USS Underwood Conducts Joint Boarding

USS UNDERWOOD, At Sea - USS Underwood (FFG 36) conducted a joint boarding of a suspected narcotics trafficker with Panamanian sailors Dec. 17.

Underwood departed Vasco Nunez de Balboa after a port visit when the Panamanian navy requested their assistance to board a fishing vessel in their territorial waters. Eight members of their embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 102 and one Drug Enforcement Administration agent conducted the boarding with the Panamanians. No illicit items were found on board, though tests revealed the vessel had recently carried cocaine in her holds.

Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Lucas Penshorn, of LEDET 102, remarked, "It was such a great opportunity to work with a foreign boarding team, to see the different styles of boarding they have. The exchange of training techniques between our country and the Panamanians will definitely help us in our future boardings."

This boarding, the first joint boarding with Panama, was an opportunity to share military-to-military training between the U.S. Navy and Panama in direct support of the maritime strategy.

Underwood, homeported in Mayport, Fla., is deployed under the operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO) and U.S. Fourth Fleet, conducting counter-illicit trafficking operations for Joint Interagency Task Force-South in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of focus.

As the naval component command of SOUTHCOM, NAVSO's mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment. Various operations include counter-illicit trafficking, theater security cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training.

Fourth Fleet is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO, exercising operational control of assigned forces in the SOUTHCOM area of focus.