
StaNavForChan
Exactly twenty-five years to the day after USS Dash (MSO 428), the first ocean minesweeper, was commissioned, USS Illusive (MSO 448) and USS LEADER (MSO 490) put to sea from Charleston on 14 August 1978 for a year-long deployment to Europe. This event also marked the first time MSOs had deployed to that area of the world since 1971. The seas in the North Atlantic in the winter are no picnic for large steel-hulled ships, and particularly not for small, wooden, "mature" minesweepers. En route to Portsmouth, United Kingdom, the minesweepers were accompanied by the salvage ship USS Edenton (ARS 2), from which they refueled astern every third day. LEADER and Illusive arrived in Portsmouth on 15 September, 1978. Bermuda, their first stop after leaving the United States is a British self-governing colony in the western Atlantic; it lies east-southeast of Cape Hatteras. Ponte del Gata, a port city on the island of Sao Miguel was their second stopping place. The Azores, part of Portugal, lie about a thousand miles west of Lisbon in the North Atlantic. For centuries they have served as stepping stones between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and are still used today by ships and planes for that purpose. Before reaching the United Kingdom, the ships touched at Bermuda, Ponte del Gada, the Azores and El Ferrol, Spain.
After the thirty-three-day voyage, Illusive entered H.M. Dockyard for two weeks of repair work, including the replacement of two of four main engines. LEADER left on 27 September and Illusive the following day for Ostende, Belgium, to join the permanent NATO squadron of mine countermeasures ships, referred to as Standing Naval Force Channel (StaNavForChan). Created on 11 May 1973, the squadron comprises vessels from the different NATO navies that normally operate in the English Channel area, The ships are appointed for six to twelve months in rotation. The channel is a sailing area with some of the densest shipping in the world, and in the case of war or crisis, Western Europe is reprovisioned. However, its proven vulnerability to mines underlines the vital importance of mine countermeasures vessels in that specific area. Rudyard Kipling paid tribute in "Sea Warfare", in 1916, to British mine clearance efforts in these waters:
DAWN off the Foreland--the young flood making
Jumbled and short and steep--
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking--
Awkward water to sweep.
Sent up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
Lumpy and strong in the bight.
Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
And the jackdaws wild with fright!
Mines located in the fairway,
Boats now working with chain,
Sweepers--Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going
And the traffic crowding through,
And the five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing
Heading for the whole review!
Sweep completed in the fairway.
No more mines remain.
Sent back Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
After their arrival, the squadron was composed of seven ships: two Dutch minesweepers, one British minehunter, one German and one Belgian minesweeper, and the two American ocean minesweepers.
The NATO ships entered Ostende on 29 September and remained there until 7 October. During this period, the officers and some crew members of the LEADER and Illusive attended Eiguermin, the Belgian and Dutch minecountermeasures school, to become familiar with the StaNavForChan NATO procedures. The ships participated from 8 to 18 October in the Dutch mine exercise Sweetwater 78, which began in Den Helder, Holland. At completion, the squadron set a course South by Southwest for Rotterdam, mooring in the heart of the Europort for five days of liberty. Located on the Nieuwe Maas River, Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Through Rotterdam passes much of Western Europe's shipping.
The squadron put to sea on the 24th for StaNavForChan NATO exercises. LEADER and Illusive arrived in Flushing, Holland, on 26 and 27 October, respectively, for a ten-day visit. Located just north of Belgium, Flushing (also known as Vlessigen) is a port city on Walcheren Island in the southwestern part of the Netherlands.
LEADER and Illusive participated from 6 to 10 November in the Belgium mine exercise FlexEx 78 and then entered port at Ostende for a two-day post-exercise debrief. The ships departed for Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on 13 November. LEADER entered port the on the 18th of November. The force participated from 28 to 29 November in the German mine exercise SefEx 78. However, severe weather limited the squadron's ability to either sweep or minehunt.
LEADER sailed for Borkum, an East Frisian Island belonging to West Germany, following the exercise. Arriving on 1 December, she was the first U.S. Navy ship to visit the island since World War II.
LEADER put to sea on 4 December and arrived after a three-day transit at Ghent. Known for its textiles and fine lace, the East-Flanders city is on the Scheldt River in northwest-central Belgium. While in port, LEADER hosted the squadron officers and their guests in the wardroom for a Christmas breakfast. LEADER left Ghent for Portsmouth on 12 December and spent the remaining fifteen days of 1978 in nontidal Basin 1 there, while her crew stood down for the Christmas holidays.
