Posted on 06/20/2002 10:36:23 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Jon Erickson remembers his last Navy homecoming.His ship, the aircraft carrier Oriskany, arrived in Alameda following a war tour off North Vietnam. The year was 1970.
"No one was on the pier when we came back – it was pretty sad," Erickson said. "There were protesters at the gate. All the sailors were getting harassed and spit on."
Erickson saw no repeat yesterday when his son, Ian, a petty officer 3rd class, returned with about 1,000 shipmates aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard from a 61/2-month deployment in the war on terrorism.
Also arriving at the San Diego Naval Station at the 32nd Street were about 900 sailors on the amphibious ships Ogden and Pearl Harbor. On Monday, the ships had disgorged their complement of Marines, Harrier jets, helicopters, vehicles and landing craft to Camp Pendleton and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
The amphibious-ready group provided Harriers and helicopters during Operation Anaconda in March and visited Kenya, Bahrain, Qatar, Thailand, Australia and Singapore during the deployment.
Erickson, his wife and two other sons drove three days from Colorado to welcome Ian.
Each family member had a two-way radio so they wouldn't get separated. Erickson brought a high-power monocular to scan for his son amid the cacophony of spouses and family members yelling for loved ones.
But his secret weapon for finding his son was a lung-powered, ear-piercing whistle that Erickson claimed Ian can hear from two miles away in Colorado.
He didn't want to leave anything to chance because this homecoming had to be the welcome home that Erickson never received.
"This (day) has been coming for 32 years – that's how long it's been," said Erickson.
Yesterday's reception made him proud.
"Since Sept. 11, there's been a lot of patriotism and support" for the military, he said.
Before the ship could dock yesterday, Erickson had been swallowed up in a crowd of well-wishers, ready to whistle his location to Ian.
Thousands anxiously waited on the pier for a hug and kiss with their sailor. First-time meetings between new fathers and newborn children, reunions with sons, daughters, mothers and fathers were the order of the day.
Yet the return was bittersweet for one family.
Monday, a Bonhomme Richard sailor died of an apparent heart attack.
Petty Officer 1st Class Billy Ray Davis, 42, collapsed in the ship's sick bay and doctors were unable to revive him.
"His death weighs heavily on our hearts," the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Stan De Geis, said yesterday. "As we rejoice here, we feel for his family."
Davis is survived by a wife and two daughters, who live here.
Putting on a homecoming isn't easy.
Hours before anyone arrived, Petty Officer 1st Class Ed Navarro helped unload a truck filled with 650 dozen doughnuts and muffins. From a tent in a parking lot, he and fellow sailors from the amphibious ship Peleliu served pastries, fruit and beverages to homecoming greeters. Seven buses were chartered to shuttle family members onto the base.
World War II veteran John Geddes used a thick black marker to letter names of returning sailors on "Welcome Home" signs handed out by the Navy League.
"I've been on the other end of what these people have gone through, so I just wanted to give something back," he said.
The most unusual sign was the "Welcome Home" stenciled on Nicole Andres' abdomen – bulging from seven months' pregnancy with Logan Daniel, due in August.
Her pregnancy wasn't confirmed until several days after her husband, Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Andres, left Dec. 1 on the Bonhomme Richard.
"Who better to welcome him back than his own kid," she said.
After most of the Bonhomme Richard's crew disembarked, Petty Officer 3rd Class Tom Suttell sat in a nearby parking lot, strewn with discarded cups, mangled paper plates and trampled muffins.
His parents, Ron and Kathy Suttell, and brother Steve listened intently as he described watching kickboxing in Phuket, Thailand, and how strangers bought his beers during a port visit in Australia.
Suttell said the high point of the deployment came just an hour earlier when he saw his family on the pier.
"The anticipation was just . . . breathtaking," said a befuddled Suttell. "My head is gone and I'm sleep deprived."
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