San Antonio crew faced obstacles, former leader testifies

NORFOLK

The first commander to take the first-in-its-class San Antonio on deployment testified Tuesday about the ship's shortfalls at the court-martial of his former executive officer.

At issue is the role Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kearns played in the small-boat mishap that resulted in the death of a crew member in February 2009. The vessel flipped over and Petty Officer 1st Class Theophilus Ansong was lost at sea.

Capt. Kurt Kastner had turned over command of the amphibious transport dock ship to Cmdr. Eric Cash about six weeks before.

Kearns served both Kastner and Cash as executive officer, or XO, the second-most-senior officer aboard.

Kastner told the six jurors that his 367-person crew conducted small-boat operations - lowering rigid-hull inflatable boats over the side of the ship to the water below - throughout the first four months of the deployment to the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

Although the 11-meter RHIB had experienced engine troubles throughout the deployment, Kastner said he had faith in an experienced deck crew.

"I absolutely had a deep bench in the deck department," Kastner said in response to a question from Kearns' defense attorney. "Deeper than any amphib I've ever been on."

That didn't mean Kastner was satisfied with conditions on the San Antonio, a new platform that experienced setbacks even before the Navy took possession of it.

Asked about training and readiness in the months before the deployment began in August 2008, Kastner said the ship lacked requisite training manuals and others weren't applicable because the San Antonio was too new.

The electronic curriculum that was loaded onto a few of the ship's computers was largely irrelevant, he said: It had been developed for the ship as it was designed years earlier - not as it had actually been built.

Despite those limitations, Kastner had high praise for his crew, in general, and Kearns in particular.

"Sean backed up every decision I made, whether it was right or wrong, and if it was really wrong, he stepped up and told me," he said.

"I would certainly put him as the best XO in the Iwo Jima strike group, and probably the best on the Norfolk waterfront. I ride a lot of ships, every ship on the East Coast, from Mayport to Maine," said Kastner, who now works as a senior engineering assessor for the Navy's Atlantic fleet.

Kastner testified that he did not require Kearns to be present during small-boat operations. That testimony contradicts the prosecution's contention during opening arguments Monday that Kearns should have been on the ship's bridge as the small boat was being lowered into the Gulf of Aden.

His defense attorneys are attempting to show that Kearns can't be guilty of negligence in training and supervising small-boat operations because there were no set guidelines for the San Antonio-class ships.

If convicted, Kearns faces a maximum punishment of three months confinement and forfeiture of pay.

Kearns could have opted for administrative punishment, but accepting a reprimand - as Cmdr. Cash did this spring - would have effectively ended his career. He chose to go to trial instead. It is expected to last all week.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com