As 1979 began, Illusive and LEADER were attached to the StaNavForChan, which now represented nine nations, the composition of the force having changed as allied ships were rotated. LEADER left Portsmouth on 8 January to rendezvous the following morning with the MCM force off Belgium for training and exercises. She entered Den Helder four days later due to damage to her sonar towed body. At first light divers from HMS Hubbertson inspected LEADER's hull, finding no damage. Two days later she participated in a pierside exercise, in which her crew repelled hostile boarders and underwater swimmers, all Royal Dutch Marines.
On the morning of 18 January LEADER left port to conduct minesweeping operations with Danish ships Omoesund and Ulvsund. At the completion of the exercise, LEADER entered Den Helder to embark the commander of the Standing Naval Force Channel and his staff operations officer. After a night transit, LEADER conducted operations off Ostende with the Omoesund and entered port for the weekend. The following week all MCM force commanding officers, junior officers, and operations specialists attended the mine countermeasures school in Ostende. During the week HNLMS Sittard departed the force. As she passed the moored Standing Naval Force Channel ships, she was besieged with thrown garbage, flares, thunderflashes, and streams of water from fire hoses. It was a traditional ceremony for detaching ships, and it would be repeated in June when LEADER and Illusive departed the force.
The force left port on 29 January for three days of exercises, and in late afternoon on the 31st LEADER entered the Firth of Forth in southeast Scotland, anchoring off Edinburgh, the capital city and a burgh of Midlothian on the Firth of Forth. On 2 February after two days of exercises, the LEADER entered nearby Rosyth, Scotland, for a weekend of official receptions and liberty for the crew.
After joining the force on 4 February at Rosyth, Illusive participated with LEADER from the 5th through the 14th in a joint British and Channel Force exercise in the Firth of Forth. The following day the Standing Force sailed from Rosyth in a force-10 gale, bound for Den Helder, Holland. (A ten on the Beaufort wind scale describes 48 to 55-knot winds and 18 to 27-foot waves.) During the transit a large wave crashed on the German minesweeper FGS Paderborn, damaging her bridge and mast guidewires. It would have taken a very tough sailor to, in like conditions aboard a small wooden ship, pen the below poem:
A strong nor'wester's blowing, Bill;
Hark! don't ye hear it roar now?
Lord help'em,
How I pities them
Unhappy folks on shore, now.
Charles Dibden--Sailor's Consolation.
Attributed to Pitt (song writer) and Hood.
The ships continued on through the night. In early morning the force received word that Den Helder was closed due to ice, and the group altered course for Flushing, Holland, arriving on 17 February for upkeep through the 25th. The MCM force left Flushing on the 26th for a week of exercises, with Commander Mine Squadron 12 embarked in LEADER, during this period. On the first of March the ships entered Den Helder for eleven days of liberty, which included trips to the German Air Force Museum, and soccer games.
Illusive visited Den Helder from 28 February through 5 March before participating in a StaNavForChan exercise in the North Sea from 5 to 8 March. The exercise was followed by a port call at Hamburg, Germany, for the next three days. Hamburg is a port on the Elbe River ninety miles inland. The last joint mine exercise of the winter, Exercise Jaguar, was hosted by the German Naval Force, from 12 to 15 March, in the North Sea. LEADER rendezvoused mid-exercise with the German oiler FGS Neinburg for refueling and light-jackstay transfer.
On the morning of 16 March, after a two-day transit the force entered the Thames River from the North Sea and berthed, in late afternoon, near the Tower of London. While in port a reception was held, which the force's officers, the Lord Mayor of London, the Belgian ambassador, and others attended. On 21 March, LEADER entered H.M. Naval Base at Chatham, a borough in Kent in southeast England, and remained there until 17 April.
At completion of these periods the U.S. minesweepers left their respective ports and joined up to proceed to Portsmouth, conducting sea trials and training while en route. Arriving on 23 April, LEADER received a visit from Rear Adm. A. J. Whitsone, RN, the Flag Officer for Sea Training. Under way on 27 April, LEADER headed to nearby Lyne Bay to perform an electromagnetic survey of the bay, returning to Portsmouth the next day for a period of upkeep. The crews of the LEADER and Illusive took advantage of the time by engaging in a game of softball.
