USS Annapolis (SSN 760) returned home to Naval Submarine Base New London Feb. 28 after a regularly scheduled six-month deployment.The part about that being the first visit by a U.S. sub to Africa outside the Med kind of surprised me. Back in '92, we were supposed to pull into the Seychelles on the Topeka, but it got cancelled. (We went to Phuket instead.) During the planning for the visit to that group of islands just off the eastern coast of Africa, I'm pretty sure I remember the SubGru SEVEN commander telling us that there were plans to have boats pull into Mombasa, Kenya, at some point. I guess those plans must have fallen through...
Annapolis completed a wide range of joint requirements supporting national security in the U.S. European Commands' area of responsibility, including playing a vital role in African Partnership Station (APS) 2007...
...Annapolis' crew served as ambassadors for the U.S. Navy during port visits to Rota, Spain; Toulon and Brest, France; Praia, Cape Verde; and Ghana. The Cape Verde visit marked the first visit to Africa outside the Mediterranean by a U.S. submarine.
Now These Are Good Liberty Ports!
I've always defined a good liberty port as "someplace warm where people don't automatically hate Sailors because a bunch of skimmers pull in there all the time". The crew of USS Annapolis (SSN 760) just returned from a deployment that featured what I consider one of the best collection of liberty ports I've seen in a long time:
