USS Constellation CV-64 · America’s Flagship Open the Book
1994–95 Western Pacific & Persian Gulf Deployment 435 pages · searchable by name, division, squadron, and port
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Ship’s Company · WESTPAC ’94–95

Security Department

The ship's law-enforcement and master-at-arms force.

Group
Command & Administration
In the Book
p. 196

The Master-at-Arms Force

The Security Department was the ship’s law-enforcement force, led by master-at-arms personnel responsible for good order and discipline aboard a vessel as densely populated as a town. Their duties ran from keeping the peace and enforcing regulations to controlling access, conducting patrols, and investigating offenses. On a ship where thousands lived and worked shoulder to shoulder, the steady presence of an impartial police force kept friction from becoming disorder.

Access control was a constant responsibility. Sensitive spaces — magazines, communications and intelligence areas, the ship’s most secure compartments — had to be guarded and entry tracked. The master-at-arms force managed the daily security routine, responded to incidents, safeguarded evidence, and worked closely with the command and the Legal Department when matters required investigation or discipline.

Aboard Constellation

Through six months at sea, the security force kept order in a community that never fully slept. With flight operations running around the clock and sailors on every conceivable schedule, there was no quiet hour; patrols and watches continued day and night. The force handled the disputes, infractions, and occasional serious matters that arise wherever thousands of people are confined together for months.

In a foreign port, the department’s work extended to the gangway and beyond — controlling who came aboard, supporting the safe movement of liberty parties, and helping the command account for its people. Heightened force-protection awareness in the waters and ports of the Persian Gulf made vigilant access control and watchstanding all the more essential to the safety of the ship and her crew.

Roster

Sailors of Security · Department roster, Security Department, USS Constellation (CV-64), WESTPAC ’94–95 — transcribed from the original cruise book. Each name links to that Sailor’s page in the scanned book. See a misspelling or a shipmate we missed? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

See the Security Department pages in the cruise book →

Questions & Answers

What is a master-at-arms?

A master-at-arms is a Navy sailor serving in the ship's law-enforcement and security role, the shipboard equivalent of police. They maintain good order, control access to the ship and sensitive spaces, conduct patrols, and investigate offenses.

What did the Security Department guard?

Beyond general good order, the force controlled access to the ship and to its most sensitive spaces, such as weapons magazines and communications and intelligence areas, tracking entry and standing watch to keep those compartments secure.

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