The Standing Force arrived in French waters in early May for mine exercises and made two visits to Brest, a port in Brittany, in northwest France, on 9 and 11 to 13 May. LEADER returned to sea on 8 May, conducting, in the Bay of Biscay, a bottom-depth survey in preparation for a deep moored sweep demonstration. The bay is located by France's west coast and the northern coast of Spain. The following day, LEADER entered Brest to embark six French naval officers to observe a deep moored sweep on the 10th. After a night transit, LEADER returned to Brest on 11 May. While the ship's officers toured the French Mine Warfare School, her crew enjoyed a bus tour of the French countryside.
Departing Brest Illusive and LEADER arrived at Portsmouth on the 14th after a night transit. For the next six days the force remained in port while a Standing Naval Force Channel change of command took place, in which Commodore Marin, Belgian Navy, was relieved by Commodore Willis, Royal Navy. With the ceremonies ended, the force put to sea on 21 May to call at La Pallice, an important base for Atlantic fishing boats on an inlet of the Bay of Biscay. Putting to sea from the port of La Rochelle, France, on 25 May, the ships stopped the following day in Brest. LEADER embarked an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, and the previous pageantry and good times were traded for seventeen days of fast-paced work during a large-scale NATO exercise. From 28 May to 8 June the force and the French navy participated in mine exercise NorMinEx 79 off the French coast. The ships visited the port of Brest during the exercise to restock and refuel, and upon completion, they entered Lorient, in northwest France, on the Bay of Biscay, for six days of maintenance and well deserved rest.
On the 15th the force sailed for Lisbon, Portugal, the last port for the U.S. ocean minesweepers as members of StaNavForChan. En route a kite-flying contest was held; LEADER and Illusive earned awards for the highest and best-sustained flights in the squadron. Following their arrival on 18 June, Illusive and LEADER conducted a deep moored sweep for the Portuguese navy, their final operation with the force. Illusive and LEADER detached from StaNavForChan on 25 June, undergoing the traditional barrage, and set a course for Rota, Spain, arriving at that port the following day. In Rota, LEADER again demonstrated deep moored sweep techniques, this time for the Spanish navy. The remaining time was spent in port preparing for the return transit of the Atlantic.
Departing Rota on 16 July, the minesweepers set sail for Ponte del Gada in the Azores, arriving on 20 July. They put to sea two days later for Hamilton, Bermuda. Logistics support was provided en route by the dock landing ship USS Plymouth Rock (LSD 29). The ships arrived in the port of Hamilton on 30 July. They began their final journey home on 2 August but were ordered to return to Hamilton due to bad weather. LEADER and Illusive again set sail on the 5th and arrived in Charleston on 8 August. A well earned stand-down period allowed the crews to spend time with their families and friends, whom they had not seen since departing nearly a year earlier, on 14 August 1978.
For service while serving as members of the Standing Naval Force Channel from 28 September 1978 to 25 June 1979, Illusive and LEADER received the Meritorious Unit Commendation.
On 14 July 1980, Illusive and LEADER departed Charleston for special operations near Roosevelt Roads, arriving in port on 19 July, and departing the next day for the operational area some two hundred miles to the north. At completion of the operation several days later, LEADER returned to Charleston, arriving 15 August.
Atlantic Fleet ocean minesweepers departed on their final deployment to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean when USS Exultant (MSO 441) sailed from Mayport, Florida, on 7 June 1983, and Illusive, LEADER, and Fearless (MSO 442) left Charleston a day later to rendezvous on the way to Bermuda. Exultant was a Mine Division 126 ship, the remaining sweeps were Mine Group 2 units. Illusive and LEADER were active-force ships, and Fearless and Exultant were assigned to the Naval Reserve Force.
LEADER and Illusive deployed to northern Europe and the Mediterranean on 25 April 1981 as members of a U.S. MCM task group for operations with the Standing Naval Force Channel (StaNavForChan). On April 30. 1981 the MSOs joined at sea the amphibious transport dock ship USS Nashville (LPD 13), their escort for the transatlantic crossing and the support ship for all U.S. units. Aboard Nashville were RH-53D minesweeping helicopters from HelMinRon 14, two MSBs (minesweeping boats) from Mine Division 125, a detachment of EOD divers from Explosive Ordnance Group 2, and the task group staff. The task force was scheduled to proceed directly to Ostend, but heavy weather forced it to make two unscheduled stops, at Ponta Delgada, and El Ferrol, Spain.
