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New Navy sealift ship showcased during summer 2000

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WASHINGTON (USTCNS) --- Nearly 400,000 square feet of military mobility and rapid response capability arrived at anchor off New York harbor in July for the city's annual International Naval Review.

USNS Fisher, a svelte, 950-foot-long Navy sealift ship with two soaring, twin-pedestal, shipboard cranes and a distinctive blue- and gold-striped stack, was featured prominently in the week-long salute to sailing vessels from around the world.

Fisher, delivered to the Navy only last summer, cut an imposing profile almost equal to that of aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, another of INR's featured ships. However, Fisher's compact crew, 29 U.S. merchant mariners who work for Navy's Military Sealift Command, was in stark contrast to the carrier's crew of more than 5,000 military personnel. Fisher's non-combatant mission and high-tech operating systems make it possible to operate the ship with a streamlined, all-civilian crew.

USNS Fisher, designated a large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship, also called LMSR, is among 13 such ships delivered to the Navy since 1996. Fisher's six huge levels of cargo-carrying space, interior ramps and on-board cranes make it ideally suited to transport heavy armored tanks, trucks and other equipment to U.S. troops deployed to crisis areas around the world. Some LMSRs are loaded and prepositioned overseas. Others, like Fisher, are kept in reduced operating status, pierside in the United States, ready to be loaded and fully crewed when needed.

USNS Fisher's stay in New York was topped off by the visit of one of the ship's two namesakes, philanthropist Elizabeth Fisher. She is the widow of the other namesake, prominent New York City builder Zackary Fisher, who died last year. Both Fishers devoted their lives to improving the quality of life for U.S. military personnel.

Commander of Military Sealift Command, Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, USN, was on board to welcome Mrs. Fisher and more than 100 distinguished guests, including Fisher family members; Navy Under Secretary, the Honorable Jerry M. Hultin; Adm. Robert J. Natter, USN, Commander in Chief U.S. Atlantic Fleet; Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James L. Loy; members of Congress; local government officials; and members of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, overseers of New York City's Intrepid Museum, a historic aircraft carrier transformed into a museum by the Fishers.

Under Secretary Hultin paid tribute to Elizabeth Fisher and her husband for their outstanding patriotism, generosity and support to U.S. forces -- including scholarships and the establishment of 26 Fisher Houses, temporary homes close to military hospitals for families of hospitalized service men and women.

USNS Fisher is no newcomer to the limelight. Less than two weeks prior to Fisher's debut in New York's INR, the ship starred in a joint military exercise, Exercise Roving Sands 00, while at anchor off Little Creek, Va. More than 100 NATO ambassadors and senior defense officials rode a launch out to the ship to get a first-hand look at joint logistics over the shore, also called JLOTS.

Carefully moored lighterage floating alongside the ship served as a platform from which heavy armored combat equipment was craned and driven aboard ship. Roving Sands helped demonstrate the value of JLOTS for the deployment of heavy armored combat equipment to primitive or war-torn ports overseas. NATO guests were impressed by Fisher's vast cargo-carrying capacity and the flawless choreography of the JLOTS operation.

USNS Fisher is one of 110 noncombatant Navy ships operated by Military Sealift Command, the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense. MSC ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo; to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea; to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies. (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

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