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Moored. Shift colors. Welcome home.
Apr 15, 2003
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) _ Bobbie Morse took three cautious, wobbly steps, then toppled into her father's arms.
Robert Morse grinned as he scooped his 13-month-old daughter from the pier. "I hadn't seen her walk yet," he said. "She was still learning to get upright when I left."
Morse, 29, a torpedoman 2nd class from San Antonio, was among 138 sailors aboard the submarine USS Boise returning to Norfolk Naval Station Tuesday morning after a two-month tour of duty in the Iraq war.
It was the first combat ship to return from the war. The USS Portland, a transport ship, returned to Norfolk last week, while another submarine, the USS Toledo, arrived later Tuesday at a submarine base in Connecticut.
Nearly 200 flag-waving friends and relatives waited for the Boise crew on the pier while a Navy band played patriotic songs and a Navy man in an Easter Bunny costume handed Easter baskets to children. The sub pulled in at 7:30 a.m., topped with an American flag and giant red, white and blue streamers.
Hansford T. Johnson, the acting secretary of the Navy, was also on hand to greet the returning sailors.
"It's a great joy to join America as we welcome our first combat ship home," he said. "It's neat to be able to visit with the families before the sub docked, then to watch as their husbands come off the sub."
The enthusiastic homecoming was unusual for a submarine, whose comings and goings are generally kept quiet by the Navy. Spokesman Phil McGuinn said the Navy held the public event so it could show its appreciation for a job well done.
"They slide in very secretly and slide out very secretly," said Karen Kuzma, who was waiting for her husband, Cmdr. James M. Kuzma, with more than a dozen family members. "It's nice to get a welcoming like this. ... There's never all this fanfare."
Her 13-year-old daughter, Lauren, agreed. "He's got his own pep crowd," she said of her dad.
Karen Kuzma said her four children were anxious to see their father again, but they didn't expect it to happen so soon. The 360-foot USS Boise was deployed Feb. 13 to conduct strike operations into Iraq, launching Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The Navy brought the Boise and Toledo home once the heaviest fighting had subsided.
"They're excited because Dad left home with the season passes to Busch Gardens in his wallet, so they're glad he's not going to be away the whole summer," Kuzma said.
Bruna Bryant of Norfolk was waiting to greet her husband, senior chief petty officer Jim Bryant, a sonar tech who plans to retire in September after 20 years in the Navy. Accompanied by their daughter Autumn, 10, she was holding a big sign that read "September is just around the corner, Jim."
She said she had been nervous about her husband leaving to go to war, but "all in all, I still felt they were going to come out of this OK."
"They have a lot to be proud of and so do we. I think they've done a superb job."
For Edmond and Alicia Johnston, the return on Tuesday was made extra special by the fact it was their two-year wedding anniversary. Johnston, 24, a sonar technician from Chesapeake, blinked back tears as he held his 18-month-old son, Timothy.
"I'm just looking forward to spending time with my family. And I hope everyone who is still fighting over there comes home safe, too."
On Friday, hundreds of families welcomed home the USS Portland, the first Navy ship to return home from the war.
During its three-month mission, the Portland and its crew of 320 delivered combat Marines and equipment to Kuwait. It came home a bit early because of a needed repair.
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NORFOLK -- The submarine Boise and its crew of 138 sailors returned today from the war in Iraq, less than a week after the first Navy ship returned from war duty. Nearly 200 friends and relatives waved U.S. flags and listened to a Navy band play patriotic songs at the pier as the sub pulled in at 7:30 a.m., half out of the water and draped at the top in American flags and red, white and blue banners. People dressed up as clowns mingled with Navy families on the dock and a Navy man in an Easter Bunny costume handed out Easter baskets to children. Bruna Bryant of Norfolk was waiting to greet her husband, senior chief petty officer Jim Bryant, a sonar tech who plans to retire in September after 20 years in the Navy. Accompanied by their daughter Autumn, 10, she was holding a big sign that read ``September is just around the corner, Jim.'' She said she had been nervous about her husband leaving to go to war, but ``all in all, I still felt they were going to come out of this okay.'' ``They have a lot to be proud of and so do we. I think they've done a superb job.'' Edmond Johnston, 24, a sonar technician from Chesapeake, blinked back tears as he held his 18-month-old son, Timothy. ``I'm just looking forward to spending time with my family. And I hope everyone who is still fighting over there comes home safe, too,'' Johnston, who planned to spend the day celebrating his two-year anniversary with his wife, Alicia. Among those on the pier was Hansford T. Johnson, the acting secretary of the Navy. ``It's a great joy to join America as we welcome our first combat ship home. It's neat to visit with the families before the sub docked, then to watch as their husbands come off the sub,'' he said. Robert Morse, 29, a torpedoman 2nd class from San Antonio, crouched on the pier with his 13-month-old daughter, Bobbie, to watch her walk. ``I hadn't seen her walk yet. She was still learning to get upright when I left,'' Morse said. He said being home with his family is great but he still has friends in Iraq who are in his thoughts. The Los Angeles class fast-attack submarine was the first among several other Norfolk-based submarines to return to Norfolk Naval Station from the war. The 360-foot USS Boise was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to conduct strike operations into Iraq, launching Tomahawk cruise missiles. Cmdr. James M. Kuzma and the Boise crew departed Norfolk Feb. 13. On Friday, hundreds of families welcomed home the USS Portland, the first Navy ship to return home from the war. During its three-month mission, the Portland and its crew of 320 delivered combat Marines and equipment to Kuwait. It came home a bit early because of a needed repair.