LEADER and the task force arrived in Ostend on 21 May and remained in port until the first of June. While in Belgium, the officers of the minesweepers attended the Belgium/Netherlands MCM School to learn current NATO techniques in mine countermeasures planning and execution. LEADER and the other U.S. ships left Ostend on the first of June for Rosyth, for Operation Roebuck. The MSOs joined StaNavForChan on the 4th. The mine countermeasures exercise was conducted just outside of Rosyth in the Firth of Forth by the three American ships and other minesweepers representing England, Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway. Illusive minehunted and provided support to minesweeping boats 16 and 51.
A trip to Edinburgh was scheduled at the end of the exercise, but the need for repairs sent Illusive to nearby Rosyth. LEADER arrived in Leith, a port district of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth, on 11 June, for a four-day visit. The Standing Force with Illusive and LEADER pulled into Portsmouth for a three-day stopover from 19 to 22 June, en route to Rota. Arriving on the 27th, the force participated with the Spanish navy until the second of July in the minesweeping exercise "Cormoran", in the Bay of Cadiz, southeast of Rota.
Leaving Rota, the task group entered the Mediterranean for an eight-day transit to Souda Bay, Crete, south of the mainland between the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea. Souda Bay is an inlet on the north coast of Crete. While in Crete, from 10 to 19 July, the minesweepers participated in Damsel Fair, a Greek multilateral exercise involving forces from Greece, England, France, and Italy. LEADER and the salvage ship USS Recovery (ARS 43) supported the operation by recovering the exercise mines. LEADER arrived, on 22 July, in Athens for a ten-day repair period.
LEADER and Illusive next sailed to Izmir, Turkey, a historic port city on an inlet to the Aegean Sea, to participate in Operation Deft Fighter with the Turkish navy. Unfortunately, this exercise proved the inability of MSOs and MSCs to sweep together in formation, due to different handling characteristics. It is difficult enough for similar-type ships to keep station and turn (wheel) together, as the bow of each minesweeper (in the diagonal formation) is close behind and inside the diverted mechanical sweep gear of the ship in front of it. LEADER worked with a Turkish explosive ordnance disposal team in minehunting.
After a two-day port visit, the minesweepers left Izmir for Augusta Bay, a port city on the island of Sicily, for a brief port visit from 10 to 13 August. During this period the ships received a visit from VAdm. William H. Rowden, the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet. Illusive and LEADER departed Augusta Bay on the 14th for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for a port visit from 18 to 28 August. During this period, the ships conducted a MCM demonstration for the Spanish navy.
At completion of the port visit in Palma, the task group left the Mediterranean for Falmouth, a historic naval port and area of Cornwell located on the southwest corner of England, on the southern end of the Fal Estuary. LEADER and Illusive participated in operation Ocean Safari, arriving there on 4 September. Overlooking the mile-wide mouth of the River Fal, at the most westerly point where it is possible to anchor safely, is Pendennis Castle. Henry VIII built it and St. Mawes Castle, on the opposite side of the estuary, in the sixteenth century to protect the deep water port and sheltered anchorage from an enemy invasion force. Here StaNavForChan participated in a mine-clearance and port-breakout exercise with other NATO forces. The operation, which started on 7 September in the southwest approaches to the English Channel, was suspended temporarily on the 10th due to bad weather. On 17 September, upon completion of the exercise, the two minesweepers left Falmouth and began the twenty-day trip home; they arrived in Charleston on 9 October 1981.
For their participation in the original U.S. MCM Task Group deployment, which involved operations with StaNavForChan and the first entry of U.S. ocean minesweepers into the Mediterranean Sea in over ten years, Illusive and LEADER, as well as the other units of Mine Countermeasures Task Group 1-81, were awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation.
On 30 April 1980, President Carter ordered the Navy to divert ships scheduled for a Caribbean naval exercise to assist in rescuing Cuban refugees who were in distress aboard overcrowded private vessels. On 1 May, the Department of Defense announced that Atlantic Fleet ships would be diverted from Exercise Solid Shield 80 to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in the Florida Straits. Navy ships assigned to the operations included: LHA-2 Saipan, LST-1190 Boulder, LPD-15 Ponce, LSI-1188 Saginaw, LPD-12 Shreveport, MSO-448 Illusive, MSO-490 Leader, MSO-443 Fidelity, MSO-441 Exultant, MSO-431 Dominant, MSO-433 Engage. On 9 May, a landing craft from LHA-2 Saipan took 140 Cuban refugees aboard. On 3 June, President Carter authorized the involuntary call-up of USCG reservists to take over the regular duties of Coast Guard personnel assigned to aid with the Cuban refugee operations. Awarded Humanitarian Service Medal for this operation.
