Chandler set for mission

Decomissioning cloud hangs over Everett destroyer

By Jim Haley
Herald Writer

Everett When the Navy pulled the plug last March on a long planned
assignment for one of two destroyers based here, the crew was left adrift
for months.

The 320 crew members of the USS Chandler didn't know from month to month
when they would next have a meaningful job to do, or what it might be.

Family members who had planned for a separation suddenly found they had to
make other plans. Work days at Naval Station Everett no longer included
training for a specific job.

That's all changed now.

The Chandler is to set sail Tuesday morning for a threemonth deployment to
help stop drug smugglers off the coast of Central America.

It very well could be one of the ship's last deployments though, its
commanding officer concedes.

"I've been reading the paper, so I know it's not yet official," Chandler
skipper Cmdr. Mark Balmert said of the possible decomissioning of his ship.
"We've been told there's planning under way but nothing official."

Two of the Chandler's Kiddclass sister ships, including the Everettbased
destroyer USS Callaghan, are tentatively scheduled to be decomissioned in
1998. That's a clear sign that the Chandler could be next.

The four Kiddclass destroyers in the U.S. fleet were originally built for
the Shah of Iran. The United States took them back in the early

1980's after the shah was overthrown.

The warships have sophisticated and superior airdefense capabilities, but
they don't carry the verticallaunch Tomahawk missiles upon which the
United States has begun to rely for much of its offensive punch.

It is a very capable ship, Balmert said, but at the same time it takes
special training and a network of service people and parts to keep things
working.

A new class of Arleigh Burke destroyers has been coming into the fleet with
even better radar and Tomahawks. At the same time, the military budget
is shrinking and the overall number of ships has been cut dramatically.

"It's almost like owning a fleet of Cadillacs and Lincoln Continentals,"
Balmert said. "At some point you say, "Why do I need to keep parts for
both and mechanics for both? They're both great, but my Lincolns are newer
so I'll go with them."

Balmert is only the eighth commanding officer of the Chandler, a
16yearold ship with easily 20 more years of life in it. Although the ship
is great shape now, the commanding officer recently stopped spending money
to make improvements until the decommissioning issue is settled.

If the Chandler is put out to pasture, "it will be a sad day," Balmert said.

For the time being, the Chandler has taken on stores and received visitors
from a class of Madison Elementary School in Everett, with which the ship
has had a close relationship in its year stationed at

Everett.

Divers from the naval station cleaned the hull earlier this week,

all in preparation for the deployment.

While off Central America, the Chandler will work for the Joint Interagency
Task Force, an agency made up of various military units, the FBI Drug
Enforcement Administration and the Coast Guard.

The task force will keep a lookout on the surface and in the air for drug
smugglers. A Coast Guard detachment will go along to board suspect ships.
The Chandler's radar will track suspicious traffic.

"Chandler was selected because we have a sophisticated air search radar
capability," Balmert said.

In fact, he added, the vessel is "significantly overqualified for our
assignment. We're capable of tracking missiles and we're going to be
tracking Cessnas."

The ship is to return to Everett just before Christmas.

"The guys are used to being gone for six months," Balmert said. "But six
months or one month, it's never fun to miss the holidays. So this works out
perfect. It's almost as if this deployment was tailored just for Chandler."