Submarine Boise returns from war in Iraq
Associated Press
© April 15, 2003
Last updated: 12:41 PM
NORFOLK -- The fast-attack submarine Newport News will return Wednesday to the Norfolk Naval Station after a six-month deployment that included participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Newport News launched several Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq during the deployment, the Navy said.
U.S. subs launched approximately 30 percent of the more than 800 Tomahawks fired in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to officials.
The Newport News, a Los Angeles-class submarine, will be the fourth sub to return home after participating in combat action in support of the war.
The submarine, with a crew of 148, left Norfolk Oct. 3 on a regularly scheduled deployment.
It is commanded by Cmdr. Frederick J. Capria.
The Newport News is 360 feet long, displaces 6,900 tons of water and can travel in excess of 25 knots.
Source
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Apr 23, 2003
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) _ The 148 sailors aboard the submarine USS Newport News stepped into a time warp when they returned to Norfolk Naval Station on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles class fast-attack submarine originally had been scheduled to return from deployment in February or March around Mardi Gras time. Instead, the submarine ended up launching several Tomahawk cruise missiles during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sailors' wives who organized the party for the delayed homecoming decided to stick with the Mardi Gras theme. Family members wore colorful beads and masks and feasted on crawfish while waiting for the submarine to pull in.
About 300 family members and friends cheered as the submarine came into view at about 2:30 p.m. The sailors began walking off the sub about 45 minutes later.
Chief Petty Officer Tom Cooper beamed as he held his newborn son for the first time. Ethan Thomas, Cooper's third child, was born six weeks ago.
"I'm just going to go home and relax," Cooper said, not taking his eyes off his son. "It's the simple things in life that you miss."
The 360-foot Newport News was the second Norfolk-based submarine to come home from the war, following the April 15 return of the USS Boise. The Newport News pulled alongside the Boise and sailors walked across gangplanks from one submarine to the other and then to the pier.
The Newport News left on Oct. 3 for a regularly scheduled six-month deployment.
Homecoming ceremonies for submarines are usually kept private because the Navy normally does not disclose submarine maneuvers. The Navy allowed media coverage of the Boise and Newport News homecomings, though, to show appreciation to the sailors for a job well done.
"I'm kind of excited because they never get the coverage they deserve. You know it's the silent service," said Lisa Goings, 32, of Norfolk, who walked around draping colorful Mardi Gras beads around people's necks. Her husband, Chief Petty Officer Greg Goings, is an electronics technician aboard the Newport News.
"It's been such a long cruise," Lisa Goings said. "I was worried about him, but I felt that he was safer on a submarine than somebody on the ground or on a surface ship."
U.S. submarines launched about 30 percent of the more than 800 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired in the war, according to the Navy.
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On the Net:
U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force: Link
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| U.S. Navy file photo
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A Navy official confirmed Tuesday night that the Norfolk-based battle group, with 12 ships and roughly 8,150 personnel, has been released by the U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The battle group will remain in the Mediterranean Sea for a brief time, then will head back across the Atlantic.
The Truman's return will be the first large Atlantic Fleet homecoming after the war with Iraq. From Hampton Roads, nearly 60 ships and 29,500 troops are deployed.
The battle group spent most of its deployment in the Mediterranean, where the Truman air wing flew regular missions over Iraq. Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from submarines and surface ships in the battle group from the Med and the Red Sea.
A late-May return would actually be early for the Truman, which left Norfolk on Dec. 5. Normally, the group's deployment would have ended June 5 -- if the Navy had kept to its usually rigid six-month deployment schedule. Many ships have deployed longer than six months since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
News of the Truman's return will be warmly received by family members of the crew, such as Virginia Beach's Chrissy Becker, whose husband, Daniel, is an aviation electronics technician aboard the carrier. This is her husband's fourth deployment.
``This time was worse than any of the others,'' she said. ``For one thing, it was the war, and for another, the ages of the children.''
The Beckers have three children -- Jacob, 10; Allen, 7; and Danielle, 6. Chrissy Becker said that Danielle will be especially happy to see her father.