Exactly twenty-five years to the day after USS Dash (MSO 428), the first ocean minesweeper, was commissioned, USS Illusive (MSO 448) and USS LEADER (MSO 490) put to sea from Charleston on 14 August 1978 for a year-long deployment to Europe. This event also marked the first time MSOs had deployed to that area of the world since 1971. The seas in the North Atlantic in the winter are no picnic for large steel-hulled ships, and particularly not for small, wooden, "mature" minesweepers. En route to Portsmouth, United Kingdom, the minesweepers were accompanied by the salvage ship USS Edenton (ARS 2), from which they refueled astern every third day. LEADER and Illusive arrived in Portsmouth on 15 September, 1978. Bermuda, their first stop after leaving the United States is a British self-governing colony in the western Atlantic; it lies east-southeast of Cape Hatteras. Ponte del Gata, a port city on the island of Sao Miguel was their second stopping place. The Azores, part of Portugal, lie about a thousand miles west of Lisbon in the North Atlantic. For centuries they have served as stepping stones between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and are still used today by ships and planes for that purpose. Before reaching the United Kingdom, the ships touched at Bermuda, Ponte del Gada, the Azores and El Ferrol, Spain.
After the thirty-three-day voyage, Illusive entered H.M. Dockyard for two weeks of repair work, including the replacement of two of four main engines. LEADER left on 27 September and Illusive the following day for Ostende, Belgium, to join the permanent NATO squadron of mine countermeasures ships, referred to as Standing Naval Force Channel (StaNavForChan). Created on 11 May 1973, the squadron comprises vessels from the different NATO navies that normally operate in the English Channel area, The ships are appointed for six to twelve months in rotation. The channel is a sailing area with some of the densest shipping in the world, and in the case of war or crisis, Western Europe is reprovisioned. However, its proven vulnerability to mines underlines the vital importance of mine countermeasures vessels in that specific area. Rudyard Kipling paid tribute in "Sea Warfare", in 1916, to British mine clearance efforts in these waters:
DAWN off the Foreland--the young flood making
Jumbled and short and steep--
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking--
Awkward water to sweep.
Sent up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
Lumpy and strong in the bight.
Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
And the jackdaws wild with fright!
Mines located in the fairway,
Boats now working with chain,
Sweepers--Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going
And the traffic crowding through,
And the five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing
Heading for the whole review!
Sweep completed in the fairway.
No more mines remain.
Sent back Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain.
After their arrival, the squadron was composed of seven ships: two Dutch minesweepers, one British minehunter, one German and one Belgian minesweeper, and the two American ocean minesweepers.
The NATO ships entered Ostende on 29 September and remained there until 7 October. During this period, the officers and some crew members of the LEADER and Illusive attended Eiguermin, the Belgian and Dutch minecountermeasures school, to become familiar with the StaNavForChan NATO procedures. The ships participated from 8 to 18 October in the Dutch mine exercise Sweetwater 78, which began in Den Helder, Holland. At completion, the squadron set a course South by Southwest for Rotterdam, mooring in the heart of the Europort for five days of liberty. Located on the Nieuwe Maas River, Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Through Rotterdam passes much of Western Europe's shipping.
The squadron put to sea on the 24th for StaNavForChan NATO exercises. LEADER and Illusive arrived in Flushing, Holland, on 26 and 27 October, respectively, for a ten-day visit. Located just north of Belgium, Flushing (also known as Vlessigen) is a port city on Walcheren Island in the southwestern part of the Netherlands.
LEADER and Illusive participated from 6 to 10 November in the Belgium mine exercise FlexEx 78 and then entered port at Ostende for a two-day post-exercise debrief. The ships departed for Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on 13 November. LEADER entered port the on the 18th of November. The force participated from 28 to 29 November in the German mine exercise SefEx 78. However, severe weather limited the squadron's ability to either sweep or minehunt.
LEADER sailed for Borkum, an East Frisian Island belonging to West Germany, following the exercise. Arriving on 1 December, she was the first U.S. Navy ship to visit the island since World War II.
LEADER put to sea on 4 December and arrived after a three-day transit at Ghent. Known for its textiles and fine lace, the East-Flanders city is on the Scheldt River in northwest-central Belgium. While in port, LEADER hosted the squadron officers and their guests in the wardroom for a Christmas breakfast. LEADER left Ghent for Portsmouth on 12 December and spent the remaining fifteen days of 1978 in nontidal Basin 1 there, while her crew stood down for the Christmas holidays.
