ABOARD THE USS HERSHEL “WOODY” WILLIAMS — Shortly after docking in the west African country of Gabon earlier this month, sailors aboard this ship learned that no one would be allowed to disembark.

It would be the next day before the necessary Gabonese approvals would allow shore leave, including to attend the opening ceremony of the 13th iteration of the U.S.-led Obangame Express exercise hosted this year by Gabon.

It didn’t get easier for the ship in the days ahead.

“We’re pretty much a floating embassy. We go to countries almost no one goes to. ”

— Petty Officer 3rd Class Gabriel Gajda, a yeoman assigned to the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams

The crew’s experiences during a recent exercise underscored the challenges the Woody Williams faces as one of the few U.S. military vessels to almost continually transit African waters, as part of collective U.S. government efforts to build and sustain partnerships in a region America considers vital to its national security interests.

International terrorism, drug smuggling, Chinese interest in building an Atlantic naval port and a growing Russian military presence all come into play in this region.

The sailors aboard the only Navy ship assigned to the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility know that their role is unlike many others in the service.

“We’re pretty much a floating embassy,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Gabriel Gajda, a yeoman assigned to the ship. “We go to countries almost no one goes to.”

The countries that most Navy ships regularly visit are well-practiced at hosting them. It’s a different story in Africa.

The ports don’t have much capacity to handle a vessel like Woody Williams, which is a little smaller than an aircraft carrier. And the immature supply chain needed to restock and maintain the ship often requires MacGyver-like ingenuity and problem-solving, officials say.

For example, an Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical System team is aboard to offer lifesaving care if needed to U.S. forces operating in the region. The team also demonstrates the ship’s capabilities to African countries.

But there isn’t a way to sterilize the surgical equipment the team uses while at sea. Officials are considering alternatives, such as purchasing a sterilizer for the ship and training sailors in its use.

The team also is working out the process of getting blood and other medical supplies regularly replenished.

“Our biggest hurdle is logistics in nature,” said Cmdr. Ben Coyle, gold crew executive officer of Woody Williams.

He noted that the lack of ports able to accommodate the ship limits engagement opportunities with government and military officials as well as citizens.

“Our greatest successes are in presence and interactions,” Coyle said.

To sustain its presence, the ship is manned by two separate crews, dubbed blue and gold, which rotate five-month deployments.

The crews also must negotiate the dynamics of instability and military coups, such as that of Gabon in August 2023, which can hamstring diplomatic efforts and limit training opportunities with African navies.

Last year, conflict and government upheaval in Africa, particularly within the Gulf of Guinea region, kept Woody Williams sidelined for part of its deployment, said Capt. Lenard Mitchell, gold crew commanding officer of Woody Williams.

“We were not able to engage with local countries as much as we planned to and then we ended up being pulled for additional tasking later in the deployment,” he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to gain influence in Africa through military relationships also are being tested by China’s attempts to wield soft power, such as financing a fishing harbor in Accra, Ghana, set to open in August.

And Russia’s work to create instability in countries, such as Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, played parts in coups and opportunities for their forces, including the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, to fill the void, U.S. officials said.

Those challenges don’t deter Woody Williams’ leadership or its crew.

The ship can embark U.S. helicopter crews or Marine Corps units, or participate in a variety of military operations. But Woody Williams’ primary mission isn’t warfare, Coyle said.

“The focus is on building relationships, with the desire to increase stability and create opportunities in a largely overlooked, underserved (area of responsibility),” Coyle said.

As one sailor said: “We are in it for the long game, not the short wins.”

The Navy is seeing success in that regard with Gulf of Guinea countries, said Rear Adm. Michael Mattis, director of strategic effects for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa.

“Our challenge is to meet our partners where they are at and not push our own agenda on them,” Mattis said. “This isn’t about the (U.S.) military doing something. This is about our partners, and building capacity with them and building trust with them, because without trust no capacity is possible.”

That effort has included building operations centers, coastal radar systems and other infrastructure, and donating retired vessels and equipment to help African navies grow.

The service also leads and participates in exercises, such as Obangame Express, often used to help train African forces in the fight against illegal fishing, drug smuggling, human trafficking, piracy and other illicit activities.

For example, U.S. sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Marines embarked on Woody Williams worked with Cape Verde authorities to interdict about 13,228 pounds of cocaine from a Brazil-flagged ship in international waters near West Africa in April 2022.

In September, two former U.S. Coast Guard cutters were commissioned into the Ghanaian navy, and the U.S. contributed an additional $6 million in equipment for maritime projects last year.

Those contributions were part of $28 million in U.S. security assistance to Ghana in 2023, Virginia Palmer, the U.S. ambassador to Ghana, said while speaking at the African Maritime Forces Summit in Accra last month.

Those and other efforts appear to be gaining ground, although U.S. presence and influence in west Africa is being challenged.

Earlier this month, 1,000 U.S. troops were ordered to leave Niger and abandon a $110 million drone base opened just five years ago. That breakdown in relations followed a military coup in the central African country in July 2023.

Last month, the U.S. temporarily pulled most of its roughly 100 special operations troops out of Chad in advance of a presidential election there, following three years of military rule. Junta leader Mahamat Deby Itno subsequently was declared winner of the May 6 election.

“We’ll come back for discussions within a month to see what ways and what they need to be able to build further in their security construct and also against terrorism, especially in the Lake Chad region,” Gen. Michael Langley, commander of AFRICOM, told reporters in Accra on May 1.

There are bright spots, however.

African countries accounted for about 75% of 15,550 logins in March this year into a Navy-introduced software program that, among other capabilities, allows tracking of vessels at sea and unclassified communications between nations.

West African countries accounted for 53% of that number, according to Navy data. The worldwide system also is used by the U.S. and some European and Black Sea countries.

During Obangame, the Navy introduced new technology: a drone with surface and underwater capabilities that was eagerly anticipated by Gabon and other countries.

But while the exercise served as a showcase, it also laid bare the difficulties of engagement.

Woody Williams ran aground as it departed the port of Libreville, Gabon’s capital.

It broke free a few hours later after high tide, ultimately being forced to anchor outside the port to wait for an inspection.

The ship, with its hybrid crew of about 100 sailors managing air and other operations and 50 civilian mariners responsible for navigation and maintenance, remained there for more than a week.

It couldn’t participate as planned in the Obangame exercise, which ended Friday.

Still, the crew did what they could to make the trip productive. A limited test of a new drone with their Gabon counterparts showed promise.

The partnership between the two navies is strong, said Rear Adm. Charles-Hubert Bekale Meyong, Gabonese chief of naval staff.

Training together, the establishment of a maritime operations center built by Navy Seabees in Port Gentil and other new programs were some of the benefits, he said.

The partnership “has to stay in the real life more than just exercises and trainings,” said Meyong, who added he is eager to see the Gabon fleet grow. “This allows us to enhance our cooperation in the management of global maritime security.”

Military leaders like Meyong say they’re committed to building their capabilities and expertise in order to protect their resources, such as fish, and grow their economies.

As one military leader recently shared with Mattis: “We know we will have reached success with Obangame Express and these other exercises when the partner nations convene the exercise themselves and invite the U.S. in to participate.”

“To me, that is exactly the right approach,” Mattis said.