NORFOLK, Va. — They just got back, and now, it is deployment day again for USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE 13) and its crew.
The Military Sealift Command combat logistics replenishment vessel just spent the last few months re-supplying the USS Harry S. Truman. It sailed around the Atlantic in a holding pattern, due to the COVI-19 pandemic.
Now, the Medgar Evers is going on a deployment of its own, to the sixth fleet area of operations for the next six months. The crew's mission is to re-supply Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
"With Covid, I kind of think of us as essential workers, basically," explained Captain Zachary Daniels. "We're the people who are out there delivering all the medicine and the food and the fuel and all the things that keep everybody going personally and professionally, including letters from home and care packages and all that kind of stuff. So we look forward to continuing to support the Navy and we're anxious to get out there."
The Medgar Evers has a crew of 129 civilian merchant mariners.
RELATED: USS Harry S. Truman returns to Naval Station Norfolk, marks final homecoming for strike group
RELATED: USS Albany returns from deployment