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| Lt. Jg. Amy Long & Lt. Marcus Long |
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christopher Farrington, USS Halsey Public Affairs
In the Gulf of Aden, guided-missile destroyers USS Halsey (DDG 97) and USS Dewey (DDG 105) rendezvoused to transfer equipment and personnel in preparation for Halsey's counter-piracy mission.
The planned encounter between the two ships also gave one dual military couple the chance to see each other for the first time since August 2011.
Lt. Marcus Long, the Information Warfare Officer aboard Dewey, was able to ride over to Halsey during the initial transfer and have lunch with his wife, Lt. Jg. Amy Long, the Damage Control Assistant aboard Halsey.
“It felt great to see my wife waiting for me on the boat deck of Halsey as I arrived,” said Lt. Long. “It's great to know that when a chance of a life time encounter happens, both my leadership and my wife’s leadership are willing to make this happen.”
The couple was able to spend a few precious hours together aboard Halsey enjoying each others company for the first time in 5 months. At the conclusion of both ships’ deployments the couple will have been apart for roughly a year.
“Being away from my husband for an extended amount of time has been really hard,” said Lt. Jg. Long. “I feel like being able to see him, even if it was just for a few hours, will make the rest of the time we have to spend apart that much easier.”
Cmdr. Michael Weeldreyer, Commanding Officer of Halsey, and Cmdr. John Howard, Commanding Officer of Dewey, communicated via chat to arrange the visit for the deployed couple during the equipment exchange.
“It was a great idea from Dewey, and the visit complimented our operational tasking,” said Cmdr. Weeldreyer. “Cmdr. Howard and I agreed this would be a once-in-a-lifetime-tell-the-grandkids-event, so who could resist?”
Halsey is the flagship for Combined Task Force 151, a multinational, mission-based task force working under Combined Maritime Forces, to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Dewey is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations.
