Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
November 6, 2007 By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--Teary-eyed families waved goodbye to more than 7,000 sailors early Monday as a parade of Navy ships left Norfolk on a seven-month deployment to the Middle East.
Led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and its seven squadrons of planes, the strike group will cross the Mediterranean on its way to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf.
Capt. Herm Shelanski, the Truman's commanding officer, boiled down the ship's mission to five words: "Making friends and deterring enemies."
Norfolk-based destroyers Oscar Austin and Winston Churchill, guided missile cruiser San Jacinto and submarine Montpelier followed the Truman out to sea. They'll be joined en route by the cruiser Hue City and destroyer Carney out of Jacksonville, Fla.
"We'll be asked to do a lot of different things - everything from maritime security operations to putting warheads on foreheads," Rear Adm. William Gortney, commander of the Truman strike group, said shortly before the carrier pulled away from Pier 14 at Norfolk Naval Station. "Our No. 1 goal is to bring everyone home safe and sound."
The San Jacinto will stay in the Mediterranean, Gortney said, but the rest of the strike group - which includes a Canadian frigate and a British destroyer - will operate off the coasts of Africa, Yemen, Iran and Iraq.
The Truman's arrival in the Middle East will allow the carrier Enterprise, deployed since July, to return to Norfolk.
On the smaller ships like the Churchill and Austin, specially trained 12-person crews will be on alert for piracy and smuggling, ready to climb into inflatable boats to investigate suspicious activity. On the Truman, squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and electronic jamming planes will assist U.S. forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monday, family members worked to fight back tears as they contemplated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthdays and anniversaries without their sailors.
Debbie Jewell took solace in the size of the Truman - 20 stories tall and as big, from bow to stern, as the Empire State Building - as the carrier pulled away with her 20 -year-old daughter aboard.
"I like the idea that it's a very big vessel," Jewell said, clutching the end of a bright yellow banner painted with the first name of her daughter, Joleine Scott.
Jewell, from New Bern, N.C., sounded almost envious of her daughter, an aviation ordnanceman. "They'll probably see Greece and Bahrain," she said. "It's the chance of a lifetime for her."
Saying goodbye to his wife is nothing new for Steven Conrad, but that didn't make it easy.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Amber Conrad, a sailor assigned to the Churchill and the mother of two pre schoolers, was beginning her third deployment in two years. Months after her ship returned from its previous deployment, Conrad said, his wife was sent to Iraq as an individual augmentee, one of the thousands of sailors from Navy units picked to serve with soldiers and Marines overseas.
She got home in July.
"Bye, Mommy," 4-year-old Xander said softly as two tugboats nudged the warship from its pier.
Three-year-old Christina echoed him.
"Bye, Mommy."
"I love you," Xander said.
"I love you," Christina chimed.
"They're so young, they don't know what's going on," Steven Conrad said. "Right now, they're just worried about McDonald's. They won't know it's a long deployment until a month from now."
Conrad plans to stay busy. Besides working full time as a mechanic at a car dealership and caring for the kids, he is about to purchase a house in Virginia Beach.
"It's kind of bad," he said. "We're buying our first house and she's not going to see it until she gets back."
November 6, 2007 By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--Teary-eyed families waved goodbye to more than 7,000 sailors early Monday as a parade of Navy ships left Norfolk on a seven-month deployment to the Middle East.
Led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and its seven squadrons of planes, the strike group will cross the Mediterranean on its way to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf.
Capt. Herm Shelanski, the Truman's commanding officer, boiled down the ship's mission to five words: "Making friends and deterring enemies."
Norfolk-based destroyers Oscar Austin and Winston Churchill, guided missile cruiser San Jacinto and submarine Montpelier followed the Truman out to sea. They'll be joined en route by the cruiser Hue City and destroyer Carney out of Jacksonville, Fla.
"We'll be asked to do a lot of different things - everything from maritime security operations to putting warheads on foreheads," Rear Adm. William Gortney, commander of the Truman strike group, said shortly before the carrier pulled away from Pier 14 at Norfolk Naval Station. "Our No. 1 goal is to bring everyone home safe and sound."
The San Jacinto will stay in the Mediterranean, Gortney said, but the rest of the strike group - which includes a Canadian frigate and a British destroyer - will operate off the coasts of Africa, Yemen, Iran and Iraq.
The Truman's arrival in the Middle East will allow the carrier Enterprise, deployed since July, to return to Norfolk.
On the smaller ships like the Churchill and Austin, specially trained 12-person crews will be on alert for piracy and smuggling, ready to climb into inflatable boats to investigate suspicious activity. On the Truman, squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and electronic jamming planes will assist U.S. forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monday, family members worked to fight back tears as they contemplated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthdays and anniversaries without their sailors.
Debbie Jewell took solace in the size of the Truman - 20 stories tall and as big, from bow to stern, as the Empire State Building - as the carrier pulled away with her 20 -year-old daughter aboard.
"I like the idea that it's a very big vessel," Jewell said, clutching the end of a bright yellow banner painted with the first name of her daughter, Joleine Scott.
Jewell, from New Bern, N.C., sounded almost envious of her daughter, an aviation ordnanceman. "They'll probably see Greece and Bahrain," she said. "It's the chance of a lifetime for her."
Saying goodbye to his wife is nothing new for Steven Conrad, but that didn't make it easy.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Amber Conrad, a sailor assigned to the Churchill and the mother of two pre schoolers, was beginning her third deployment in two years. Months after her ship returned from its previous deployment, Conrad said, his wife was sent to Iraq as an individual augmentee, one of the thousands of sailors from Navy units picked to serve with soldiers and Marines overseas.
She got home in July.
"Bye, Mommy," 4-year-old Xander said softly as two tugboats nudged the warship from its pier.
Three-year-old Christina echoed him.
"Bye, Mommy."
"I love you," Xander said.
"I love you," Christina chimed.
"They're so young, they don't know what's going on," Steven Conrad said. "Right now, they're just worried about McDonald's. They won't know it's a long deployment until a month from now."
Conrad plans to stay busy. Besides working full time as a mechanic at a car dealership and caring for the kids, he is about to purchase a house in Virginia Beach.
"It's kind of bad," he said. "We're buying our first house and she's not going to see it until she gets back."