As 1979 began, Illusive and LEADER were attached to the StaNavForChan, which now represented nine nations, the composition of the force having changed as allied ships were rotated. LEADER left Portsmouth on 8 January to rendezvous the following morning with the MCM force off Belgium for training and exercises. She entered Den Helder four days later due to damage to her sonar towed body. At first light divers from HMS Hubbertson inspected LEADER's hull, finding no damage. Two days later she participated in a pierside exercise, in which her crew repelled hostile boarders and underwater swimmers, all Royal Dutch Marines.
On the morning of 18 January LEADER left port to conduct minesweeping operations with Danish ships Omoesund and Ulvsund. At the completion of the exercise, LEADER entered Den Helder to embark the commander of the Standing Naval Force Channel and his staff operations officer. After a night transit, LEADER conducted operations off Ostende with the Omoesund and entered port for the weekend. The following week all MCM force commanding officers, junior officers, and operations specialists attended the mine countermeasures school in Ostende. During the week HNLMS Sittard departed the force. As she passed the moored Standing Naval Force Channel ships, she was besieged with thrown garbage, flares, thunderflashes, and streams of water from fire hoses. It was a traditional ceremony for detaching ships, and it would be repeated in June when LEADER and Illusive departed the force.
The force left port on 29 January for three days of exercises, and in late afternoon on the 31st LEADER entered the Firth of Forth in southeast Scotland, anchoring off Edinburgh, the capital city and a burgh of Midlothian on the Firth of Forth. On 2 February after two days of exercises, the LEADER entered nearby Rosyth, Scotland, for a weekend of official receptions and liberty for the crew.
After joining the force on 4 February at Rosyth, Illusive participated with LEADER from the 5th through the 14th in a joint British and Channel Force exercise in the Firth of Forth. The following day the Standing Force sailed from Rosyth in a force-10 gale, bound for Den Helder, Holland. (A ten on the Beaufort wind scale describes 48 to 55-knot winds and 18 to 27-foot waves.) During the transit a large wave crashed on the German minesweeper FGS Paderborn, damaging her bridge and mast guidewires. It would have taken a very tough sailor to, in like conditions aboard a small wooden ship, pen the below poem:
A strong nor'wester's blowing, Bill;
Hark! don't ye hear it roar now?
Lord help'em,
How I pities them
Unhappy folks on shore, now.
Charles Dibden--Sailor's Consolation.
Attributed to Pitt (song writer) and Hood.
The ships continued on through the night. In early morning the force received word that Den Helder was closed due to ice, and the group altered course for Flushing, Holland, arriving on 17 February for upkeep through the 25th. The MCM force left Flushing on the 26th for a week of exercises, with Commander Mine Squadron 12 embarked in LEADER, during this period. On the first of March the ships entered Den Helder for eleven days of liberty, which included trips to the German Air Force Museum, and soccer games.
Illusive visited Den Helder from 28 February through 5 March before participating in a StaNavForChan exercise in the North Sea from 5 to 8 March. The exercise was followed by a port call at Hamburg, Germany, for the next three days. Hamburg is a port on the Elbe River ninety miles inland. The last joint mine exercise of the winter, Exercise Jaguar, was hosted by the German Naval Force, from 12 to 15 March, in the North Sea. LEADER rendezvoused mid-exercise with the German oiler FGS Neinburg for refueling and light-jackstay transfer.
On the morning of 16 March, after a two-day transit the force entered the Thames River from the North Sea and berthed, in late afternoon, near the Tower of London. While in port a reception was held, which the force's officers, the Lord Mayor of London, the Belgian ambassador, and others attended. On 21 March, LEADER entered H.M. Naval Base at Chatham, a borough in Kent in southeast England, and remained there until 17 April.
At completion of these periods the U.S. minesweepers left their respective ports and joined up to proceed to Portsmouth, conducting sea trials and training while en route. Arriving on 23 April, LEADER received a visit from Rear Adm. A. J. Whitsone, RN, the Flag Officer for Sea Training. Under way on 27 April, LEADER headed to nearby Lyne Bay to perform an electromagnetic survey of the bay, returning to Portsmouth the next day for a period of upkeep. The crews of the LEADER and Illusive took advantage of the time by engaging in a game of softball.
