HSL-46 'Sons of Liberty' Return Home

The detachment supported counter drug operations under the direction of Joint Interagency Task Force-South.

The CNT operations are another element in the global war on terror and are aimed at stopping the sale of illegal narcotics that fund terrorist activities around the globe.

The Sons of Liberty conducted a "Week One Work Up" with the RGB in October and then immediately steamed south and through the Panama Canal to the Eastern Pacific Ocean where they spent the majority of the next six months conducting CNT patrols.

Operational highlights from the deployment include Cutlass 460 and its aircrews locating more than a dozen critical contacts of interests (CCOIs), flawlessly executing eight alert launches, one of which was on Christmas Day, and airborne support of five Coast Guard law enforcement boardings.

The detachment also found find time in the demanding CD Ops environment to conduct various training exercises. This ship-air training consisted of numerous helicopter in-flight refueling (HIFR), vertical replenishments (VERTREP), deck landing qualification (DLQ) periods and an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) scenario where Cutlass 460 and crew executed a textbook MK-46 Torpedo attack on an Expendable Mobile ASW Training Target.

The success of Detachment One was in large part due to the skilled maintenance department and their tireless work ethic.

Lead Electrician, Aviation Electrician's Mate Second Class Timothy "Danger" Martin remarked, "This is a mission I will be proud to go home to my family and friends and say the streets in America are safer because of what we have done for the past six months."

The maintenance department's major triumphs include conducting two major phase inspections underway, replacing an APU (auxiliary power unit) and one main engine change. An all hands effort was provided by the detachment when one of the phase inspections required removal of all four of the aircraft's main rotor blades while at sea.

Since the majority of the operations were south of the equator the Sons of Liberty christened 10 of their own Slimy Pollywogs into King Neptune's realm and as they became "Trusty Shellbacks" in a US Navy traditional "crossing the line" ceremony while underway. This much anticipated homecoming brings to a c

lose a year-long period since the detachment first left NS Mayport and deployed on board the USS Monterey (CG 61) in April 2006. The Sons of Liberty, led by Air Boss, Lt. Cmdr. Derek Fleck, have amassed more than 720 underway flight hours, 1,300 shipboard landings, visited 12 foreign countries, qualified nine Sailors as enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialists. The Sons of Liberty are eagerly looking forward towards spending time with their loved ones in their favorite liberty port, Naval Station Mayport.