By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Theodore Quintana, Navy Office of Community Outreach
SASEBO, Japan – A Canton, Mississippi, native and 2005 Petal High School graduate is serving in the U.S. Navy forward-deployed in Japan aboard USS Germantown.
Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Fischer is a hull maintenance technician aboard the ship operating out of Sasebo, Japan.
A Navy hull maintenance technician is responsible for planning, supervising, and performing tasks necessary for fabrication, installation, maintenance and repair of shipboard structures, plumbing, sewage, and piping systems.
Fischer is proud to serve in the Pacific and fondly recalls memories of Canton.
“Growing up in my hometown I learned that it is important to work hard and try to do the right thing,” said Fischer.
Moments like that makes it worth serving around the world ready at all times to defend America’s interests. With more than 50 percent of the world's shipping tonnage and a third of the world's crude oil passing through the region, the United States has historic and enduring interests in this part of the world. The Navy's presence in Sasebo is part of that long-standing commitment, explained Navy officials.
Commissioned in 1986, Germantown is the second Navy ship named after the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown. With a crew of more than 900 sailors and Marines, Germantown is 609 feet long and weighs approximately 16,000 tons. Designed specifically to operate landing craft air cushion small craft vessels, Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships have the largest capacity for these landing craft out of any U.S. Navy amphibious ship.
“I’m used to the up-tempo of the operations here, it's fun,” said Fischer. “I’ve been in the Navy for 12 years and I don’t think I would want to be doing anything else. It has taught me a lot of skills that I would of had paid a lot of money to learn in the civilian sector.”
As a member of one of the U.S. Navy’s most relied-upon assets, Fischer and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.
Seventh Fleet, which is celebrating its 75th year in 2018, spans more than 124 million square kilometers, stretching from the International Date Line to the India/Pakistan border; and from the Kuril Islands in the North to the Antarctic in the South. Seventh Fleet's area of operation encompasses 36 maritime countries and 50 percent of the world’s population with between 50-70 U.S. ships and submarines, 140 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 sailors in the 7th Fleet.