The Standing Force arrived in French waters in early May for mine exercises and made two visits to Brest, a port in Brittany, in northwest France, on 9 and 11 to 13 May. LEADER returned to sea on 8 May, conducting, in the Bay of Biscay, a bottom-depth survey in preparation for a deep moored sweep demonstration. The bay is located by France's west coast and the northern coast of Spain. The following day, LEADER entered Brest to embark six French naval officers to observe a deep moored sweep on the 10th. After a night transit, LEADER returned to Brest on 11 May. While the ship's officers toured the French Mine Warfare School, her crew enjoyed a bus tour of the French countryside.
Departing Brest Illusive and LEADER arrived at Portsmouth on the 14th after a night transit. For the next six days the force remained in port while a Standing Naval Force Channel change of command took place, in which Commodore Marin, Belgian Navy, was relieved by Commodore Willis, Royal Navy. With the ceremonies ended, the force put to sea on 21 May to call at La Pallice, an important base for Atlantic fishing boats on an inlet of the Bay of Biscay. Putting to sea from the port of La Rochelle, France, on 25 May, the ships stopped the following day in Brest. LEADER embarked an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, and the previous pageantry and good times were traded for seventeen days of fast-paced work during a large-scale NATO exercise. From 28 May to 8 June the force and the French navy participated in mine exercise NorMinEx 79 off the French coast. The ships visited the port of Brest during the exercise to restock and refuel, and upon completion, they entered Lorient, in northwest France, on the Bay of Biscay, for six days of maintenance and well deserved rest.
On the 15th the force sailed for Lisbon, Portugal, the last port for the U.S. ocean minesweepers as members of StaNavForChan. En route a kite-flying contest was held; LEADER and Illusive earned awards for the highest and best-sustained flights in the squadron. Following their arrival on 18 June, Illusive and LEADER conducted a deep moored sweep for the Portuguese navy, their final operation with the force. Illusive and LEADER detached from StaNavForChan on 25 June, undergoing the traditional barrage, and set a course for Rota, Spain, arriving at that port the following day. In Rota, LEADER again demonstrated deep moored sweep techniques, this time for the Spanish navy. The remaining time was spent in port preparing for the return transit of the Atlantic.
Departing Rota on 16 July, the minesweepers set sail for Ponte del Gada in the Azores, arriving on 20 July. They put to sea two days later for Hamilton, Bermuda. Logistics support was provided en route by the dock landing ship USS Plymouth Rock (LSD 29). The ships arrived in the port of Hamilton on 30 July. They began their final journey home on 2 August but were ordered to return to Hamilton due to bad weather. LEADER and Illusive again set sail on the 5th and arrived in Charleston on 8 August. A well earned stand-down period allowed the crews to spend time with their families and friends, whom they had not seen since departing nearly a year earlier, on 14 August 1978.
For service while serving as members of the Standing Naval Force Channel from 28 September 1978 to 25 June 1979, Illusive and LEADER received the Meritorious Unit Commendation.
On 14 July 1980, Illusive and LEADER departed Charleston for special operations near Roosevelt Roads, arriving in port on 19 July, and departing the next day for the operational area some two hundred miles to the north. At completion of the operation several days later, LEADER returned to Charleston, arriving 15 August.
Atlantic Fleet ocean minesweepers departed on their final deployment to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean when USS Exultant (MSO 441) sailed from Mayport, Florida, on 7 June 1983, and Illusive, LEADER, and Fearless (MSO 442) left Charleston a day later to rendezvous on the way to Bermuda. Exultant was a Mine Division 126 ship, the remaining sweeps were Mine Group 2 units. Illusive and LEADER were active-force ships, and Fearless and Exultant were assigned to the Naval Reserve Force.
LEADER and Illusive deployed to northern Europe and the Mediterranean on 25 April 1981 as members of a U.S. MCM task group for operations with the Standing Naval Force Channel (StaNavForChan). On April 30. 1981 the MSOs joined at sea the amphibious transport dock ship USS Nashville (LPD 13), their escort for the transatlantic crossing and the support ship for all U.S. units. Aboard Nashville were RH-53D minesweeping helicopters from HelMinRon 14, two MSBs (minesweeping boats) from Mine Division 125, a detachment of EOD divers from Explosive Ordnance Group 2, and the task group staff. The task force was scheduled to proceed directly to Ostend, but heavy weather forced it to make two unscheduled stops, at Ponta Delgada, and El Ferrol, Spain.
