USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) made a port visit to Tanzania September 19-21, 2011 to participate in the Africa Partnership Station (APS) East 2011 Hotwash closing conference, marking the completion of their mission supporting APS East.

Roberts served as the Navy flag ship for APS East classes offered in the East African region beginning July 18 in Mombasa, Kenya and ending September 9 in Port Louis, Mauritius. The Hotwash closing conference, which took place September 20, provided a forum for APS planners and participating East African partner nations to discuss successes and lessons learned that will be applied to future APS missions.

Commanding Officer Commander Angel Cruz provided the opening remarks to the conference, stating that Roberts' success in executing the APS mission was due to the professionalism of the combined efforts of the participating African partner nations, the international trainers and the U.S. instructors, to include the Roberts crew.

"I'm extremely proud of the work we accomplished together in providing training for APS East, but the true measure of successes lie not within the number of East African students who graduated over the past two months, but in the partnerships that were nurtured between the participating nations, students and instructors alike," said Cruz.

Cruz went on to site the APS shiprider program, a program where African partner nations provided students who embarked Roberts to serve on board during several weeks underway and in port, as an especially valuable program that promoted an international exchange of ideas in conducting shipboard operations.

"We learned just as much from our East African students as they learned from us. APS is truly a program of international engagement and exchange," said Cruz.

African partner nations that participated in this, the most recent iteration of APS East included: Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda. Over the course of instruction, Roberts also made a theater security cooperation port visit to Maputo, Mozambique.

"The 'can-do' spirit of the Roberts was amazing," said Commander David Meron of the South and East Africa Regional Engagement Team, based out of Naples, Italy. "The successes we enjoyed during this iteration of APS East were directly proportionate to the enthusiasm of the crew. The attitude, starting from the top-down, was nothing short of impressive."

Samuel B. Roberts is an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate that is homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, and is currently on a scheduled deployment to the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility.

APS is an international security cooperation initiative, facilitated by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, aimed at strengthening global maritime partnerships through training and collaborative activities in order to improve maritime safety and security in Africa.