USS Doyle (FFG 39) hosted a closing ceremony to commemorate the end of a two-week Team Work South (TWS) 2009 exercise July 8.
Exercise participants from Brazil, Chile, France, the United Kingdom and the United States were in attendance at the ceremony.
TWS 2009 is a multinational exercise that includes surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, anti-air warfare, maritime interdiction operations, littoral operations and anti-piracy events. The exercise is focused on creating a multinational task group that operates together in a multi-threat environment.
"During this exercise, you realized what a group effort many of the warfare exercises are. I was able to see different tactics thanks to participating with other navies and observed warfare from a different viewpoint," said Ensign Tasha Bernhardt, Doyle's assistant operations officer.
French Midshipman Lucille Gaultier was aboard Doyle during the exercise.
"It was a long week, but the experience was incredible. I saw everything from a different perspective. There were many differences between the French and U.S. Navy. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to do this," said Gaultier.
TWS 2009 enhanced friendly relationships and mutual cooperation among participating Navies.
TWS 2009 is part of the Southern Seas deployment being conducted by Task Group 40.0. The task group, commanded by Destroyer Squadron 40, consists of Doyle, USS Kauffman (FFG 59) and USS Ford (FFG 54) with embarked Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (Light) 43 Detachment 4.
Southern Seas is part of U.S. Southern Command's Partnership of the America's strategy and focuses on conducting exercises to enhance relationships with partner nations in the region.
Kassandra Richardt (NNS)
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