LEADER and the task force arrived in Ostend on 21 May and remained in port until the first of June. While in Belgium, the officers of the minesweepers attended the Belgium/Netherlands MCM School to learn current NATO techniques in mine countermeasures planning and execution. LEADER and the other U.S. ships left Ostend on the first of June for Rosyth, for Operation Roebuck. The MSOs joined StaNavForChan on the 4th. The mine countermeasures exercise was conducted just outside of Rosyth in the Firth of Forth by the three American ships and other minesweepers representing England, Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway. Illusive minehunted and provided support to minesweeping boats 16 and 51.
A trip to Edinburgh was scheduled at the end of the exercise, but the need for repairs sent Illusive to nearby Rosyth. LEADER arrived in Leith, a port district of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth, on 11 June, for a four-day visit. The Standing Force with Illusive and LEADER pulled into Portsmouth for a three-day stopover from 19 to 22 June, en route to Rota. Arriving on the 27th, the force participated with the Spanish navy until the second of July in the minesweeping exercise "Cormoran", in the Bay of Cadiz, southeast of Rota.
Leaving Rota, the task group entered the Mediterranean for an eight-day transit to Souda Bay, Crete, south of the mainland between the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea. Souda Bay is an inlet on the north coast of Crete. While in Crete, from 10 to 19 July, the minesweepers participated in Damsel Fair, a Greek multilateral exercise involving forces from Greece, England, France, and Italy. LEADER and the salvage ship USS Recovery (ARS 43) supported the operation by recovering the exercise mines. LEADER arrived, on 22 July, in Athens for a ten-day repair period.
LEADER and Illusive next sailed to Izmir, Turkey, a historic port city on an inlet to the Aegean Sea, to participate in Operation Deft Fighter with the Turkish navy. Unfortunately, this exercise proved the inability of MSOs and MSCs to sweep together in formation, due to different handling characteristics. It is difficult enough for similar-type ships to keep station and turn (wheel) together, as the bow of each minesweeper (in the diagonal formation) is close behind and inside the diverted mechanical sweep gear of the ship in front of it. LEADER worked with a Turkish explosive ordnance disposal team in minehunting.
After a two-day port visit, the minesweepers left Izmir for Augusta Bay, a port city on the island of Sicily, for a brief port visit from 10 to 13 August. During this period the ships received a visit from VAdm. William H. Rowden, the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet. Illusive and LEADER departed Augusta Bay on the 14th for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for a port visit from 18 to 28 August. During this period, the ships conducted a MCM demonstration for the Spanish navy.
At completion of the port visit in Palma, the task group left the Mediterranean for Falmouth, a historic naval port and area of Cornwell located on the southwest corner of England, on the southern end of the Fal Estuary. LEADER and Illusive participated in operation Ocean Safari, arriving there on 4 September. Overlooking the mile-wide mouth of the River Fal, at the most westerly point where it is possible to anchor safely, is Pendennis Castle. Henry VIII built it and St. Mawes Castle, on the opposite side of the estuary, in the sixteenth century to protect the deep water port and sheltered anchorage from an enemy invasion force. Here StaNavForChan participated in a mine-clearance and port-breakout exercise with other NATO forces. The operation, which started on 7 September in the southwest approaches to the English Channel, was suspended temporarily on the 10th due to bad weather. On 17 September, upon completion of the exercise, the two minesweepers left Falmouth and began the twenty-day trip home; they arrived in Charleston on 9 October 1981.
For their participation in the original U.S. MCM Task Group deployment, which involved operations with StaNavForChan and the first entry of U.S. ocean minesweepers into the Mediterranean Sea in over ten years, Illusive and LEADER, as well as the other units of Mine Countermeasures Task Group 1-81, were awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation.
On 30 April 1980, President Carter ordered the Navy to divert ships scheduled for a Caribbean naval exercise to assist in rescuing Cuban refugees who were in distress aboard overcrowded private vessels. On 1 May, the Department of Defense announced that Atlantic Fleet ships would be diverted from Exercise Solid Shield 80 to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in the Florida Straits. Navy ships assigned to the operations included: LHA-2 Saipan, LST-1190 Boulder, LPD-15 Ponce, LSI-1188 Saginaw, LPD-12 Shreveport, MSO-448 Illusive, MSO-490 Leader, MSO-443 Fidelity, MSO-441 Exultant, MSO-431 Dominant, MSO-433 Engage. On 9 May, a landing craft from LHA-2 Saipan took 140 Cuban refugees aboard. On 3 June, President Carter authorized the involuntary call-up of USCG reservists to take over the regular duties of Coast Guard personnel assigned to aid with the Cuban refugee operations. Awarded Humanitarian Service Medal for this operation.