Norfolk, Va. – The MV Cape Ray, which successfully disposed of hundreds of tons of Syrian chemical weapons this summer in the Mediterranean Sea, returned to homeport of Portsmouth, Va. Wednesday.

The 648-foot roll-on/roll-off and container ship deployed overseas Jan. 27 equipped with 64 Army civilians and a field deployable hydrolysis system capable of rendering chemical and nerve agent inert.

The ship deployed overseas in January and left Rota, Spain, on June 25 to pick up about 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons in the Italian port of Gioia Tauro and then destroy them.

The most dangerous chemical weapons were ferried to the Cape Ray by the Danish vessel Ark Futura and were then destroyed in international waters, earning the Obama administration a foreign policy win amid the regional disarray of the Syrian civil war.

Among the materials destroyed: the blister agent mustard gas; and methylphosphonyl diflouride, or DF, used to produce nerve agents like sarin.

The MV Cape Ray is owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration and is maintained as a ready reserve asset to ferry U.S. troops and equipment to war zones. It was activated last year and has been crewed by 35 mariners contracted by the Keystone Shipping Company.

Normally crewed by just 29, the crew was expanded to 35 to provide berthing and food services aboard the ship for the Army civilians embarked with the hydrolysis system.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Navy Capt. Rich Dromerhauser on Aug. 18 to express his gratitude for the crew's service.

"With the world watching, they performed flawlessly every step of the way — despite a very long deployment, and a complex operation that required careful coordination with our international partners," Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a press statement.

Hagel went on to laud the crew for carrying out their mission in a "highly professional manner, with strict adherence to safety and with no impact to the surrounding environment," Kirby said.

About Mark D. Faram

Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.

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