SUCCESS was a success July 24, 2000 HMAS SUCCESS with her Sea King ready trails HMAS NEWCASTLE and the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN across a white capped sea during RIMPAC. HMAS SUCCESS has completed participating in RIMPAC 2000. HMA Ships ADELAIDE, NEWCASTLE, ARUNTA and WALLER also took part in the exercise held off Hawaii. RIMPAC is an international exercise, which this year included the countries of Australia, United States, Canada, Japan, Korea and Chile. There are two phases to RIMPAC, the first phase being a work up phase where the ships work together in groups conducting programmed exercises, and the second phase is the tactical phase, or "freeplay", where there is no program to follow and the exercise follows a more warlike scenario. During the work up phase SUCCESS was kept busy replenishing the units of her Surface Action Group with fuel, food and ammunition, as well as conducting consolidation replenishments from US tankers. In a two-week period SUCCESS conducted a total of 22 replenishments for HMAS ARUNTA, HMAS NEWCASTLE, HMCS ALGONQUIN, CNS CONDELL, USS FLETCHER and USS SHILOH. Just over 5 million litres of diesel fuel had been given away during this period and 80 thousand litres of aviation fuel. During the three consolidation replenishments from US tankers SUCCESS received 7.7 million litres of fuel from USNS GUADALUPE and USNS JOHN ERICSSON. (USNS GUADALUPE 3.7 million litres, USNS JOHN ERICSSON 4.0 million litres.) On top of the replenishments SUCCESS was busy conducting helicopter operations each day, using her Seaking for vertical replenishments and other logistics tasks. In the freeplay phase of RIMPAC, HMAS SUCCESS joined the other replenishers in the exercise topping up other ships as required. Being an essential asset SUCCESS was kept well clear of the hostilities and was escorted by frontline units. She was called upon to refuel USS CROMMELIN, HMCS WINNIPEG, HMAS NEWCASTLE, HMAS ADELAIDE, and Korean ships ROKS EULJIMUNDOK and ROK CHON NAM. SUCCESS' last RAS was a consolidation replenishment with USNS JOHN ERICSSON. In total, for the whole of the RIMPAC exercise HMAS SUCCESS received 9.1 million litres of diesel, gave away 5.5 million litres of diesel and 175 thousand litres of aviation fuel in 31 replenishment operations. SUCCESS' Seaking Helicopter, Shark 21 was also kept extremely busy. The Seaking flew over 20 flights, totalling approximately 76 hours airborne. Shark 21 got to land on many foreign units. These ships included the Nimitz carrier USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, other US Ships BUNKER HILL, FLETCHER, SHILOH, CROMMELIN, PAUL HAMILTON, and CAMDEN, and Canadian ships HMC Ships PROTECTEUR, WINNIPEG, and REGINA. Other experiences included conducting winch transfers to HMCS ALGONQUIN and Chile's CNS CONDELL, as well as several trips in and out of Hickam US Airforce Base. The flights mostly consisted of passenger transfers and logistics stores flights, but also included vertical replenishments to other ships. The Seaking moved many thousands of kilograms of stores, mail and personnel over the period. During the vertreps alone Shark 21 lifted over fifty pallet loads of food, consigned cargo and ammunition to other Australian ships, which equates to about 75,000 lbs of stores. There were many highlights for SUCCESS ship's company during RIMPAC. SUCCESS hosted a number of visitors from other ships, and in return got to send ship's company across to foreign units for day and overnight exchanges, all as part of a Personnel Exchange Program. Our visitors included Chileans from CNS CONDELL, Canadians from HMCS ALGONQUIN and Americans from USS SHILOH and USS FLETCHER. Another milestone was reached during the deployment when CMDR Hamilton received his 4th clasp to the long-service medal. This made him the second member of SUCCESS who has his 4th clasp, which signifies 35 years of service in the RAN. The RIMPAC exercise proved a valuable experience for all elements of SUCCESS to carry out their primary function in a multinational force, and perform under some difficult circumstances. The ship's company responded well to the tasks and challenges laid upon her and further enhanced the reputation of the RAN in the region.