. 27. On Oct. 7, just as the crew was arriving in the Red Sea for duty with the 5th Fleet, Hamas fighters invaded Israel in a massive terror attack, killing over 1,000. Within days, the Carney was on the front line of a rapidly escalating combat.
“The XO told us flat out what the situation was, and what we could be facing,” said Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Charles Currie, a Mk. 45 gun technician. “At that point the crew just started to get ready.”
Houthi rebels in Yemen, backed by Iranian hardware, began firing missiles and drones at civilian merchant ships in the Red Sea, in an attempt to choke the vital trade route. The Carney quickly found itself as the primary U.S. Navy ship standing in the way.
On October 19, the Houthis took aim at the Carney.
The Navy released new details this week of that fight, including comments from crew members like Miller who found their expectations of placid duty and fun port calls swept away by a cruise that, when finished, faced 51 engagements.
An unfamiliar call
The Oct. 19 battle began so unexpectedly that one crew member was initially confused by the ship-wide announcement.
“We were in berthing and heard [an announcement over the ship’s 1MC intercom system] ‘clear the weatherdecks,’ and I remember thinking, ‘what does that mean? I’ve never heard that before,’” said Fire Controlman (AEGIS) 2nd Class Justin Parker, a SPY radar technician assigned to Carney.
Immediately after the announcement, Parker heard the sound of missiles being fired off the ship, as well as the destroyer’s main 5-inch guns. All aboard understood what it meant — there were no scheduled live fire drills.
“We had never done anything like this before — we had only trained to it,” recalled Currie. “There was a lot of adrenaline going on. This was real-world now.”
The Carney is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the Navy’s primary class of ships tasked with protecting fleets from air attack. With a crew of over 300, the ship is armed with machine guns, 5-inch cannons and as many as 90 anti-aircraft missiles, along with separate suites of weapons for anti-ship and anti-submarine operations.
By the end of what became a 10-hour standoff, Carney had shot down 15 drones and four land-attack cruise missiles, an engagement the Navy called “the most intense combat engagement by a U.S. Navy warship since World War II.”
As the fight began and the ship defended itself, sailors said they remained calm.
“As nervous as you get, it’s not about you,” said Ensign William Hinckley, the ship’s legal officer. “It’s about keeping everybody else safe. Thinking about everybody else and not just yourself is crucial.”
A new threat
Over the next five months, the Carney engaged a threat no U.S. ship had faced before: Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles, massive rockets fired designed specifically to sink ships like the Carney.
“The Houthis are the first entity in the history of the world to use anti-ship ballistic missiles ever,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told 60 Minutes in February. “No one has ever used an anti-ship ballistic missile certainly against commercial shipping, much less against U.S. Navy ships.”
F/A-18 Super Hornets and E/A-18 Growlers from the USS Eisenhower also engaged the ASBM, but the crew of the Carney faced them knowing they were the target.
“The ASBM threat is very challenging. It’s very dynamic and it’s very fast,” said Cmdr. Jeremy Robertson, commanding officer of USS Carney in May. “Because of that, we have to have 100% confidence in my [Tactical Action Officers] and all of the watch teams and all of the systems that we have that are designed to detect that and make sure that the ship is protecting itself.”
On Dec. 16, the Carney took out another 14 drones, according to reporting in The War Zone.
Lt. j.g. Haven Vickers, the anti-submarine warfare officer assigned to the Carney, said the crew knew what to do. “Every single training experience we did before deployment – that’s what we fell back on,” Vickers said.
The Carney returned to Florida in May. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti awarded the ship the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR). In all, nine ships received the award for their role in the campaign.
“I could not be more proud of what the Carney team has done since September,” said Franchetti. “It has been eye-watering to watch; you truly are America’s Warfighting Navy in action.”
“It was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ll ever have in my entire life,” said Miller. “It wasn’t just about traveling the world; it was about saving people’s lives and getting a job done.”
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