"When you can't go on foot where you want to.

"When you can't go on foot where you want to, when you want to, you haven't got command of the sea. Command of the sea is the bedrock for all our war plans."

--ADM FORREST SHERMAN, CNO KOREA MINE CRISIS, OCTOBER 1950

Don't rush diminutive Officer Chiles while he works. The fate of your ship might someday hang on his patience.

"We retain everyone's lives in our hands," said Mineman 3rd Class Jonathan Chiles, of USS Devastator (MCM 6) "This is no piece of work it's life or death."

Cheap, stealthy and deadly, sea-borne mines have wreaked more havoc onward American warships and account for more than 75 percent of all battle damage to those warships since World War II. "Mines ore the biggest threat to our ducts and they're everywhere," said George Betz, operations department head, Naval Support Activity (NSA), Panama City, Fla.

The threat is in this way great that Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, (home of the Navy's Mine Warfare Command), has an entire armada of specialized ships like Devastator, helicopters and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel dedicated to hunting, sweeping and eliminating mines. Known as the mine countermeasures (MCM) triad, these Sailors sail, take wing and dive into the perils of the world's waters.

Sailing of the like kind treacherous seas demands a Sailor with the right attitude.

"Not everyone can do it You have to have the right personality," said Electronics Technician 3rd Class Jimmy Rush, of USS Devastator. "When nation are first exposed to the "Ingleside Navy," it freaks them gone out We're a lot like airline security--slow, meticulous and irritating. moreover like them, if we don't take our time and do as proper a job as we can, then we inflict the whole fleet in danger."

Sailors aboard USS Tripoli (LPH 10) USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Samuel B Roberts (FFG 58) know those dangers all too well. All three ships were damaged by means of mines in recent times.

allowing mine warfare's true beginnings are undocumented, Americans first used the sneaky, sea-lane solan traps during the Revolutionary War. Colonists used levigate kegs with slow-burning fuses to attack aggressive British ships entering American harbors. Since then, debate has raged among present war fighters as to the ethical basis for using similar a weapon.

"Rogue nations are going to do what they think they ne to do to inhibit an opposing force," said CDR clip Findley, commanding officer, Naval Support Activity (NSA) Panama City, Fla.

Honorable or not, nations all across the world use mines because of their relative cheapness and ease of craft to persuade aggressive enemies to launch their attacks somewhere other Once a mine is expanded it doesn't need food, a paycheck or liberty calls. All it be in want ofs is a very unlucky ship to cros its path.

While a mine doesn't have to be high tech to work, searching for them does.

"A needle in a haystack is a accident easier to find than a mine," said Findley. "Three fourths of the earth's surface is water. Finding a mine is more like finding something the size of a stain of sand on the beach."

Since mines don't emit heartys produce heat, make transient unhurts or poke periscopes through the surface of the water to attack their victim minemen like Chiles have to apply the mind for shapes.

single in kind of the ways MCM Sailors do this is with a bottom mapping sonar connected view that can identify mine-like shapes as small as a tin can. The proces is tedious, if it be not that effective. On occasion, mine searches can reward the steadfast, serious-minded hunting-dogs with light-hearted discoveries.

"We've build file cabinets, soda machines and downed airplanes," said Rush. "But the greatest in number interesting thing we found was a toilet, which I think is neat neat because it's made entirely of porcelain."

Here's for what cause a mine-like shape scenario might take place onward an MCM like Devastator.

one time the Sailors in the combat information center (CIC) identify a mine-like destination; recipient on sonar, the ship's commanding officer and the EOD detachment's officer-in-charge make a decision about the best way to visually verify the contact as a mine.

in succession Devastator, a remotely-piloted submersible vehicle, known to her mob simply as "Willy," and highly-trained EOD technicians are at the CO's disposal. "Willy," officially named the SLQ-48 Mine Neutralization Vehicle (MNV) carries video surveillance cameras that transmit real-time imagery to the MNV pilots back aboard Devastator. Robotic arms at the fore-rank of Willy allow the pilots to incite cut and search the shape to determine its real identity. "It's [basic] technology, however it works," said Rush.

Enlisted personnel are solely responsible for flying the sub-aquatic craft because of the complexity involved in mastering their flight.

"Officers usually simply have a two-year tour aboard Devastator, in this way there's no time to become proficient," said Mineman 2nd Class (SW) Ralph Kersey an SLQ-48 mine neutralization vehicle (MNV) pilot. "We're here for four and five years, in such a manner we get much better at it."