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Home » Foreign Forces » UPDATED: Adm. Grady: Redesignation to Atlantic Fleet May Have Implications for Homeland Defense Mission
UPDATED: Adm. Grady: Redesignation to Atlantic Fleet May Have Implications for Homeland Defense Mission
January 14, 2021 1:26 PM
USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) fires an SM-3 missile during exercise Formidable Shield 2019. US Navy Photo
This post has been updated to include clarification and additional information from U.S. Fleet Forces Command about the redesignation to Atlantic Fleet, and to include the memo authorizing the redesignation.
U.S. Fleet Forces Command is moving forward with its redesignation to U.S. Atlantic Fleet, as Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite announced last month. But while in some ways it’s just a name change, it has raised questions about how homeland defense is carried out, Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Chris Grady said today.
Regina 2003-2005, and as Commanding Officer in
Halifax 2007-2009. In so doing, he deployed repeatedly - including three Arabian Gulf and one Adriatic Sea tours - and also circumnavigated the globe (Calgary, 1995). As a Capt(N), he was the Maritime Component Commander of Canadian Joint Task Force (Haiti), leading sea-based humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. He then commanded a seven-ship combined, multi-national Task Group in the High Arctic later in 2010 during the annual Op NANOOK. Later, as a RAdm, he also led the CAF s recurring Op LENTUS responses to historic fires and floods in BC while commanding Joint Task Force Pacific 2016-2018.
An area of about 2,000 square miles was searched over the course of 30 hours, said Canadian Fleet Pacific Commander Angus Topshee. The U.S. Coast Guard and California Air National Guard assisted Canadian efforts.
Topshee said the search was as thorough as possible, “but it is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.”
With the search over, the focus is on supporting Earle’s family and friends, while working to bring Winnipeg home after a “long and very demanding deployment,” he said.
With about 230 sailors and officers, HMCS Winnipeg was involved in Operations Projection and Neon in the Asia-Pacific area. The latter is part of a multinational effort to enforce maritime sanctions against North Korea.