``She's a real daddy's girl,'' Becker said.
Emily Agunod of Norfolk also was excited to hear the news. Her husband, Anthony, is an aviation storekeeper aboard the Truman who has been on numerous deployments.
``I've lost count -- I think this is his seventh,'' she said.
Anthony Agunod was also deployed during Desert Storm in 1991, which was difficult, she said, because they were expecting their first child, Arianne, who is now 12. They also have a son, Alex, 9.
``But this one was tougher because of the kids, and the war,'' she said. ``It's hard on the kids because they worry over their dad.''
Another Norfolk-based carrier battle group, the Theodore Roosevelt's, is also in the Mediterranean. The Navy says no decision has been made on when to bring that group back.
The Roosevelt left Norfolk Jan. 6 for a training exercise and had not been scheduled to deploy until June. But the battle group and its 8,400 personnel wound up leaving for the Med immediately after completion of the training, without returning to Norfolk.
Vice Adm. Timothy Keating suggested to reporters on April 12 that the Roosevelt and the Constellation, based in San Diego, likely would be the next to leave, though he would not predict when that would be.
A week ago, the Navy said it was releasing the carriers Abraham Lincoln and Kitty Hawk from Middle East duties. The Lincoln is returning to its base in Everett, Wash., next week and the Kitty Hawk will return to Japan, where it is based.
The Navy has a commitment to supply whatever air support is needed for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and that could keep the Roosevelt at sea for a while longer. However, with the war winding down, the Roosevelt could be released soon.
The Truman battle group, commanded by Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, includes Air Wing 3, on the Truman; the guided-missile cruiser San Jacinto; guided-missile destroyers Oscar Austin, Mitscher and Donald Cook; destroyers Briscoe and Deyo; the guided-missile frigate Hawes; attack submarines Pittsburgh and Montpelier; the oiler Kanawha; and the ammunition ship Mount Baker.
All the ships are based in Norfolk except the Pittsburgh, which is based in Groton, Conn., and the Kanawha and Mount Baker, which have no permanent homeports.
The Roosevelt battle group, commanded by Rear Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., includes Air Wing 8, on the Roosevelt; guided-missile cruisers Anzio and Cape St. George; guided-missile destroyers Arleigh Burke, Porter and Winston Churchill; the destroyer Stump; the guided-missile frigate Carr; the fast-combat support ship Arctic; and two unnamed attack submarines.
Reach Jack Dorsey at 446-2284 or jdorsey@pilotonline.com
''Ironmen'' pilots return to Langley Air Force Base
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press
© April 25, 2003
Last updated: 7:39 PMHAMPTON -- A dozen F-15C fighter pilots who patrolled the skies over Iraq against enemy aircraft during the war came home Thursday to cheers and beers.
About 70 wives, girlfriends, children and friends rushed toward the flight line at Langley Air Force Base to greet the ``Ironmen'' of the 71st Fighter Squadron as they climbed out of their single-seat planes and hoisted celebratory beer bottles.
Nearly 400 other service members, including maintenance and support people for the squadron and others from Langley, are expected to return Saturday. More than 1,000 people from the Langley-based 1st Fighter Wing deployed during the war effort.
``We're all looking forward to taking some time off,'' said Maj. Cory ``Trap'' Bower, who hugged and kissed his girlfriend, Capt. Rochelle Brown, an Air Force nurse also stationed at Langley.
Langley pilots had been heading overseas to enforce a no-fly zone over Iraq since 1991.
``Now we've freed the country and we don't have to do that anymore,'' said Bower, of Worland, Wyo. ``It's not going to be such a drain on our resources, such a drain on our time, drain away from our family. It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for Iraqis, but it's also going to be a great opportunity for us.''
After Bower finished his beer, Brown had champagne on ice and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for him in her car.
Brown said that being in the service herself, she hadn't been overly concerned about Bower because she understood his mission.
``I knew they were safe,'' Brown said. ``However, you always have that slight worry, of course'' that something could go wrong.
The pilots deployed Feb. 14 to an undisclosed base in southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their mission was to shoot down Iraqi aircraft -- something F-15s did in the first Persian Gulf War but didn't end up having to do this time around because no Iraqi planes took off.
``I think it's a very successful mission when the opposing air force doesn't even turn a wheel,'' said squadron commander Lt. Col. Mark ``Curly'' McKenzie, of York, Pa. ``They knew if they took off, they were going to be shot down.''
The F-15s were shot at but none suffered any battle damage and no pilots were hurt, said McKenzie, who was greeted by his wife, Kris, and daughter, Meghan, who just turned 11 two days ago.
``It's really nice'' to have him back, a shy Meghan said.
Earlier Thursday, family members gathered at a lounge on the base to make ``welcome home'' signs and banners. Then they moved outside to wait for the pilots, loudly cheering when the first group of four planes flew overhead at about 2:30 p.m.
