The Pearl Harbor-based destroyer USS O'Kane practiced approach and ship-boarding Feb. 7 off Guam as the USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group prepared to head to the Persian Gulf.

The O'Kane is among ships that will be part of an increased U.S. Navy presence in the Gulf. The Navy previously said the Pearl Harbor destroyer Paul Hamilton would join up with the carrier group.

The Stennis strike group, which was previously in line to deploy to the Pacific, will augment another task force in the Persian Gulf led by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The arrival of the Stennis carrier group will give the Pentagon two carriers in the region for the first time since 2003 and the start of the Iraq war.

Lt. j.g. Christopher Beck, O'Kane's primary boarding officer, is training the ship's new boarding officer and team, ensuring they are geared up and ready to go for possible operations.

"We make sure that civilian mariners who regularly operate in the Persian Gulf understand why we're here," Beck said in a Navy publication. "It's important they understand coalition forces are operating in the area to make it a safer place and a more conducive environment for them to live their lives."

Rigid-hull inflatable boats from each of three ships took turns making approaches on other ships.

"When we do approach ops, our intentions are not to board other vessels," Chief Quartermaster Bryan Cain said in the Navy Newsstand publication. "We just pull up on the side and ask them how they are doing, then we ask the basic questions we need to know. If we get invited on board, the boarding officer will have a translator with him and go aboard non-aggressively."

The exercise was also a chance for the three ships to practice visit, board, search and seizure operations for vessels suspected of smuggling or terrorist-related activities.