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Marines head home on the Kearsarge
By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 17, 2003
Last updated: 1:24 AM

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.

Readjustment advice: For families / Children
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ABOARD THE KEARSARGE -- As the hovercraft lifted off the Kuwaiti beach, and eased over the Persian Gulf surf, Lance Cpl. Matt Johnston couldn't help grinning.

``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

Warships pass halfway mark of return to homeport in Norfolk
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 16, 2003
Last updated: 6:50 PM

The destroyer Donald Cook. File photo.

Homecoming Guide

NORFOLK -- They've passed the halfway point and are heading home.

``It's all downhill from here,'' said Capt. M. Stewart O'Bryan, commander of Destroyer Squadron 22. O'Bryan was talking by satellite telephone Thursday as the carrier Harry S. Truman battle force continued to head west toward a homecoming in Norfolk next Friday.

Formed in a loose circle, traveling about five miles apart, the nine ships in the strike group were just beyond 45 degrees west longitude, streaming through large but gentle Atlantic Ocean swells.

O'Bryan, riding with his staff aboard the Norfolk-based destroyer Donald Cook, called the deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom remarkable for its swiftness and success.

He commanded up to eight ships -- including some from other squadrons -- capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq. Of the 400 Tomahawks launched on March 21 -- the heaviest missile-campaign day of the war -- 240 came from the ships he oversaw in the Red Sea.

After the shooting ended, while heading back to the Mediterranean Sea from the Persian Gulf, O'Bryan's ships neared the southern Yemeni port of Aden. It was April 21, and the terrorist attack on the Norfolk-based destroyer Cole was on everyone's mind. Seventeen of the Cole's sailors were killed in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack; another 40 were injured.

``We laid to south of Yemen and the DESRON 22 ships had a moment of silence, then fired our 5-inch guns in a 21-gun salute in honor of those sailors who lost their lives,'' he said.

O'Bryan commanded the Cole in 1997.

``It was hard. I knew several of those sailors, and my thoughts and prayers still go out to those families,'' he said.

Cmdr. John P. Cordle, commanding officer of the destroyer Oscar Austin -- making its maiden voyage -- was traveling Thursday alongside the Donald Cook. He served as executive officer of the Cole six months before the attack.

``It was a very chilling experience for me to look across and see the same place,'' Cordle said of the deck gun salute.

``But it really gave the crew a sense of focus. We came over here to combat the same terrorists who started this war with their opening blast on the Cole,'' he said.

Cmdr. John J. Costello, commanding officer of the Donald Cook, called the deployment, which began for the strike group on Dec. 5, ``the most dynamic'' of the eight he's seen during his 20-year career.

Costello, who will surrender command of the Donald Cook a week after it returns home, said his ship and crew were under way 81 percent of the time during the cruise. The longest stretch was 69 consecutive days at sea.

For Petty Officer 2nd Class Jody Ganas, 30, a signalman aboard the Donald Cook, the trip across the Atlantic can't end too soon.

``We're ready to pull back into Norfolk.

``I just hope everyone is proud of us for what we've done and for what we've accomplished,'' Ganas said.

Russell McCrary, 21, of Norfolk, a petty officer second class, hopes he'll make it home in time to see the birth of his first child.

McCrary's wife is due to give birth June 15.

Five crew members aboard the Oscar Austin have had children born back home during the cruise.

Petty Officer 1st Class Mervin Walls, 30, of Hampton, is anxious to see his wife and two sons. His boys have already planned trips to a baseball game, amusement park, movies.

For Father's Day, Wall intends to treat his wife.

``She's been holding it together,'' he said.

But Petty Officer 1st Class Latonya Scott, a storekeeper aboard the Oscar Austin, wants to reward her husband, Teryl, who lives in Chesapeake.

``My husband has been mother, father and teacher of our 4-year-old for the last six months,'' Scott said. ``He has done all this while working 50-plus hours a week. My son has had surgery while I was deployed and was fitted with braces for both legs.

``Without my husband taking care of everything, putting my mind at ease, there is no doubt I wouldn't have made it through this deployment.''

More than 8,000 sailors make up the Truman strike group. In addition to the Truman, Oscar Austin and Donald Cook, they include Air Wing 3 -- scheduled to get back on Thursday -- the cruiser San Jacinto, destroyers Mitscher, Briscoe and Deyo, the frigate Hawes and the oiler John Lenthall.