A group of kids sat together on a concrete barricade, enthusiastically waving American flags. Five belonged to Renetta Hendricks, whose sixth child was by her side in a stroller.
Her husband, Lt. Col.-select Brent Hendricks, was not among those deployed, but Hendricks said she wanted the kids to be there to welcome home their friend, Capt. Brian Ginapp, who has been selected for promotion to major.
``We're out here supporting the effort,'' Hendricks said. ``I wanted our kids to have an appreciation. They've been following this. We've been praying for soliders, praying for pilots, praying for Maj. Ginapp.''
© 2003 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com
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| Lance Cpl. Daniel Bert heaves on a line during a replenishment at sea onboard the Mount Whitney, which normally serves as the 2nd Fleet's command ship in Norfolk. Photo by Robert Benson / U.S. Navy
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| Guestbook: Welcome home the troops Related: Scheduled homecomings |
And as of Monday, the crew still did not have a homecoming date.
``We think there is a light at the end of the tunnel,'' Capt. David Prothero, the ship's commanding officer, said by satellite telephone. ``The light does not have a date on it yet, but we see it glowing.''
Prothero said the crew is still motivated but that the long time away from home is starting to wear on the more than 1,000 folks aboard the command ship, including 640 Norfolk-based sailors. The Mount Whitney currently is off the Horn of Africa.
``I suspect, like any of the other ships, we're looking for a time to get back,'' Prothero said, ``especially when we see other ships and other Air Force and Army units starting to turn in the right direction.''
The Mount Whitney normally serves as the 2nd Fleet's command ship in Norfolk, and it is unusual for it to be sent overseas. But because of its vast communications capabilities, on Nov. 12 it left to be the mobile command center in a region of the world where no significant land-based command was established.
``The last time we were at pierside was Dec. 4, and we had one four-day period at anchor in the Seychelles,'' Prothero said. ``That was 160 days ago.''
The Republic of Seychelles consists of nearly 100 islands off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. The short period of rest and relaxation there is the main break the crew has had on deployment.
So far, the crew has had five swim calls, three volleyball tournaments and six ``steel beach'' picnics, in which the ship's steel deck is used for a cookout, Prothero said.
The shipboard volleyball matches resulted in ``the loss of a few balls here and there,'' Prothero said, adding that there is a rule that sailors aren't allowed to dive for the ball on the Whitney's hard deck.
Sailors once referred to the Mount Whitney as ``Building No. 20'' because it rarely deployed _ 20 is its hull number _ but the ship has lost that reputation now.
``She is gathering no moss,'' Prothero said. ``We've burned 3« million gallons of gas since we left.''
The Mount Whitney has become a floating anti-terrorism command center off the Horn of Africa, steaming back and forth in front of 2,000 miles of east African coast in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
The crew is supporting a 400-member staff of intelligence specialists, operations officers and others from all the nation's military branches. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Sattler commands the staff, whose mission is to track, frustrate and eliminate al-Qaida terrorists seeking to use strife-torn expanses of Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan as safe havens and bases of operations.
The need for such a headquarters was realized last fall, Prothero said, but there was no facility ashore.
When the war with Iraq began, the command provided a natural staff presence on the southern flank for coalition operations that helped keep a lid on terrorism in that region, he said.
``There was a lot of concern that transnational terrorists were going to use our involvement in Iraq as their reason for retaliatory terrorist attacks against the U.S. and coalition forces, not only in this region but in the U.S.
``The goal was no terrorist attacks in the Horn of Africa and, just as important, no terrorist attacks in the U.S. that were born in the Horn of Africa and exported to it.''
While generally by itself, the Mount Whitney's crew does occasionally see ships from Task Force 150, a multinational group headed by an Italian rear admiral. Task Force 150 includes ships from the United States, Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
Prothero's message to anxious families back home is to remind them that the crew members are doing well.
``Their can-do spirit is what has allowed the ship to stay underway almost the entire time it has been gone,'' he said. ``The e-mail and the mail and care packages and the news from home, showing the families are handling it and sucking up their side of the sacrifice, which is no small issue _ all that helps keep the crew focused here, although they are most certainly ready to come home.
``The mission is not old, but the separation is.''
Reach Jack Dorsey at 446-2284 or jdorsey@pilotonline.com
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| Under a rising moon on a Kuwaiti beach, the Charlie Company rolls onto a hovercraft headed for the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, their ride to the shores of North Carolina. Photo by Dennis O'Brien / The Virginian-Pilot.
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| Readjustment advice: For families / Children Full Homecoming Guide |
``It's official!'' Johnston shouted over the din of the gas turbine engines. ``We're going home!''
A half-hour later, Johnston and the men from Charlie Company, a front-line light-armored reconnaissance unit, were basking in air-conditioning, tearing into long-overdue mail in their berth aboard the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship Kearsarge.
Twenty-six mailbags were waiting for the boys of Company C. It was like Christmas.
The orange sacks overflowed with care packages, spilling good cheer into the cramped spaces between the ship's coffin racks stacked toward the overhead.
``I had seven packages,'' said Cpl. Jason Schrader, ``way more stuff than I know what to do with.''
Johnston and the rest stripped down for showers and laughed about how they won't need baby wipes and bug juice.
For a couple days, it seemed like they'd never get here.
They had spent the past two days baking under the sun at Camp Doha's washrack. Using pressure washers like at a carwash back home, they tried to clean a war's worth of filth off their light-armored reconnaissance vehicles.
Before the trucks -- and the Marines -- could head for home, they needed to get past agricultural inspector Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Lewis Fenton.
``We're looking for earth of any kind, vegetation, signs of insects or animal parts,'' Fenton said. ``We spend millions of dollars every year on the Mediterranean fruit fly, the gypsy moth and fire ants -- none of which originated in the United States, and all of which came on cargo ships.''
That all sounded fine and reasonable on the morning of the first day of the washdown, but as the sun set that night -- Wednesday -- and Fenton said he was not allowed to certify equipment after dark, and that the washing had to continue the following morning, his attention to detail was, well, growing unpopular.
As Charlie Company slept on the sidewalk next to the wash rack that night, a sandstorm blew in, coating all the freshly scrubbed vehicles in a coat of grime and dust and sand.
And, more importantly, making Wednesday's work worthless.
The company awoke at 4:30 the next morning to the sound of a lone pressure washer, wielded by company commander Capt. Greg Grunwald, who didn't have to say a word.
His men quietly rose, rubbed the sand from their eyes and started scrubbing, again.
Thursday started hot and grew hotter. By noon, it was so hot that fluid started boiling inside hydraulic jacks.
Around 1:30 p.m. -- 28 hours after the washdown began -- Fenton deemed the unit's gear clean enough for the United States. Charlie Company mounted up and rolled south to Camp Patriot on the Kuwaiti coast, where they expected to sleep one more night in a parking lot before boarding the ship.
They were surprised at the beach, though, where they were ordered to roll onto the hovercraft and head for the ship under a near-full moon.
Inside the Kearsarge by 8:30 p.m., the men locked up their vehicles and headed for their old berthing area.
There would be no more gnats, no more enormous camel spiders, no more sandfleas, sandstorms or sand, period. No more sleeping bags -- mattresses and sheets from here home.
No more latrines, either -- actual flushing toilets are a short walk from their racks. Outside the berthing area sit three sailor phones, for those one-buck-a-minute calls home.
Downstairs from the phones and 100 yards aft is the chow hall, where three hot squares are served with ice-cold drinks.
``It's so nice to get back to civilization,'' said platoon sergeant Staff Sgt. Nelson Hidalgo.
The Kearsarge is not home, but it almost is, and not just for the creature comforts.
Being aboard means Operation Iraqi Freedom is behind them, and -- barring another international crisis -- the next beach Charlie Company will storm will be North Carolina's.
Dennis O'Brien has been with the Marines of Task Force Tarawa since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January. You can reach him at dennis.obrien@pilotonline.com
| Background Coverage: Tips for readjusting your family after a deployment Ship profiles: Guided-missile frigate Hawes Destroyer Deyo |
So are the destroyer Deyo’s endless Tomahawk launch rehearsals. The ship ultimately launched 26 of the missiles during the war in Iraq.
With both ships headed home as part of the carrier Harry S. Truman battle group - they’re more than halfway across the Atlantic today - it’s time for really important ‘‘stuff’’ to take center stage, according to the crew.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Juan Garcia, 22, can’t wait to see his 14-month-old daughter walk for the first time when he arrives here on Friday.
‘‘I’ve never seen that,’’ Garcia, a gas turbine technician aboard the Hawes, said late last week. ‘‘She started walking at eight months, and we were out here,’’ added Garcia, who was among Hawes and Deyo sailors interviewed via satellite phone.
Petty Officer 1st Class Anthony Rich, 38, of Virginia Beach, said he is looking forward to seeing his 16-year-old son drive.
‘‘He got his driver’s license while I was gone, so I missed the initial melee. ButI heard he’s become quite good,’’ said Rich, the Deyo’s sailor of the year.
Rich’s son doesn’t plan to meet him at the Norfolk Naval Station pier, though. ‘‘He has a perfect attendance record and we don’t want him to leave school,’’ Rich said.
