By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Robert Zahn, Navy Office of Community Outreach
SASEBO, Japan – A Georgetown, South Carolina, native and 2012 Carvers Bay High School graduate is serving in Japan in the U.S. Navy aboard USS Germantown.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Gamble is an operations specialist aboard the ship operating out of Sasebo, Japan.
A Navy operations specialist is responsible for operating the communications, radar, and navigation equipment that tracks ships, aircraft, and enemy missiles and communicates tactical information to supervisors and other operators.
Gamble is proud to serve in the Pacific and fondly recalls memories of Georgetown.
“Growing up South Carolina, we learned how to respect each other, it takes respect to give respect,” said Gamble. “It helps me with social skills and talking to people.”
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.
As a member of one of the U.S. Navy’s most relied-upon assets, Gamble and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.
“Serving in the Navy has calmed me down, its showed me what my worth is as a person, it forces me to change myself and break old habits,” said Gamble. “The Navy has also given me the opportunity to meet all sorts of people.”
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.