KALAHEO — The new look of the United States Navy arrived with the crew of a target boat Wednesday morning on the Kalaheo School campus. Lt. Michael Prince, whom many of the school students knew as “Coach Mike,” brought along
KALAHEO — The new look of the United States Navy arrived with the crew of a target boat Wednesday morning on the Kalaheo School campus.
Lt. Michael Prince, whom many of the school students knew as “Coach Mike,” brought along a crew from the Navy’s Seaborne Target Division that operates out of the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana. That division is more commonly known as SEPTAR with its larger boats moored at the Port Allen harbor.
“This was a special visit,” said Erik Burkman, Kalaheo School’s principal. “It comes on the heels of our career development program that was changed from previous years.”
Burkman said instead of having community professionals visit the school, the classes instead visited places where people worked.
“It’s all about showing the students what kinds of opportunities are available to them once they leave school,” Burkman said.
The Navy’s target crew — Francisco Herndon, Alfonso Gomez and Randy Belknap — operate under Prince and were dressed in the Navy’s new uniform of a smart black headwear, khaki-colored shirt and smartly pressed black slacks with black socks and black shoes.
“I’m in white because people associate white with the Navy, but the new uniforms are a lot more ‘user-friendly,’” Prince said. “They’re smart looking and make the people look good.”
Along with the new uniforms, the crew hauled in one of the latest classes of target boats, the OA class, for the students to see.
“This is to show the students just one more opportunity they have available to them, but also how the remote system on one of these target boats work,” Prince said. “We’ve been to other schools for Career Development, but this is the first time we are visiting Kalaheo School.”
Herndon took the reins and welcomed the students, showing them how the target boat is operated using a laptop computer and a joystick resembling those found in gaming systems on home computers.
“The boat is remotely operated when it pulls a target,” Prince said. “In actuality, all the boats are targets. Eventually, they’ll be expended.”
Prince said the new boats are different from the older models in its keel where the newer boats use a four-foot cut with the result being the newer boats being able to negotiate swells better, comparing the target boats against the United States Coast Guard’s rigid-hull craft.
Students reveled in the ability to move the boat’s steering system using the joystick control, doing radio checks with Gomez answering on their inquiries and even getting a close up look at some of the gear used by the Navy personnel.
“Normally, we operate out of PMRF and launch out of the Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor,” Prince said. “But recently, the harbor has been undergoing a facelift so we sometimes launch out of Port Allen.
For the crew, it was a nice change of pace, especially for Belknap who recently moved here from Oklahoma.
But for the students, the most thrilling part was being able to sound the boat’s horn using the special tab located atop the joystick.