Petty Officer 1st Class Robert McCalla, 40, of Hampton, simply wants to see his wife, Barbara, and three children when he steps off the Hawes. ‘‘Believe it or not, in almost 20 years of service, this is my first six-month deployment,’’ McCalla said. ‘‘I took a lot of overseas and isolated duties in Spain, in Puerto Rico and at Gitmo twice. They count for sea-duty rotation.’’ Gitmo is the nickname sailors have given the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
As the ships of the Truman group near homeport, the mood aboard becomes more festive, according to crew members.
‘‘We’ve fulfilled our combat duties and we’re bringing everyone home safely,’’ Cmdr. Todd W. Bostock, the Hawes’ commanding officer, said of the 235 crew members aboard his ship.
The Hawes spent much of its deployment conducting escort duties and inspections, plus working with NATO’s Standing Naval Force Mediterranean. The missions are age-old ones for the Navy, Bostock said, but important to ensure safety of U.S. and allied ships as they pass close to the choke points around Gibraltar.
Cmdr. James A. Pelkofski, the Deyo’s captain, said that this marked the first time his 23-year-old ship has fired Tomahawks missiles. The ship will be retired in November.
‘‘So this has been a heck of a great way to go out,’’ Pelkofski said. His 350-member crew ‘‘performed magnificently,’’ he said. ‘‘These young men and women represent this century’s greatest generation and they certainly rose for the occasion for this deployment.
‘‘We got our mind set for this deployment back on Sept. 11, 2001. At that point we set ourselves to prepare for a wartime deployment. When we deployed on Dec. 5, it was with Sept. 11 in mind and with the firm knowledge we were deploying for war.
‘‘These young men and women are war fighters and they are veterans now of a fantastic victory. We are ready for action wherever, whenever.’’
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| New guestbook: Welcome home your servicemember Related: Program prepares sailors for return Full Homecoming Guide |
Officials in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, homes to the biggest military presences in South Hampton Roads, are working on a mammoth ``thank you'' for the 16,000 service members who will return between Thursday and May 29.
In Norfolk, ``welcome home'' signs, banners and billboards will appear throughout the city, said Terry Bishirjian, the city's director of communications.
City officials also have ordered bumper stickers and lapel pins, which will be distributed by the Navy. By Thursday, some will be available for the public at the Norfolk City Hall information booth.
In lieu of a ceremony, Norfolk will incorporate salutes to the military in several summer festivals, including Afr'Am Fest, Harborfest and the July 4 celebration, Bishirjian said.
In Virginia Beach, a ``real robust welcome'' for the carrier Harry S. Truman's air wing squadrons has been planned, said Ira M. Agricola of the Chamber of Commerce.
For the fly-in Thursday at Oceana Naval Air Station, there will be banners, goody bags, food, beer and champagne and local elected officials -- but no speeches, Agricola said.
``We support the wives and dependents and then get out of the way,'' Agricola said. ``The last thing they want is a bunch of speeches.''
Roughly 700 officers and enlisted personnel, including F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet pilots and crews, will return to Oceana, said retired Navy Capt. J.B. Dadson, the city's military liaison official. The three returning air wing squadrons are the VF-32 Swordsmen, the VFA-37 Bulls and VFA-105 Gunslingers.
The chamber is throwing a hangar party in Norfolk for E-2 Hawkeye crews, Agricola said.
City and chamber organizers are approaching this homecoming like any other, Dadson said: ``Something just to let them know we appreciate them.''
Service members' involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom and their return as war heroes have driven up community contributions to the event, Agricola said.
``The magnitude of support has increased about 50 percent over a normal six-month deployment,'' Agricola said. ``Normally, we have to go out and beat the bushes.''
Among the donated items are coupons for free dinners, movies and concerts and all sorts of goods, from toiletries to food.
Expect to see business marquees and schools around Oceana with signs greeting their hometown heroes, Agricola said.
Such a massive homecoming will mean more traffic. Norfolk officials are meeting with the Navy to figure out how to ease congestion, said Ronald E. Keys, the city's director of emergency operations.
Reach Meredith Kruse at 446-2164 or meredith.kruse@pilotonline.com
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NORFOLK -- The Navy has added the guided-missile destroyer Winston Churchill to its list of ships returning in the carrier Theodore Roosevelt strike group on May 29. The Churchill joins the carrier, cruiser Cape St. George, frigate Carr and fast combat-support ship Arctic returning to the Norfolk Naval Station on that day. Also returning on May 29 are the amphibious ships Nassau, Austin and Tortuga. The late addition now means 17 ships and more than 16,000 military personnel are scheduled back from Operation Iraqi Freedom in an eight-day span from Friday to May 29. The return of the remaining units in the Roosevelt strike group will be announced as information becomes available. The carrier Harry S. Truman will return on Friday with eight of its escorts: the cruiser San Jacinto; destroyers Oscar Austin, Mitscher, Donald Cook, Briscoe and Deyo; the frigate Hawes and oiler John Lenthall.
