Sam LaGrone – April 14, 2025 5:16 PM
The Navy’s forward-deployed European and African sea base is back in the U.S. after almost five years and set for a maintenance period in Newport News, USNI News has learned.
USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) returned to the East Coast on Thursday after being stationed in Souda Bay, Greece, since 2020 and is set to begin a maintenance period, a Military Sealift Command spokesperson told USNI News on Monday.
“Williams returns to Norfolk’s waters with a hybrid-manned crew of 44 Military Sealift Command civil service mariners who operated, navigated, and maintained the vessel and 85 U.S Navy sailors,” reads a statement from the service.
USNI News previously reported that Williams and the U.S. Central Command-based USS Lewis Puller (ESB-3) were two ships MSC identified for potential layup to ease the stress on the civilian mariner force. Based on the design of an Alaska-class oiler, the ESBs are designed to serve as floating bases for both mine countermeasures and special operations forces. Capable of supporting helicopters as large as the CH-53E and the MV-22B tiltrotor, the ships have been in high demand both in CENTCOM and AFRICOM for a variety of missions.
During its last patrol, Williams grounded off the coast of Gabon, which resulted in the removal of the ship’s commander.
The ESB regularly sailed off the coast of Africa, starting shortly after its initial deployment to the region, operating with smaller regional navies and coast guards that would otherwise not interact with a U.S. warship. The ship operated from Souda Bay with a hybrid crew of both Navy sailors and civilian mariners using alternating blue-gold crews like ballistic missile submarines, where two crews operate the same vessel to maximize operational time underway.
“Williams will spend a week at Naval Station Norfolk, offloading her fuel before shifting to the East Coast Repair and Fabrication Shipyard in Newport News, Va., where she will be in lay berth awaiting her next tasking,” reads a statement from the Navy
The Navy has not announced a replacement for Williams.
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