Defense of Iraqi oil depots tests mettle of U.S. sailors.

AL BAZRA OIL TERMINAL, NORTHERN PERSIAN GULF--The U.S. sailors stationed here have taken to calling it the "ABOT Marriott." While this "Marriott" is complete with a guest book and a life-sized Elvis cutout always ready to greet visitors, it also comes with heavy weapons and around-the-clock security.

None of the sunburned sailors on ABOT confuse it with a vacation resort. Their six-month stay comes with critical responsibility. The oil platform they are defending is the lifeline of Iraq's economy.

ABOT, which provides about 80 percent of Iraq's crude oil exports, and the Khawr Al Amaya terminal, a few miles away, are Iraq's two largest offshore oil terminals.

These two platforms are the focal point of Task Force 58 maritime security operations in the Northern Persian Gulf. The task force is made up of U.S. Navy, British and Australian ships, and U.S. Coast Guard cutters, all commanded by Australian Commodore Steven Gilmore from his flagship, the USS Antietam cruiser. Three Iraqi patrol boats also work with the task force.

Coalition presence in this area is nothing new, but the mission is. Before Operation Iraqi Freedom, coalition navies enforced U.N. sanctions on Iraq's oil exports. Now they are making sure the oil flows without interruption. Since Dec. 1, 2004, 187 million barrels of crude oil have been shipped from ABOT.

While a National Defense reporter visited ABOT in late April, an Iranian tanker docked at the platform--an unusual sight in this part of the world, considering Iran and Iraq have had a strained relationship since the 1980s. The tanker, Iran Nabi, was the second to come for business since the first Iranian ship arrived in February.

The oil platform, enveloped in a blinding glare created by the bright sun reflecting on the water, is eerily quiet. Only the rusty pipes hum with the sound of oil being pumped into the tankers. But the silence is deceiving.

The U.S. Navy's mobile security detachment 22, out of Portsmouth, Va., guards both ABOT and KAAOT. The detachment has about 35 people on each terminal. On ABOT, there also are 70 terminal workers and 25 Iraqi contractors. KAAOT has about 60 terminal workers and no contractors.

ABOT also has 28 Iraqi naval infantry members helping with the security, he said. Because KAAOT has four U.S. Navy females who are part of the detachment, Iraqi forces have not been stationed there yet, because they are not used to working with women, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pat Fulgham.

The goal is to have the Iraqis completely take over the security of the platforms, Fulgham said. Already their numbers have doubled on ABOT since February. Soon, the Iraqis will bring their own gun on the platform, a Russian 12.7 mm Degtjarev DshK M38 Heavy Machine Gun, for which they will need to receive training from U.S. forces. "This is an Iraqi platform, and we are here at their request," Fulgham said. The Iraqis are not new to the defense of the oil terminals; they did that effectively during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Among the priorities for Iraqi forces is to train non-commissioned officers, who never were given serious responsibilities in the past, he said. To a degree, "we are forcing them to do their job," Fulgham said. They need to learn how to take the initiative, rather than wait to be told what to do.

While the U.S. Navy units are stationed on the platforms for six months, the Iraqis switch out every seven days.

Because the Navy's mobile security detachments are short-term security units, they need to be sustained by other ships. The USS Antietam (CG54), for example, provides all their meals. Water is scarce on these platforms. The sailors, however, have made their abode as comfortable as possible. They have Internet access, air-conditioned shacks, Sony Playstations, satellite TV and a gym that is the envy of the other detachments on KAAOT. The helicopter pad on ABOT can be used as a golf course.

KAAOT is the older, more run-down terminal, which boasts a natural habitat, mostly enjoyed by rats, in the areas that have not been repaired. KAAOT was first built in 1959 and has only one 48-inch oil pipe. ABOT--which has two 48-inch pipes--was built in 1975 and rebuilt in 1989 by KBR, Halliburton's engineering and construction subsidiary. Since then, little maintenance has been done. "I learned that you do not have to do maintenance on the platform to still produce oil," Fulgham said.

The security details stay on post for eight hours and then have 16 hours off. When the teams are not on duty, they train for room clearing. "Like the army's military police, we need to be able to clear rooms, entry control points," Fulgham said.

Sailors wielding rifles at all times are not a common sight in the Navy. According to Senior Enlisted Chief Michael Judson, it takes three months of training to take on any job defending high-value targets. The teams go through armed sentry courses, small arms and crew -served weapons training.

"We are a work in progress," said Fulgham. The detachments have trained with the Air Force airfield security teams, the Marine Corps security forces and the Army's military police units, said Fulgham. This type of training got jump-started after the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000, but was implemented after 9/11.

While the security detachments keep a 360-degree lookout of the surrounding area, the defense of the offshore oil terminals has several layers. Each has three ships assigned as their first line of defense. They usually are a mix of U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Australian and British vessels. Any traffic entering waters within 3,000 meters of the oil terminals is challenged and interrogated. Ships are not allowed to be within 2,000 meters of the platforms unless they are authorized tankers.

"Because of the increased security, terrorists need to make significant investments to attack the terminals," said Fulgham.

More than a year ago, the platforms were attacked by terrorist boats, which killed three U.S. servicemen and knocked the platforms out of commission for days. The lost exports would have amounted to about $28 million.

The U.S. Navy's maritime interdiction operations teams play a pivotal role in the area. Known as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure teams, or in short VBSS, they board the commercial tankers that are stopped 3,000 meters away from the oil terminals. But these VBSS teams also regularly patrol the area interrogating and searching other ships including dhows, the typical boat in the region used for shipping. The VBSS teams share their mission with the U.S. Coast Guard.

On the USS Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, membership on the VBSS teams is a much-coveted job. All members are volunteers, who have passed a stringent selection process. The Antietam has two teams, the Gold and Blue, totaling 26 people, of which two are stand-bys, said Gun Master Senior Chief James Delisle, who is in charge of selecting and training VBSS members.

Apart from being physically fit and advanced swimmers, the members are selected from a wide array of specialties, ranging from engineers, to deck hands, medics and weapons operators, said Delisle. "The 12 people on the boarding team have to be self-sufficient," he said. For example, if somebody sustained an injury "we would have to know how to treat them," while engineers know their way around engine rooms.

When they go out on a mission in their rigid-hull inflatable boats, the teams make sure that they approach the vessel by what they call a "horseshoe maneuver," explained Lt. James Welch, a training officer on the USS Antietam. "We come around the stern and make sure there is nothing on the other side." The worst part of the mission sometimes is climbing up an empty tanker, which can present the teams with a 40- to 60-foot wall.

Before they board, they have to make sure that the tanker's entire crew is lined up on the deck and that those who are not are accounted for. While the boarding officer and his assistant meet the captain, the rest of the VBSS team counts heads and starts the search. They check records and match faces to passports. At first they do an initial sweep, which is followed by a more detailed search to ensure that there are no weapons or explosive devices hidden on the vessel.

The Navy created the VBSS teams in the early 1990s, following the first Gulf War to enforce U.N. sanctions against Iraq. Back then, teams boarded ships and tankers to make sure no oil was being shipped. Now the mission has changed and is more sophisticated. "We are looking for weapon smugglers and terrorists," Delisle said.

When Delisle first joined the VBSS teams, he was trained by the Coast Guard. The Navy now has its own training program.

The VBSS teams train five to six times a week on the Antietam, cramming through the tight hallways and coiling pipelines. Each of the team members has another, fulltime job on the ship, but has to be able and ready for an interdiction mission at a moment's notice. Each team member gets a turn in leading a training exercise. "We use each member's specialization to come down and train different skills, such as medical aid, night vision goggles and gunmanship," said Delisle.