Navy releases its list of late additions of returning ships
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 20, 2003
Last updated: 10:01 PM
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| The Bataan during a previous deployment. File photo.
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| More homecoming news / With the troops reports |
To the right, barely visible on a misty Friday morning, was the Rock of Gibraltar.
``It's a breathtaking sight, really,'' said Lance Cpl. Craig Peterson of Chesapeake, Great Bridge High School Class of '99. ``It's a place in the world you don't often get to see, especially when you're 22.''
For most of the crew of the Bataan, however, the importance of the rock was what lay beyond it: liberty. After 147 days away from land, the sailors were more than a little excited about a port call.
The crews of the Bataan and four other ships in Amphibious Task Force East will go ashore soon for R&R at locations that could not be disclosed for security reasons, but one ship in the task force will not be joining them.
The Kearsarge, a Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship, will miss the port call as it was diverted to provide additional extra for the president on his recent trip to Egypt and Jordan.
The Kearsarge had been scheduled to be the first to have liberty, on the island nation of Malta last week. But instead, the 3,000 sailors and Marines aboard stayed behind in the Red Sea, and it just recently passed north through the Suez Canal as it catches up with the rest of the task force.
Aboard the Kearsarge during its emergency duty were 400 combat veterans from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. Marine Corps CH-53s and Cobra attack helicopters stood ready on the flight deck.
``Our mission was to provide security and support to the president as he visited Sharm el-Shehk, Egypt, and Aqaba, Jordan,'' said 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Frushour. ``We were to be prepared to provide a means for emergency extraction, provide early warning of airborne threats and provide emergency offshore medical care.''
``There was no more important mission in the world at the time than the mission to support the president of the United States,'' said Brig. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commander of the 2nd MEB, which during the war fought as Task Force Tarawa.
Though miffed that their liberty port was nixed, Kearsarge Capt. Terrence McKnight said the men and women aboard understood that their ship and Marines were needed and rallied to plan the mission.
``The reaction from the crew was mixed,'' McKnight said. ``Some were a little upset that we were not going to get a well-deserved port visit after a long time at sea. Others did not really care as long as we returned to Norfolk on time.''
All six ships of Amphibious Task Force East -- which also includes the Saipan, Ashland, Gunston Hall and Ponce, which were spread throughout the Mediterranean -- are expected to be home in Hampton Roads by June 26.
Friday's passing through the Strait of Gibraltar was less spectacular than the task force's first visit on Jan. 28, when the ships were headed to war in the Persian Gulf. That day, visibility was better and the crew could drink in panoramic views of both Europe and Africa -- the latter continent's chocolate Atlas Mountains of Morocco on one side, the limestone cliffs of Spain and the ``Paramount Pictures''-looking rock on the other.
This time, the mist enshrouded all but the rock and a few peeks at the Iberian Peninsula, and few of the Bataan's 3,000 salty sailors and Marines made the multi-ladder trek up to Vulture's Row for the view.
Snapshot attempts were futile, but some sailors shot away anyway, relishing the experience, particularly those who have never seen the rock before, such as 2nd Class Petty Officer Angela Bowman, 23, who only joined the Bataan's crew in May. She spent her first four years in the Navy at a shore command in Charleston, S.C.
``I have never been anywhere in the world before,'' said Bowman, a Shreveport, La., native, ``and in one month I have been to Naples, Greece, Bahrain, the Suez and now we're passing Spain. It's awesome.''
But most, such as Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Goterba, 36, of Chesapeake, shrugged off the passage.
``If you count both ways, this is my eighth time through,'' said Goterba, a computer network tech. ``All it means to me is we're in the Atlantic and one step closer to home.''
And liberty.
Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with the Marines and sailors of Task Force Tarawa on their way back from Iraq.
Jun 11, 2003
Coast Guard forces return from Iraq war
SONJA BARISIC
Associated Press Writer
stfsnbwb-sasNORFOLK, Va. (AP) _ About 350 U.S. Coast Guard members who normally rescue boaters, chase drug smugglers or do marine patrols returned Wednesday from an unusual assignment supporting the war in Iraq.
The crews of the 378-foot cutter Dallas and four 110-foot patrol boats arrived at Norfolk's downtown waterfront in the morning. Several hundred family members and friends cheered from the pier on the Elizabeth River.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge later thanked the returning Coast Guard forces for doing what was "absolutely critical ... to the success of the entire effort."
"I am proud to remind the country that you have been in the homeland security business for a long, long time," Ridge said during an afternoon ceremony. "You're not new to the mission."
As Ridge looked on, the cutters were presented with citations for meritorious service by Adm. Thomas Collins, commandant of the Coast Guard.
The patrol boats left more than four months ago in the first deployment of Coast Guard patrol boats to a potential combat zone since the Vietnam War, Coast Guard officials said. The four smaller boats were carried overseas on a freight ship, but they sailed back to the United States, marking the first time 110-foot patrol boats have made a trans-Atlantic crossing.
