DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708131061

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Military - A Special Weekly Report

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   82 lines

NAVY'S SUCCESSFUL DRUG-HUNTING FLEET BECOMING SLEEKER, COMMANDER SAYS

``Our WESTHEM group is in the world's most democratic and economically dynamic region. But the potential for instability is always there.''

- Rear Adm. James B. Ferguson III

Commander, Western Hemisphere Group

The Navy's new fleet of drug hunters, now ending its second year of plying the Caribbean and South Atlantic, is good and getting better, says its commander.

Just four of its 15 ships recovered 11.7 metric tons of cocaine last year. One of them, the Norfolk-based destroyer Kidd, was alone responsible for 7 tons.

Illegal drug runners are finding many of their traditional routes blocked or otherwise under surveillance, forcing them to take more risks, which, the Navy brass hopes, will lead to more arrests.

Cooperation among the countries in the region appears to be increasing, as well. And the sailors who make up the ships' crews are not complaining about their time away from home - four months vs. the traditional six-month deployments that take most other sailors to the Mediterranean Sea or Persian Gulf.

That's the assessment that Rear Adm. James B. Ferguson III, commander, Western Hemisphere Group, has of his cruisers, destroyers and frigates that work full time to help rid the region of illegal drugs and drug smugglers.

Ferguson, who maintains his headquarters in Mayport, Fla., was in Norfolk last week for a change of command ceremony aboard the Kidd.

Cmdr. John J. DeCavage, who has skippered the Kidd since the Western Hemisphere Group's creation in September 1995, took his ship and crew on two deployments to the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in support of counter-narcotics operations. They conducted extended operations off the west coast of Colombia, developing new baseline procedures the group has since incorporated.

DeCavage was relieved Friday by Cmdr. Thomas R. Andress, previously on the staff of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

Ferguson, in an interview following the ceremony, said the Western Hemisphere Group was a vision of Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda, the late Chief of Naval Operations, and recently retired Adm. William J. ``Bud'' Flanagan, commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet.

``They saw the developing relationship with Latin America and South America area as a distinct challenge to the Navy,'' said Ferguson.

``We have operated in that part of the world frequently, and a large percentage of our contingency operations had to do with that region, particularly in Panama, Haiti and Cuba.''

For nearly 40 years the Navy has sent a small group of ships to the region on a six-month cruise called UNITAS. The exercise involves the circumnavigation of South America, during which the U.S. forces operate with South American navies.

But there had never been a solid presence in the region the Navy could point to.

Ships were sent there on a ``pick-up basis,'' Ferguson said, usually with little specialized training and with crews that lacked an affinity for the region.

``Bud Flanagan recognized the inescapable fact the U.S. could no longer just look East and West,'' he said.

Flanagan also saw the Navy getting smaller, from more than 500 ships to 352 today. There was an increased need to conserve money and find economical ways to deploy the fleet.

So Flanagan reorganized, basing the ships operating in the southern climes in Pascagoula, Miss., and Mayport.

Transit times to operating areas are much closer than from Norfolk. By committing ships to specific missions - counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean, maritime interdiction in the Persian Gulf - training for each can be customized.

While the Kidd and destroyer Comte de Grasse - two of the 15 Western Hemisphere Group ships - are still based in Norfolk, the philosophy remains to eventually relocate all of the Western Hemisphere Group ships.

Ferguson hopes his fleet will remain at its present numbers. While ship retirements are inevitable, so is the battle with drug smugglers.

``Our WESTHEM group is in the world's most democratic and economically dynamic regions in the world,'' he said. ``But the potential for instability is always there. Here is where we must focus on different operations like drug interdiction, migration, human rights and humanitarian assistance.

``The Navy's fundamental commitment to that area is going to continue.''

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