While the teams are adequately prepared for the missions they undertake in the Gulf, Gun Master 2 Clayton Alek-Finkelman believes they should be better equipped for boarding non-compliant ships. Among the deficiencies are shortages of automatic weapons, search and rescue tactics and close-quarters battle training, he said.

"The surface Navy is very capable to conduct these kinds of law enforcement missions," he said. "We do not need SEALs or Marines." While special operations forces always seem to be in short supply, the surface navy is "under-utilized," he added.

Senior officers disagree, however. "We train to what I find is the appropriate level to be able to do all the other things I do and at the same time support the VBSS," said Antietam's Capt. E.J. Quinn. "If I trained 100 crews, I would be diluting the expertise in the VBSS unit because their competency now is very high."

Being part of the VBSS teams seems to be the most glorified job on Antietam. "They all want to be on VBSS," said NC1 Chris Mandeville.

He also thinks that it would be hard to train many more sailors for VBSS and take them from their daily missions. "When we do a boarding we may miss all the three meals, so it is good for the cook to remember us," he said. "Even if you are not on a VBSS team you are supporting the mission. It is not just 12 guys doing the mission; it is the whole ship." Everybody is involved in one way or the other, from the crew-served weapons station providing cover for the teams to the cooks and cleaning personnel, he said.

Sailors, however, do get a chance to be selected for new VBSS teams while still on deployment, said Delisle. "The training cycle starts as soon as we get back from deployment, but certain team members are chosen while still on deployment. It is a continuous training cycle," he said.

Before the VBSS teams or patrol boats go out on missions, it is the SH-60B Seahawk helicopters of the Antietam that scope out the surrounding area and identify vessels. They let the Coast Guard and the other ships in the task force know who is approaching the 3,000-meter warning area around the oil terminals.

For Antietam's helicopters, this is a new mission, said Lt. Maureen Studniarz, a co-pilot. Their main job before was anti-submarine warfare. Now it is maritime security. Using the radars and forward-looking infrared (at night), the helicopters can transmit images back to the ship, she said. "Our FLIR is one of the greatest assets for this kind of mission," she said.

Antietam has two SH-60Bs and three crews ready to go at any time, she said. The aircraft conduct one dawn and dusk patrol each day, she said, and they never get too close to the ship they may be inspecting. The helicopters only query the ships if the task force needs more information, said Lt. Greg Nery, also a co-pilot.

But before going on this deployment, pilots find that they trained a lot more for anti-submarine warfare than security missions and therefore, a lot is learned on the fly. "I find that we never really learn how to query ships," he said. It is more of an on-the-job kind of training. We sit in simulators for hours doing ASW."

Back in San Diego, the homeport for USS Antietam, pilots have access to a new simulator to train for maritime security missions, but six squadrons have to share it and "it trains mostly Hellfire [missile] runs rather than query," he said.

Should the pilots have to query any ship, they have to remember to speak slowly and dearly through the radio. "There are standard phrases that we ask," Nery said. "We get their name, registry and where they are going." It is also important to gauge how open they are to talking, he added. The pilots have learned from their missions in the Gulf that it is important to maintain communications with their ship.

Maintaining situational awareness also is critical and sometimes not easy to do over a wide expanse of water. "When you are close to Iran and disputed waters, you have to be aware where you are because you can easily end up in someone else's water," said Nery. "We always find out where we are using GPS, radar and asking the ship constantly to give us the location. All water looks the same, but the oil platforms are usually good markers."

Used to flying mostly at night, it took some adjustment for Nery to conduct daytime missions. "On my first day mission, I almost went with the night flash on," he said, laughing. "It is easier, and it is harder in some ways to fly during the day." The advantage at night is that the pilots can pick up images at long distances with the night vision goggles, while during the day they can only use the radar, which does not enable them to see as far. "At night, we can see a lot farther, and they can't see us," he added.

The waters of the Northern Persian Gulf are among the busiest in the world, which make it more difficult to pinpoint potential threats. The task force needs to be able to detect any suspicious movement and make ensure that the traffic passing through is in the waters for legitimate reasons.