"We usually patrol and don't go very far off shore, maybe 12 miles off the coast. So this was very unusual," said Petty Officer 3rd Class John Savastano, the assistant navigator of the patrol boat Bainbridge Island from Sandy Hook, N.J. "To cross the whole Atlantic is a lot."
Savastano stood on the deck of the patrol boat and hoisted his 11-month-old son Joshua into the air.
"It feels so good just to see them together again," said Savastano's wife, Irene. "There's a lot he missed out on in the first year."
Vice Adm. James Hull, commander of the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area Command based in nearby Portsmouth, said the Coast Guard's involvement in force protection and escort duties helped the Navy and highlighted the Guard's role as an armed service.
"The Coast Guard is a small part of a very big effort over there," Hull said. "I don't want to exaggerate our role, but the Navy needed us over there for these particular parts and we were part of the team."
The Dallas, based in Charleston, S.C., deployed Feb. 8 to work with the Navy's Sixth Fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar. In the months leading up to the war, the high-endurance cutter helped protect U.S. ships from terrorist threats.
Before the war, the Dallas moved farther east. During the first three days of military operations in Iraq, the Dallas was the only surface ship protecting two aircraft carriers north of the Suez Canal, said Cmdr. Karl Gabrielsen, the cutter's executive officer. Most of the other Navy ships in the area had Tomahawk missiles and other missile systems on board and had to get in position to fire, Gabrielsen said.
"While they were doing that, we were pretty much the only ship in the vicinity" of the Norfolk-based USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Harry S. Truman, he said.
The Dallas did "plane guard" duty, standing ready to rescue any downed aviators, and the cutter's aircraft warning lights helped fliers home in on the Roosevelt's bobbing flight deck.
"The Coast Guard's normal mission is basically search and rescue and marine patrol, kind of nice things," said Lt. Cmdr. Bob Mankowsky, a helicopter pilot aboard the Dallas. "To go out there and be ready to stop terrorists was a different mission."
The Dallas did not encounter terrorists, but the Coast Guard learned a lot during the deployment that will help with its mission of homeland security, Mankowsky said.
"We've shown what a ship needs to do be able to do to work with the Navy," he said. "The Dallas plugged right into the Navy, worked right with them."
The Bainbridge Island and the three other returning patrol boats _ the Pea Island and Knight Island from St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Grand Isle from Gloucester, Mass. _ were among 11 cutters sent overseas to support military operations.
The patrol boats were sent to the Mediterranean Sea. Had a front opened up in Turkey, they would have protected ports there, the Coast Guard said. Instead, they ended up doing a lot of training.
The ships will be in southeastern Virginia for a couple weeks so extra mounted guns and other equipment they were retrofitted with for the wartime assignment can be removed. The crews then will sail the ships to their home ports.
Other Coast Guard forces, including about 350 people, remain in the Persian Gulf.
Four 110-foot cutters have been patrolling the Khawr 'abd Allah waterway, southern Iraq's main lifeline for humanitarian aid. Coast Guard boarding officers have been checking wrecked ships along the waterway, including wrecks where they have found drawings of American warships, to make sure they can't be used as observation posts or platforms for attack.
The patrol boats and parts of three port security units made up mostly of reservists also have been assigned to protect oil platforms and other critical installations.
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U.S. Coast Guard: USCG
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| The amphibious assault ship Bataan approaches its berth at Norfolk Naval Station on Wednesday as Petty Officer 3rd Class Johnny E. McMurrin Jr., a line handler from the Wasp, stands at attention. Photo by Martin Smith-Rodden / The Virginian-Pilot.
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| Photos: Families greet the Bataan Tiger Cruise starts / Photos: Early arrivals Tuesday |
On Wednesday, the sailors aboard the Bataan, Ashland, Ponce and Gunston Hall came home to resume the lives they put on hold to do the nation's bidding.
The weather, notoriously stormy for recent homecomings at the world's largest Navy base, cooperated. Clear skies and warm, if not, hot temperatures in the upper 80s greeted the sailors who manned the rails of the ship.
The Bataan pulled into the pier just after 9 a.m. and the crowd of several hundred, once sleepy, came to life with cheering and clapping.
``I was more worried now than after 9/11,'' said Kim DeBeau, wife of Master Chief Petty Officer Lawrence DeBeau. ``We just didn't know what to expect when he got over there.''
Kim DeBeau had an Expedition limousine to carry her husband home and a new pool to test out once he got there.
``But he'll have to build the deck,'' she joked. ``And I want it done by 4th of July!''
Farther down the sidewalk, Jessica Paine held a sign with a message for her boyfriend, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jon Cox.
``Your princess,'' the sign read, ``is waiting.''